Communicating in a crisis
02 Jun 2020
Key messages
- Effective communication requires advance planning to ensure messages are understood, especially in challenging, changing or uncertain times
- Understanding your stakeholders and the role they play is key as this will determine the specific communication requirements for each audience – we provide a framework to help you do this
- Remote meetings can be challenging to facilitate but can achieve great results if prepared for effectively – we provide some ‘top tips’
Communicating effectively during a period where things are very different to normal can be tricky. Different groups (be they colleagues, scheme members, scheme employers or Committee or Pension Board members) will be used to, and be comfortable with, established ways of working. An enforced and sudden change can pose challenges for some. Over the past few months, with the current lockdown measures, we have all had to adapt our ways of communicating with stakeholders.
As Project Managers, at the start of a new project (or if a project crisis occurs), we must consider the best way to engage with large and often geographically diverse groups to very quickly agree a communication plan to ensure we meet our objectives. For the projects we deliver, rarely can the team(s) all meet face to face - but we still must ensure that messages are heard, decisions are debated and made, and the participants feel engaged and involved.
Download our briefing note for some key methods to help plan communications and our ‘top tips’ for communicating with stakeholders.
0 comments on this post