1.2 How Do Plans Fail?

Poor Research

Not spending enough time to get necessary research or not drawing the correct conclusions from the research will kill a strategic communication plan before it is written. Every element of a strategic communication plan develops from the situational, audience, and program analyses.

  • Poor situational research will give an insufficient understanding of the magnitude of the problem, a poor understanding of who is affected by the problem, and a poor understanding of where to allocate resources. Ask yourself if the situational research helps you understand the scope of the problem, the effects of the problem, the individuals affected by the problem, the roots of the problem, and the environment in which the problem exists.

  • Poor audience analysis will give insufficient information on the knowledge needs of priority audience segments, the preferred channels of communication, and the preferred message style. Ask yourself if the audience analysis helps you identify and understand priority audience segments, the behaviors and traits of the priority audience segments, the habits of the priority audience segments, the media diet of the priority audience segments, and the concerns of the priority audience segments.

  • Poor program analysis will prevent the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization or agency, the constraints on the program, and the opportunities for and threats to the organization or agency. Ask yourself if the program analysis gives concrete instances of the strengths and weaknesses of your organization or agency, the forces for change and resistance to your program, or the constraints in the organization.

Lack of Audience Definition

Not properly identifying priority audience segments will lead to developing bad objectives, building poor strategies, creating bad tactics, and crafting poor messages. Without careful consideration of the priority audience segments (their channel and message preferences and their needs and concerns), the strategic communication plan will be misaligned and targeted incorrectly. To avoid this pitfall, do the following:

  • Use situational data to determine what groups are most affected by the problem or issue at hand. Identify those groups who are the most vulnerable so that you can have the greatest effect.

  • Make sure that the audience analysis is thoroughly completed. If you do not have enough information on priority audience segments, you will not be able to generate effective objectives or strategies.

  • Understand the knowledge needs of your priority audience segments. Know where the knowledge gaps are in the segments you are trying to reach.

  • Identify the influencers and influences on the priority audience segments. Understand who might help to change the attitudes and behaviors of members of the segments.

Lack of a Clear, Measurable Goal

Strategic communication plans must have a clear goal. That goal statement, however, must adhere to the SMART standard by lending itself to measurement. Key terms must be operationalized or developed into concepts that can be operationalized. The terms of the goal statement must be measurable to get baseline data—what individuals already believe or how they behave. Without this baseline data, the amount of change cannot be measured and the effect of the program cannot be determined. We will discuss how to create a goal statement and how to operationalize it effectively in Topic 3.

Poorly Designed Objectives

Like the goal statement, the objectives must adhere to the SMART standard, be clear, relate back to the goal statement, and cover only one outcome. If the objective is too complex, vague, or unmeasurable, you will not be able to develop strategies and tactics and the plan will flounder. We will discuss how to develop clear and measurable objectives and cover the key elements for effective objectives in Topic 6.

Lack of Measurement

It is not enough to operationalize the goal statement and objectives; research is dependent upon creating effective surveys and instruments that have been piloted and statistically tested to gather the data. These instruments need to be focused upon the research, the goal statement, and the objectives. You should ask who is to be surveyed, how often are they to be surveyed, what statistical measures should be used, and how to interpret that data. To understand the plan’s effectiveness, you must decide how often data needs to be collected. Measurement is not a one-time-only process.

  • As mentioned above, information about baseline attitudes and behaviors needs to be collected before the plan is implemented. This data will be used to see how much change occurs as a result of the plan.

  • Data needs to be collected on the intermediate objectives throughout the implementation of the plan. By developing intermediate objectives, you can examine trends and revise the strategies and tactics.

  • Data needs to be collected on the objectives at the end of the plan’s implementation to make sure that the plan was effective. If the plan is not effective, the data should give information on what changes are needed. If the plan is effective, it may be beneficial to resurvey or recheck the data months after the plan’s implementation ends to see if gains have been maintained.

Measuring data or outcomes at only one point will not offer evidence of behavioral or attitudinal change. Data must be collected and monitored throughout the run of the program.

Lack of Oversight

One person or committee needs to oversee the implementation of the plan. All the research in the world will not matter if there is no one receiving it, interpreting it, and reacting to it. The person or committee will need to have the power to make changes to implementation based upon data that is received. If no one is in charge, the plan’s implementation may falter and ultimately fail. Giving too many people power over the ongoing implementation can also strangle the plan by creating either inertia (the inability to change) or conflicting lines of responsibility and ownership.

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