Q&A: Communicating with Leadership and Staff
How and when should we communicate with leadership and staff throughout a project?
Meaningfully engaging leadership and colleagues can be critical to the success of our projects and project outcomes. We may need the support of leadership to complete a project, for a colleague outside of our project team to complete a task, or for leadership or staff to buy into and use the outcomes or deliverables our project is creating. So we want to plan carefully for communicating with leadership and staff throughout a project.
In planning for these communications, we want to clearly identify who within our organization (individuals or groups) will be impacted by our project and our project’s outcomes and then determine what information they will need based on the expected impact.
At a minimum, we may want to communicate:
The project’s scope, timeline, and outcomes to leaders and staff across the organization.
Expected use of resources to leaders and impacted staff.
More detailed information about tasks and schedules to anyone expected to provide input or complete a task.
Progress reports to leadership and more heavily impacted staff.
A final report on project completion to leaders and staff across the organization.
For many of these communications and audiences, you may be able to incorporate project information into existing communication channels (newsletters, staff meetings, reports).
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