Essentials of Communication Planning

Develop a plan, in terms of content and delivery, for what you want to communicate to your target audience. Communication planning helps you understand your audience, get understood by the audience and get the desired results

Following are the essentials components of communication planning:

Know Your Content

As a sender it is important that you know your subject. Knowledge generates in you the confidence to communicate. When you know your subject well, your communication is effective, receiver understanding is high and there are higher chances of you achieving the objective of the communication. Knowledge of subject keeps you prepared for the feedback, which can be an objection or a query

Focus on the Purpose

You should be clear about the purpose of your communication. It is important for the you to steer the communication in the desired direction. Purpose is the primary pre-requisite of all meaningful communication. The sender initiates communication with some purpose i.e. expectation. S/he expects the receiver to hear/see his message, to listen/read it attentively, to understand it and to act/respond to it. When the receiver gives feedback or performs the expected action, then communication is said to be successful. However, the response would depend on various factors like concentration, physical surroundings and psychological makeup of the receiver.

Pre Delivery Preparation

As a sender, you need to be prepared about what you are going to communicate. Sender should consider many factors while preparing the message like audience language preferences, sensitivity of the message, audience mindset, Cultural factors etc. If using a presentation, you should be prepared with data, charts, numbers, presentation tools, questions that can be asked etc.

Be organised/ Time Management

Plan your communication and set a timeline for delivery and stick to it. Sender should follow the SMART principle

Schedule Time: Schedule time for the communication in your calendar

Make Time: Make time for the communication in your schedule

Allow Time: Allow yourself the time that you have scheduled

Ration Time: Create a meaningful breakup of the time that you would give to the communication

Take Time: Ensure that you take the time that you had scheduled. Do not rush

Audience Analysis

It is important to understand audience in terms of familiarity with the subject, language preferences, culture and maturity levels. This will make your delivery effective. You should also know how you are perceived by the receiver.

Delivery

It is your responsibility as a sender to keep the delivery of the message as effective as possible. Delivery depends on the purpose. For example:

• A message which is an Organisational Announcement on Email needs to be comprehensive, Concise and Straight
• In a Reward & Recognition meeting the delivery should be enthusiastic and energetic
• A Coaching communication should be with less rate of speech, should be polite with adequate probing and listening

Post Delivery Feedback and Analysis

You, as a sender, should ensure a feedback mechanism is inbuilt in your communication. You should analyze the Feedback and your future communication should be designed accordingly. Feedback will ensure continuous improvement till the objective of the communication is achieved