Process becomes king
I’ve never met a professional communicator who cherished writing process documents. Most of us – and this is a generalization – would rather spend a day engaged in creative brainstorming sessions than drawing up a formal process document.
But as work loads continue to increase, and temporary hiring freezes become permanent, professional communicators will find some relief by creating and formalizing processes that maximize their available resources while streamlining the delivery of many common functions.
Don’t get me wrong: most organizations already employ a number of useful communications processes, particularly around copy approvals and media reporting. But most existing processes – and here comes another sweeping generalization – were originally created to mitigate risk rather than reduce waste.
Instead, communicators should be looking for functions that their teams perform regularly which produce a more uniform output. One excellent area that is frequently overlooked is the creation of newsletters. While the copy always changes, all of the basic steps – from the solicitation of story ideas to the distribution of the final product – can easily be formalized into a process and largely outsourced.
To get there, many communicators may first have to come to terms with the fact that processes eventually dampen creativity and innovation. Some will even find their very function changes from that of ‘creator/strategist’ to ‘project manager/reviewer’.
However, processes can also be a great way to get rid of mundane tasks and focus on projects demanding the greatest level of strategic and creative input.
Regardless of your motivation, here are a few tips that we’ve learned from our work creating communications processes for clients:
- Communicate the process: Many processes quickly come off the rails because either the audience was unaware of the change in service levels, or the participants didn’t fully understand their role. Always try to include a communications plan that recognizes all the stakeholders involved or impacted.
- Include service level expectations – especially for your outside vendors and contractors. To ensure a smooth process, each actor must know exactly what is expected in terms of turn-around times, deliverables and formats. For internal staff, processes provide great metrics that can easily be used to support performance reviews and quantitative benchmarking.
- Revise and evaluate annually: I don’t need to tell you how quickly things change. New objectives, innovative technologies, changing roles and evolving audience expectations can easily scuttle a perfectly good process. The summer doldrums tend to be a great time for this task.
- Outsource everything: Once a formal process has been created and tested, consider outsourcing the whole thing to a trusted communications professional. Many small companies (including our own) provide this type of long-term project management service, so find one that fits your organization’s unique style and needs.
Real die-hards may even find value in drawing up a ‘process-creation process’ … but even we think that might be going a bit far.
Process becomes king is one of our Top 10 Communications Issues for 2010. Next week we’ll look at #4 – Devices challenge accessibility
