Strategic Communication Plan

• Part 1. Select an organization that will serve as the subject for your Strategic Communication Plan.
• Part 2. Identify an organization and option for the Strategic Communication Plan. Provide a one- to two-page rationale. The Final Project assignment is to develop a "Strategic Communication Plan" for the organization.
• Part 3. Create a one-to two-page rationale on your final project organization, the option you choose, along with the reasons for your choice.
• Part 4. Strategic Communication Plan Goals
  A Strategic Communication Plan includes the rationale for the major SCP Goals, and intermediate objectives for each SCP goal. Support these intermediate objectives through outside research and through the results of your SWOT, Q-100 and/or gap analyses. Include all of your writing to date, making sure to add the transitions between sections, have a cover page, placeholders for your appendices (if you don't include them) and your references.

The Strategic Communication Plan should demonstrate the rigor of academic review, the inclusion of quantitative and qualitative data, careful analysis, and a thorough literature review of communication challenges. The Strategic Communication Plan is a project designed to capture all the theoretical elements.

More specifically, the Plan should include:

• the WHO (the stakeholders)
• the WHAT (messages to each of the critical stakeholder groups)
• the HOW (methodology and media based on the context of the organization)
• the WHEN (a timeline for communication, follow-up and feedback) and
• the WHY (tying the purpose of the change, the plan, and the efforts to the mission, vision and values of the organization).

Your Strategic Communication Plan will reflect quantitative as well as qualitative analyses. For example, the SWOT and gap analysis will help to define the “context” of the organization to ensure a “fit” between the message, the audience, the medium used, etc. A thorough review of the literature on corporate culture and communication methodologies for a diverse workforce will provide the rationale for your recommendations.

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLAN FOCUS:

LEAD THROUGH THE RESOLUTION OF AN ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE: You may currently be facing an issue or a challenge in your immediate workplace. Yet, either no action has been taken to address the problem or the problem has not fully been described and analyzed to determine action Analyze the situation (SWOT, Q-100, Gap Analysis, etc.), develop an implementation plan and determine how you will communicate the plan to get buy-in at all levels of the organization. This option could involve the development of a new strategic plan for your division or department, or it could address specific departmental or organizational imperatives.

YOUR ROLE: You are either a high ranking manager of Corporate Communication, or a Communication Consultant hired to prepare a plan to communicate the option you have selected. Your goal is to gain buy-in from all members of the organization. You will be expected to utilize the quantitative tools you have used during this program (Q-100, SWOT, Stakeholder Analysis, Kotter’s Transformational Steps, etc.),

How to format a Strategic Communications Plan

Your Strategic Communication Plan should consist of AT LEAST the following chapters:

• Abstract (a 2-3 paragraph description of the organization, the environment and the rationale for the SCP)
• Introduction (a thorough examination of the organization, its history, the demographics of its workforce, an analysis of its leadership structure, the competitive environment in which it exists, the specific challenges to the organization)
• Vision, Mission and Values of the organization (an analysis of the corporate vision, mission and values, how they are articulated to the workforce, how they are made manifest through the culture of the organization)
• Corporate Culture of the organization (a review of literature on corporate culture, an analysis of your organization’s corporate culture, quantitative analysis of your organizational culture, gap analysis, Q-100 and SWOT results)
• Strategic Communication Plan goals and intermediate goals for each goal by stakeholder group (stakeholder analysis, identification of communication plan goals and rationale for each goal based on quantitative/qualitative analysis, outside references, and communication models)
• Messages and Media (messages for each stakeholder group, analysis of appropriate media, outside references to support message development and media selection)
• Feedback and Monitoring Mechanisms (literature review of feedback success factors, analysis and recommendations of feedback and monitoring loops for the achievement of plan goals and intermediate objectives, by stakeholder groups, including timelines)
• Summary
• Appendices (organizational documents, flowcharts, gap analysis, SWOT analysis, Q-100 results, culture assessments, etc.).
• References