Communications Planning
We work extensively with organizations to proactively ensure their communications are set up to succeed by building effective and efficient plans that align with organizational capacity and the needs of your specific stakeholders.
We do not provide you with a templated, blanket plan. We work with you, building off our own internal processes for plan creation, while incorporating the specific needs of your organization and your stakeholders, to build a comprehensive Communications Plan specific to you. These plans are designed to meet your needs now and into the future, with built-in processes for plan reviews and updates.
Internal Communications Planning
Internal communications play a major role in creating a positive workplace culture, and we don’t take that for granted in developing such plans. Our Internal Planning processes are quite extensive, recognizing the importance of these plans on everyone throughout your organization.
This includes executing internal engagement (typically through surveys and focus groups, while sometimes also hosting staff open house sessions), accompanying a review/assessment of efforts to date, and then using all information collected — combined with a deep knowledge of evolving best practice and innovations — as inputs to the Internal Communications Plan creation.
The final plan will include actions and strategies for effective internal communications, along with a schedule and process for plan review, to ensure it remains current and relevant to your internal stakeholders.
Crisis Communications Planning
Crisis Communications Plans must stand alone. They should not be incorporated as an afterthought within an organizational Communications Plan, or you risk Crisis Communications being an afterthought in your team’s mind, as well.
Our Crisis Communications Plans are dynamic, recognizing that no two crises are the same, while incorporating organization-specific templates and processes that will make your crisis comms efficient and streamlined. When a crisis hits, you don’t want your team scrambling as they build messaging or determine what their next steps will be. Our plans ensure consistent processes that can be tested by staff on a semi-regular basis through included training scenarios.
Our plans can further include crisis-specific policies for enacting communications in a timely and effective manner. Recognizing that some crises are to be addressed by more than one organization (i.e. a public safety crisis might require involvement from local government and emergency services), we can work to build agreements amongst organizations for how communications will be executed in such scenarios.
Finally, we are happy to work with our partner emergency managers to develop and execute tabletop exercises that include communications as a crucial component of crisis management.
We are proud of our flexibility and adaptability in tailoring our Crisis Communications Planning to your specific needs.