Strategy Survival Guide

Prime Minister's Strategy Unit

Version 2.1

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Strategy Skills > Managing Communications

Drawing up a communications plan

A communication plan should set out the team's approach to handling both stakeholders and the media at all stages of the strategy development process. This includes the formal launch, the consultation process, the presentation of analysis to stakeholders, the publication of the interim report, the communication of the conclusions and the publication of the final report.

The plan should clearly identify activities, responsibilities and time scales.

If there is to be a formal launch of the project to the public, the plan should be developed with assistance from the relevant departmental Press Office team. In most cases, it is best if any media queries are directed to the Press Office for follow-up.

After each phase of the project, communications should be evaluated to monitor success and identify any learning points.

Questions to Answer

Some of the key questions to cover in drawing up the communications plan are:

1. Objectives: What is the main business objective this communications strategy needs to support (the main change(s) you are trying to achieve)?

2. Audience: What are the main audience groups that:

Can make a difference to the change happening (or not)?
Are affected by the change?

If there are more than five in this list, which are the really key ones (that can really make a difference to whether the objective happens)?

3. State of opinions and knowledge. What are their:

Attitudes (how do they feel?)
Opinions (what do they believe?)
Information gaps (what do they know?)

Are they correct?

Do they have enough information to make the right decision? (Is it just that they don't believe the information they get?)
How do they influence others?

4. Messages: If you could change any of these opinions (or fill the information gap) which ones would you prioritise? (Is this achievable?) Therefore what messages or information needs to be continually highlighted to the main groups?

5. Methods:

What is the best method of getting to the audience group?
Who influences them?
What do they read?
Who do they speak to? Who do they believe?
What channels do we know don't work?

6. Timing:

How long will it take to change these opinions?
Are there logical opportunities on the calendar we can exploit?
When should we start?
When must we have achieved this attitude shift by?

7. Plan: Using this information, what are you going to do, for whom and how?

8. Evaluation: How will we know if we have changed their opinion?

The answer to many of these questions may be clear. For others, it may be necessary to conduct research.

In drawing up your communication plan the team should consult their departmental press office for any guidance they have produced on communication. Specialist advice for public sector organisations is also available from COI Communications.

Drawing up a communications plan

In Practice: SU Voluntary Sector Review

The Strategy Unit's report "Private action, public benefit", had a very diverse range of stakeholders across wider Government, the voluntary sector, education, savings bodies, sport and social clubs, and even housing associations.

The wide media interest ranged from national media to specialist magazines covering the various sectors.

The overall communications strategy for this project needed to address stakeholders' needs from its launch to publication of the final report.

Communications techniques allowed us to identify key stakeholders who were kept regularly updated on progress and consulted on key areas during the lifetime of the project. This included the press officer being able to update media on progress and explain reasons why the project was taking longer than originally expected - thus keeping criticism to a minimum.

Some key points to note:

Detailed briefing notes are vital for any launch. The Q and A must be exhaustive and must address sensitive issues.
The launch strategy included a large number of briefing sessions to cover stakeholders and the media. This was extremely time-consuming but effective.
Briefing small groups of the media helped to improve their understanding of the report - especially for non-specialist media - and resulted in measured and accurate reporting of the key recommendations. It also allowed specialist media more opportunity to delve into their areas of interest.
The concentrated briefing of stakeholders also resulted in much more informed initial comment from them than might otherwise have been the case.
This model has been followed with other SU reports and tend to show that the investment of time in preparing briefing notes and with stakeholders and the media is returned in better understanding and much more informed comment.
However, this model is not always possible when Ministers are involved in the launch process. The time needed tends to make it impractical.
Do not forget to plan for the dissemination stage post-launch. Activity should not stop the day after launch.

An overall communications strategy was produced for the final report's launch. We have left the actual text in place in the template wherever it is appropriate.

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