Category: planning

Your communications team is bigger than you think

Most organizations hire a communications person (or team) to handle their external communications and marketing. You know, things like the website, social media, email newsletters, the annual report, and maybe some press releases. Communications is often seen as a separate function dedicated to these traditional communication channels.

The thing is that everyone who works for your organization is a communicator – whether they like it or not. Is your Executive Director giving a speech? That’s communications. Is one of your program staff meeting with a partner? That’s communications too. Is a board member talking to a friend about his involvement in your organization? Yep, that’s also communications. When anyone associated with your organization speaks to someone about the organization, they are doing communications work for your organization.

Because they are all communicating on behalf of the organization, all employees, board members, and even followers should be prepared and empowered to do so. This will help them be more articulate, focused, and compelling in their communications. If they aren’t prepared, then you run the risk of muddling your messages, misrepresenting your organization, and missing opportunities to garner support for your organizations.

So what can you do to empower your colleagues to be effective messengers? You can make sure they:

  • Are comfortable talking about your organization.
  • Understand the organization’s goals and needs.
  • Have the tools they need to communicate successfully.
  • Know where to go for help with communications activities.

This will ensure they are all on message, communicating clearly, and proactive when they have questions or need assistance. 

July 2, 2015 1 Comment

How to set your priorities straight

In the business world, there is always plenty to do – more than we can actually accomplish at any one time. And sometimes we have a whole list of things that seem both important and urgent.

In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey uses a method for setting personal priorities, noting that we often focus on the immediate and unimportant (e.g. email) at the expense of longer-term and more important goals.

In working at and with different organizations and teams, I’ve learned a useful framework to help set a program or organization’s priorities. I call it the Lift-Reward-Risk Method.

Whether you’re making choices about strategic investments, evaluating potential program partners, or assessing a list of potential donors or funders, the Lift-Reward-Risk Method can help you examine where to invest your time, effort, and resources.

Here’s how it works. For each item on your list, evaluate the following:

  • Lift. How much effort will it take to do? (Heavy, Medium, Light)
  • Reward. What’s the potential gain if you succeed? (High, Medium, Low)
  • Risk. What is the probability of failure (or, inversely, success)? (High, Medium, Low)

So let’s say you have a list of potential projects and you need to prioritize so you can focus your efforts. If there’s a project that is a heavy lift, a low reward, and a high risk, then knock it down on your list – it’s probably not worth the effort. However, if a project is a heavy lift and high risk but a high reward, it might be worth prioritizing. If you have a bunch of light projects with low rewards and low risks, it might be worth it to invest time in some and then invest the rest of your time in that other big whale of a project. Either way, at least you can have a clear decision-making process for setting priorities. This is useful for your own work but just as important, if not more important, when working with a team. It helps to make sure everyone is on the same page about the work and where the team should focus its energy.

And remember: lowering the priority of something doesn’t mean not doing it – it just means not doing it now or not investing as much time and effort into it now. Because we all have limited time and resources and we should be using them in the most efficient and effective way possible.

So consider the lift, reward, and risk of your options. It will make it easier to move forward with confidence.

Is your team or organization clear about priorities? Is there a clear process for making decisions about priorities, and how to handle unexpected opportunities? What methods do you use to set priorities for yourself, your team, and your organization?

 

 

May 5, 2014 1 Comment