No Comms Team? No problem!

I often mention to my Leading Successful Change members that I’d probably have a Communications Team to work with, to draft everything that needs to go up. But on rare occasions, it might fall into my remit as a Change practitioner to build comms because the Comms Team may be over-capacity, not provide support for projects, or be non-existent (which can happen when I’m working with medium-sized consulting clients who may not even have a Marketing Team let alone a Comms Team!). For someone who doesn’t have a decent pool of communications that they’ve seen and worked on, where would they start?

You’ve received comms even if you haven’t created comms

I remember reading a magazine article once where the author was responding to the argument that child-free people can’t comment or have an opinion on parenting. She said: “Just because I’m not a parent, doesn’t mean I haven’t been parented. I have experience with parenting - being the receiver of it.” I say the same for communications. Even if you feel you don't have comms experience, you have been a receiver or recipient of comms multiple times in an organisation. A good place to start is to reflect back on all the things you've ever done in any workplace and go, “What were the things that I noticed or saw?” It could be, “Oh, we had a new CEO and there was an announcement email that went out about the new CEO,” or “When I was in this organisation, they published a monthly newsletter that was left on the lunchroom table,” for example. Reflect back on the comms that you've seen in the past and what was effective and what wasn't, what you liked and what you didn’t. 

Use someone else’s as a base

If you are trying to draft your own comms, there's no problem with using somebody else's communication as a base and improving on it. I do this a fair bit actually. You are not copying the content, you're copying the idea or the format. You might be like “Oh, I really like the way that they broke their thing down into subheadings” or “The way that they stepped through X, Y, Z.” So because you've been a recipient of communications, you can reflect back on communications you've received and then you can go, “Great, what are the communications coming through in the organisation?” And you can start to piece it together. I might see that, “Okay, this is something that they normally would send out to customers. How can I either build my stuff into it or how could I replicate it for what I need to do?” 

Piggyback on other people’s existing comms

There are a lot of comms channels that already exist and if you don't have a Comms Team or a Comms Specialist working on your change with you, those comms might be coming out from all different places. You might have a Customer team, for example, that sends out a monthly newsletter to customers. So you might ask them, “You do this monthly newsletter, can I get some airtime in your monthly newsletter when we're preparing for customer demos?”. You might need to put on your detective hat and do some investigation as to what are the existing channels in the organisation. Now, word to the wise, just because a communication channel exists does not mean it's effective. You might not want to ask the creator of the comms or gauge from other stakeholders if the Yammer or Viva or Workplace channel, or SharePoint or Stream or YouTube channel is effective and not just a readership or viewership of six. You might need to go and do more research. Whether you grab five minutes at the next weekly team meeting, or have an hour slot at the next annual Town Hall, leveraging existing channels is a great way to start. So canvas across the organisation and you might even be able to coach and improve their communications for them (for example, one team may have a weekly team meeting but the another doesn’t so you could kick off a new forum for them as part of the change). It is your opportunity to think about the entire landscape or ecosystem of communications that could support that project or that change, that may even outlast you and the change!

Take inspiration from me and brands you love

My free Creative Launch Ideas Guide is filled with 53 ways to bring your change and transformation to life and any of those ideas can be mixed-and-matched to craft your Change Comms Plan. In addition, look at all the stuff I do for my business. I’m a huge advocate for taking what’s working externally, such as on social media and online business, and using that in your internal change delivery. What I create is a great example of the types of communications you could do. On my LinkedIn page, you'll see Frequently Asked Questions, you'll see testimonials, you'll see story posts from me, you’ll see recommendation posts from me. Check out my weekly enewsletter (that you’re reading right now!) and all the practical stuff I talk about, navigate through my website. Because I had a background in Media, Communications, Advertising and Marketing before moving to Change Management and my own online business, you’ll see a lot of great examples of things you can do to bring comms to life. And then of course, you can always go and have a look at brands that you love to start to develop your own voice and style. For example, I love a conversational writing style and while this doesn't suit all projects, all clients, or all stakeholders, it is easy to understand, can be spoken at a senior or junior / less literate level, is simple and easy, and resonates with people. If you have a Sponsor or stakeholder who hates your style - don’t die on that hill (after all, they need to put their name to it!). But most will be grateful for your help and support and likely take the style you suggest.

Regardless of whether I’m working with a Comms Team or leading the change communications myself, I always try to develop a Change Brand and Theme. These don’t just look pretty - they are founded in deep emotional nuance which I’ve often drawn from the Future State Workshop I’ve run for the Board, C-Suite, Executive Team, Senior Leaders, or Project. 

If you’d like to learn how to run a Future State Workshop like me to set up your change for success, come join me on my in-person Sydney VIP Day - “How to Run a Consultant-Style Future State Workshop”. It’s on next Wednesday 30 April, it’s $297 to join, it includes morning tea and lunch, and it will be intimate, immersive and interactive. 

Register your spot on my Sydney VIP Day next week ASAP

Lata xx

P.S. There’s only 7 spots available on my in-person Sydney VIP Day and they’re almost all gone. If you want to come and learn my exclusive expert tools, techniques, and tips for running a successful Future State Workshop to build a strong foundation for your Change Strategy, Brand, and Planning, securing your position as a trusted change advisor for the transformation ahead, register your spot ASAP here.