Communication Processes: Checklist

Communication processes

As managers, our role is to plan, co-ordinate and control resources and processes to achieve our organisation’s objectives.  

To do this effectively, how much time do you think you should spend communicating? 80%? 90%? Possibly 100%?

Luthans

Fred Luthans studied how 450 managers allocated their time between traditional management, communication, HR and networking activities. 

He compared how the most successful (defined by speed of promotion) and the most effective (defined by quantity and quality of their performance plus employee satisfaction) used their time:

• The most successful managers allocated 48% of their time to networking and 28% to communication vs. only 13% for traditional management activities
• The most effective managers spent the largest amount of their time (44%) on communication, 11% on networking and 19% on traditional management activities

Approach as a core skill

As a manager, to get things done and improve performance you will need to approach communication as a critical management process as well as a core skill.

Don’t rely on ad-hoc communication that happens when you have time. 

Define and then schedule in processes for the year ahead that ensure that you:

• Communicate key objectives, priorities and KPI’s to your team
• Communicate what is expected to your team and each individual
• Communicate your needs to internal and external suppliers
• Provide feedback on performance, as well as coach and develop your people
• Seek feedback on your performance, processes and results
• Recognise and communicate good performance
• Understand your stakeholders’ objectives and what they expect from you
• Communicate what you need in order to perform to your stakeholders
• Report the results achieved by your team or unit to your stakeholders
• Understand customer satisfaction and how this can be improved
• Identify any issues or opportunities to improve performance e.g. raised by your team or others inside or outside the organisation
• Share knowledge to improve efficiency and create value across the organisation e.g. with your peers or other functions
• Understand the needs of your team and each individual
• Help your people and the organisation deal with change and successfully deliver it
• Network and develop relationships across your organisation and industry.

Once you define your communication processes, think about how you can measure their effectiveness and continue to improve them.

Download the template below to help you plan your internal team and external communication processes. 

This is also a useful exercise to complete as a team activity.

Recognise effective communication as key to your success and the motivation, engagement and performance of your team.  It shouldn’t ‘just happen’; it should be treated as a key management priority, supported by a structured approach:

• Plan it - set and communicate your communication objective
• Prepare an agenda that focuses on outcomes
• Encourage two-way sharing – this means listening!
• Document decisions and actions
• Follow up on decisions and actions, agree a process to communicate progress
• Review progress of actions at the next meeting or communication opportunity

Reporting vs. Adding Value

Time spent preparing reports that describe results is time not spent working to improve those results.  Therefore, ensure that time spent on this activity is appropriate vs. the value that it creates. 

Re-engineer any reports that are ‘bedtime reading’ to outputs that form part of the ‘value chain’ by highlighting opportunities and recommending decision and actions that can be taken to improve results.

Meeting Stakeholder Needs

If you prepare periodic reports for your stakeholders, test with them from time to time how well they are meeting their needs, for example:

• Are they needed at all? Do they read them or use them for anything? 
• Should they be less frequent? More frequent?
• More or less detailed?
• Does the format focus on the right performance indicators?
• Does the format highlight or bury issues and opportunities, required decisions and actions?

What changes can you make to ensure that you are not merely reporting and adding to the pile of information in your organisation, but adding value by:

• Getting behind what is really driving current performance and may influence future performance
• Highlighting opportunities to improve performance and
• Facilitating discussions, decisions and actions to realise these opportunities.

Join and use the downloadable checklist to design an effective communication process