Developing a strategic communication plan to communicate on business process improvement (BPI) projects greatly increases the success of the project overall. The communication plan should include how you will communicate about the project before it is officially started, early in the project launch, during implementation, during testing and feedback stages and how you will communicate after implementation to ensure all is going well with the BPI project.
When beginning to develop the strategic communication plan, consider the following:
- Who are the champions, resisters or those who are indifferent to the project and why? This will enable you to prepare specific messages and determine timing for communications. For example, the more resisters or indifferent people about the BPI project, the more likely you want to start communications earlier than you may have initially planned.
- What are the channels to communicate across the organization about the BPI project? The goal is to use a number of channels to reach the broadest group of employees in ways that works for them to receive information about the BPI project. For example: email, e-newsletters, focus group meetings, webinars, interviews, lunch sessions, at department meetings, via flyers or posters in the hallways.
- Break down your communication plan by phase: Pre-BPI Project, Project Start, Project Implementation, Project Testing, Project Implementation, Post-Implementation.
- Capture the following information for each communication point:
- Who you are communicating to (what stakeholder group)
- What you need to communicate (bullet points)
- When you need to communicate (timing)
- How you will communicate (what channels)
- Responsibility for communication
- Follow up to communication (timing and who)
Remember to evaluate the communication plan on a regular basis! As the BPI project progresses and more information is obtained, problems arise, new stakeholders are impacted and individuals move from resisting to championing the effort, how you communicate will also have to adapt.
Developing and implementing the communication plan very early on in the initiative – before you actually kick off the BPI project – enables you to better prepare employees for the changes ahead as well as share information with them. You’ll be surprised how the ideas, suggestions and questions you receive from employees who are engaged in the BPI project early on will provide information that will increase the ultimate success of your BPI project.
Learn best practices on managing BPI projects via our book, Best Practices for Managing BPI Projects: Six Steps to Success.
