Q: "I'm facing a job from hell. Over the years, our company has developed dozens of booklets, fact sheets and backgrounders on our various programs for our customers. Some of the pieces are badly out of date yet continue to be used by employees at company roadshows. My manager has asked me to do a "literature audit" to clean up this mess, and I'm not sure how to start."
A: I'm rummaging around in my toolbox and see two problem-solving tools that I think would be sturdy enough to steer you through this challenge.
The first is a familiar and reliable workhorse: the communications plan. It's the consummate roadmap and project plan, and it will navigate you through the important steps. In particular, it will insist that you align your project goals with your company's vision. Everything else flows from that, including the development of criteria for deciding which pieces of literature to keep, kill or create.
The other is a decision-making tool. Use it to put a platform of science under you when you sell your recommendations to your manager.
Connect these two dots first
Reach for your favourite communications plan template. No need for us to step laboriously through the steps - key messages, audiences, action plans, etc. Most templates intersect at crucial points. Just be sure to pay particular attention to these two elements:
Alignment: Is there a clear line of sight between your project's goals and your company's vision, strategic outcomes and values? Let's say your project goal is along the lines of creating a streamlined, up-to-date literature program that effectively meets your customers' needs for information and motivates them to take desired actions. Can you show precisely how elements of this goal align with statements your company has made about its desired future?
How well you connect these two dots is the heartbeat of your project.
Current reality: How is the existing situation - the disarray, the poor quality, the out-of-date information - hurting your company's ability to achieve its vision and strategic outcomes? How is it hurting your company's image?
If you do a good job of addressing these two aspects of a communications plan, you'll create enough tension between "what is" and "what could be" to lure your manager toward your solution like a hapless mouse to cheese.
Apply the nuts and bolts
Details come after the big picture. Collect every stray piece of corporate literature. Place them in one of three files: needed, not needed, not sure. Organize them further according to topic. Start a fourth file for ideas-literature you need to develop.
Now here's the engine of the exercise: develop criteria to determine the fate of each piece of literature in the needed and not sure files. Make sure you can trace a visible, pulsating trail from each criterion to both your company's and your project's vision and goals.
Some criteria to consider:
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Relevance: Does the written piece support a viable product or service offered by your company? Does it address a burning issue? Does it target key stakeholders?
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Effectiveness: Does it motivate the reader to behave in a way that would help achieve corporate goals; e.g. buy something or do something the way you want?
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Efficiency: Is the piece redundant?
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Productivity: Does it have the potential, for example, to reduce calls to your customer service centre?
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Clarity: Is it easy to read and understand? (Ask objective individuals to rate each piece on its readability.) Is the format uniform with other pieces?
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Cost: Would editing or reproducing the piece be achievable within your project budget? Would posting the piece on your corporate Web site suffice?
Work your decision-making tool
Develop a grid with your criteria down the left and the name of each piece of literature across the top. Apply a rating scale - perhaps 1 to 5, where 5 says the criterion is entirely satisfied by that piece of literature.
Consider prioritizing your criteria, then weight the ratings so you end up with an even clearer view of which pieces work and which don't.
Then let the numbers do the talking: do you keep the piece? Revamp it? Combine it with another? Toss it? Also, what information gaps do you see on your literature landscape? What needs to be created? (Don't forget to build in an "evergreen" plan; i.e. an annual review that will keep your literature program current. Most communications plan templates address this important element.)
Use the grid as the centrepiece of your presentation to management.
Good luck! Even projects as seemingly unmanageable as an octopus can be tamed with the right tools.
©
Heidi Croot.
About Heidi Croot
Heidi Croot has been connecting the dots for employees, customers and the community for over 20 years. She is principal of Croot Communications. For permission to reprint this article, or for communications consulting services, please contact Heidi by email at hcroot@sympatico.ca
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