Segmented Communication Plan: A tool to create clarity when leading change
Did you ever sit in a meeting with multiple functional leaders and realize everyone speaks a slightly different language? The words that procurement uses aren’t necessarily the same that the manufacturing team will use. Sometimes these differences are subtle. Other times it can be downright confusing—especially when different groups use the same words or acronyms, but mean something totally different.
And it doesn’t have to be differences in technical language! I was shocked when I was in a meeting with global colleagues and as an icebreaker, we were asked to break out into small groups and define “As soon as possible.” There were literally dozens of interpretations, and some of them were exact opposites (like “now” vs. “maybe never.”)
A segmented communication plan is a tracking tool you can develop to make sure you’re communicating the right information to stakeholders the right way and at the right time. You would build the plan as a table, with each row representing one communication activity for one stakeholder group
In Summary
Start with your stakeholder map, and determine what each stakeholder group needs to know and what actions they need to take to implement the change. Write a simple objective like: Instead of this, we want people to do this. Then work through the sequence of information they will need to get from current to future state. Assign roles for crafting the message (writer), ensuring its accuracy and effectiveness (reviewer), and delivering it to the intended audience (deliverer).
Keep reading if you need more detail.
Set Up Your Communication Plan
Create a table with the following headings:
Delivery Date
This is the date that the stakeholder group will receive the communication. If you intend to send an email, you can put in one date. If you intend to hold a series of meetings, you can put in a date range or create a different row for each date that meetings will be held. Ideally, you’ll want to sort your list into chronological order, so you have line of sight on what communications need to happen first, second, etc.
Status
You want to be able to quickly see whether you are on track for meeting delivery dates. Use the Status column to track where you are in the process. As with any tracker, you want to keep the number of options you have to a minimum. Personally, I like to use these status descriptions: Not started, In Draft, In Review, Finalized, Delivered, Cancelled.
Stakeholder Group
Use the same Stakeholder group names that you used in your Stakeholder Map. Note that you may uncover ways to simplify your stakeholder map as you work on the communication plan. For example, do you have two stakeholder groups that will receive the same communications? That’s a good reason to go back to your map and combine those two groups into one. (By the way, look back at the post on creating stakeholder maps for more on how to develop this key document.)
Objective
Use this column to summarize the intention of the communication. You should be able to answer (in one sentence or less): what’s the point of this communication?
Call to Action (CTA)
What do you want your stakeholder group to do after the communication is complete? Note: it’s not enough to say that a stakeholder should “know” something. Try to frame the CTA around what you want the stakeholder to do with this new information. Things like: Submit questions to the correct email address or Participate in a listening session.
Format
This column should describe how the communication will be delivered. Things like email, phone conference, webinar, online video are examples of communication formats.
Owner
This is the stakeholder group owner. Ultimately, this person is responsible to make sure others collaborating on the communication stay on track and on-target.
Writer
Larger organizations might have access to communications professionals who can provide a lot of lift by doing what they do best: quickly writing clear communications. If you don’t have access to communications team, that is ok. The writer can be anyone who has the knowledge and time to get it done. If they can also write in the voice of the Deliverer, that’s a bonus that will help to save a little time later on.
Reviewer
One reason why I don’t think it’s critical to have a professional writer drafting communications is because each writer will have a reviewer partner. Ideally, this should be someone who deeply understands the stakeholders and can make sure the communication will make sense to the stakeholders. In many cases, the reviewer may be the same person as the Owner.
Deliverer
This is the person who will deliver the message. As you choose someone to Deliver communications, consider this: Do stakeholders see this person as trustworthy? It might be your knee jerk reaction to put the CEO in front of stakeholders to deliver messages, but it could be equally (or more) effective if stakeholders see their direct manager. Even better: For big changes, consider how you might leverage different Deliverers during the process. For example, company-wide message could be delivered by the CEO. More functional, specific communications can be delivered by Directors or Managers. If you can prompt all of the Deliverers to use similar key messages, it can go a long way to building trust for the change because staff will hear leaders at multiple levels saying the same thing. (Check out this post for more on the importance of consistency and how to build a Key Message Training Plan.)
Tips for Your Segmented Communication Plan
Combine and consolidate. You need to walk a fine line between making communications that are very targeted to specific stakeholders vs making your plan easier to manage with fewer communications. Look for ways you can reasonably combine or consolidate stakeholder groups into the same communication.
Review the communications plan by stakeholder group. You will likely have many rows in your communication plan table. Find ways to make it easy for you and your leadership team to review the communications by stakeholder group. Try to choose a program that will let you sort or filter your plan by stakeholder group. Then you can more easily see whether the communications you have planned are in a logical sequence.
Always assign roles. Make sure every cell for Owner, Writer, Reviewer, Deliverer are filled in with the name of someone who can complete the work. The key is that communications get completed, on-time, and meeting the needs of the stakeholders.
Assign a Communications Plan manager. This one isn’t required, but the larger your change and the larger your change team, the more useful it can be to have one person responsible for project managing the communications plan. This person can be the one to follow-up with individual team members to ensure things stay on track.
Living Document. Just like your Stakeholder Map, your communications plan is a living document. Make sure to keep status updated and accurate so you can quickly determine: are we on track to meet our overall project deadlines?
Communications plans can be as simple or detailed as you need for the scope of your change. As with other tools you’ll use to lead change, keep in mind that you want to be realistic about the level of detail and number of communications that can be achieved in your timeline.
It’s definitely a balancing act, but not an impossible one. Start out brainstorming ideas, and then have an eye toward editing, consolidating, and simplifying as you go.