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Categories: communication
Ann Pilkington, in her book Communicating Projects, has a short section about managing project communications on a budget. I’ve never worked on a project that has had a large budget for project communications, although I know that many public works and civil engineering projects have money set aside for this. Somehow engaging with the public seems to warrant more cash than engaging with your colleagues, even if the actual user group is the same size or smaller.
Pilkington starts off by advising that you should spend your communication budget wisely by targeting the audience and what they want to know. A scatter-gun approach that is not targeted is going to be more costly and will probably have poorer results. She says that you should prioritise setting your strategy, which means assessing your stakeholder group and spending some time planning how and when you will reach them, and with what message. Once you’ve cracked that, you can move on to actually delivering that strategy through your communications plan.
She has 5 tips for managing your project communications on the cheap. They are:
1. Use your network
“Identify people who can help to deliver the communication strategy,” she writes. In other words, don’t feel you have to rely on an expensive agency or professional communicator such as your PR department. If you can give them a toolkit and some materials, enthusiastic colleagues can be a great asset to your communication plans. They will need to know enough about the project and what you want shared to be able to do a good job. She also suggests finding alternative ways to get them some reward and recognition as they will be taking on the project communication role above and beyond their normal day job.
2. Piggyback off other initiatives
Link in with other projects, programs or corporate initiatives. “This can save resources and is also an effective, best practice communication approach, helping to tell a joined-up story for people,” she says. If another project produces a newsletter, ask to run a small article in it about your project and the joint benefits. Or talk to your central media team and find out if they have templates, newsletters, or anything else you can use or join in with.
3. Use lessons learned
What communication practices worked on other projects? Find out from your corporate lessons learned database or by asking other project managers. Then avoid making the same mistakes (and spending money on them).
Not everyone has access to a lessons learned database, and not all lessons learned meetings include anything about project communications, so you may have to look quite hard before you find anything that you can reuse or learn from.
4. Evaluate your communications
“If something isn’t working then it doesn’t make sense to continue with it,” she writes. “Remember too that if something cheap isn’t working, then it isn’t cheap – it’s a waste of resources.” A communication audit is a good way to evaluate the success of your communications. Spend some time going through what you have communicated and the outcomes it has achieved. If you aren’t meeting your communication goals, then it’s time to think again. For example, an intranet page for your project might be cheap to set up and maintain, but if no one is looking at it then it hasn’t been a success. Think again about how you can reach your audit and tailor your approach accordingly.
5. Use technology
Technology is your friend, because it is cheap and easy. But it only works if people are using it. “There is no point running an online campaign if the project stakeholders have limited access to email or the internet or aren’t users of social media,” Pilkington says. So if your new online product database is aimed at tech-savvy consumers who want to buy from the company directly via the web, then an online communication campaign is going to be a good use of your resources. However, if you are launching a new health service for the elderly in residential homes, they are less likely to be users of social media, so spending lots of time Tweeting about your project isn’t necessarily going to help you reach the people who need to know about it.
You don’t have to spend a lot of cash on project communications, but you should spend enough time on it. The more you plan, the cheaper you can get your project communications because the better prepared and more effective you can make them.
Want to learn to communicate better on your projects? My online course and ebook, Better Project Status Reports, can help you do exactly that. Find out more here.
Posted on: March 24, 2014 10:16 AM |
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