The start of the new triennium approaches, and with it comes a rush of fresh enthusiasm, ideas and priorities. It’s a hectic time for in-house communications and engagement (C+E) teams and as anyone who’s worked at council knows, it’s all too easy to be overwhelmed by short-term requests and reactive work.
So how do you get ahead of it and set your team up for success? At Frank Engagement, we’ve worked with a wide range of organisations to plan and execute mahi from Long Term Plans to significant capital projects. The most effective organisations are backed by C+E teams who:
- Are recognised as key strategic advisors: C+E teams are critical risk assessors and mitigators, protectors of your hard-earned reputation and guardians of your carefully nurtured relationships. Effective organisations understand the (often intangible) value their C+E teams create and the strategic importance of their work.
- Are represented at the top table: Having an advocate at senior management level ensures that a C+E risk radar is applied to projects and issues from the get-go, and that C+E teams have the time to plan, prepare, and engage effectively.
- Are on the same page: Every team needs a shared vision of what good looks like, a clear understanding of how they work with both internal and external clients, and a consistent approach to giving C+E advice across the organisation.
- Have clear structures in place: Individually, every member of the C+E team should be clear on their responsibilities. Collectively, the team should have robust foundations for making decisions, sound processes for managing their workflow, and a realistic plan for achieving the organisation’s strategic goals.
- Are well-supported: Every C+E team wrestles with the perennial challenge of having more demand than capacity. The best results come from C+E teams who are well-resourced, with the ability to draw on additional capacity during busy periods to ensure they can keep pushing forward with longer-term strategic work. A game plan for this is especially important when there’s increasing fiscal pressure.
- Have a structured programme of strategic work: Every C+E team needs to balance strategic work with reactive but when the short-term requests start piling up, it’s easy to let the needle tilt too far. Effective C+E teams have a practical plan in place to keep their strategic work moving.
The lead-in to the new triennium is a good time to reflect on your team’s journey so far, get clear on your value proposition, and set expectations. Questions to ask include:
- Do we have a clear view of the pipeline of work? If not, what needs to change?
- How are we currently placed to support the organisation’s strategy?
- What is our team here to do and what are we not?
- What tools does our organisation need to do work we’re not here to do? , e.g. simple Powerpoint templates or effective proofing checklists
- How can we make it easy for others in the organisation to work with our team?
Putting the right foundations in place early enables you to position your team as critical strategic advisors, advocate for best-practice engagement, and ensure your team has the skills, tools and resources they’ll need to do the mahi.Once you have these down, it’s time to gather the information you’ll need to shape up the high-level work programme that will set your team up for success for the coming three years.
