Successful initiatives require support from within your organization to implement and to sustain. With respect to key people strategies, we have witnessed some companies that spend a lot of time, money and resources on the strategy, only to be left frustrated when it is not embraced by leaders or employees. Here are some best practices for strategic communication to help gain buy-in:

Identify who you are communicating to and what you need from them

Create a map of all the different individuals or teams that will be impacted by any initiative. Include concerns or key factors that will be most important from their perspective. Have specific messages for each group that are customized to their key factors.

Build your message with your end goal in mind. Determine the desired end-result, and what is the “call to action” for the person you are communicating to? What will you expect your target audience to do as a result? What level of commitment do you need from them?

Introduce your initiative in a way that makes it relevant to the employees, and helps them understand why they should get on board.

Begin with your Leadership Team

In your communication plan, allow time to connect with the management team in advance of a larger roll-out. This helps your managers stay connected with your corporate goals and sets them up more successfully with their teams. There’s no appearance of being blindsided by corporate announcements or being at a loss to answer questions when their people come to them.

Leverage their understanding of their own environments and what the issues for their people might be and incorporate their feedback into your communication plans to avoid the perception that an initiative is being “pushed down by head office”. Provide messaging guidelines for them to address potential concerns.

Present enough detailed information so that managers can customize the key messages to fit their own areas. Wherever it might be appropriate, provide job-specific tools to help them better communicate your message with their respective teams.

Make the goals for each area of the company clear to your managers so they will be prepped to support their teams through the process of achieving those expectations.

Communicate using a multitude of channels that resonate with your target audience

Consider who you are targeting and how they are most likely to receive the information. Do your research. There is a lot of data available to you on the best way to communicate different messages and the best time to communicate those messages to reach your audience.

Take advantage of the tools available to you and choose the right mix of media. There are many more vehicles to consider than just the common top-down “email from the CEO”. A few of the many options available to you would include:

– Face to face in conversations, or town-halls
– Conference calls or Webinars for a group that is more spread out
– Social media feeds, articles or a corporate intranet
– Hard-copy print outs or presentation materials
– Video/audio

Consider the content of the message; something more sensitive calls for something more personal and high-touch like an in-person town hall, or teleconference. An edgy YouTube video may not be the best way to announce compliance changes – but it might be a great way to celebrate a corporate milestone.

Create dialogue to Engage with your target audience

Good communication is always a two way street. It is not enough to think of innovative ways to share your story but more importantly, how are you going to receive feedback? Listening is the most important component of communication.

It is important to provide your employees with channels to voice their concerns and provide their feedback. This can be done through an employee survey or by using polling tools on your corporate intranet. Encourage your employees to make suggestions using an online tool like SoapBox or an old fashioned written suggestion box or email address.

Conversation can be more persuasive than a one-way message.

Measure the impact

Choose a couple of key performance indicators (KPI’s) that will help you measure the success of your communication plan. That way, if you are not seeing the desired results, you can adjust your strategy.

Measure the success of the communication plan using the business goals of the initiative.
What did you want your audience to know and what action did you want to see in response? How is that action displayed through the company?