Spring has almost sprung (hooray!). And we’ve almost bid farewell to the first quarter of 2016 (where did that time go?). At CommsQuest, we believe this is the perfect time of year to take stock and give your communication agenda a spring clean – while also enjoying an Easter egg or two! 

If you’re anything like many of our clients, you’ll be frantically juggling the demands of a complex change programme with the need to support business priorities like improving growth, driving innovation and reducing costs.

You will also know that even the best-laid plans need adapting in order to respond to those unforeseen curve balls. Not only do they act as a distraction, they take up all that creative headspace held in reserve for trying new and different things this year.

But don’t let the daily grind stop you from taking a creative approach for the journey ahead – there are still nine months to make an impact. So why not take some time out to give your communication a spring-clean and revisit that plan.

• Remember the successes – Jot down any recent brightspots. What can you talk about now, and what do you need hold back for another time. Then get feedback to set a benchmark and measure progress throughout the year.
• What else is on the radar – Identify future opportunities that will evidence your strategy in action and share best practice to inspire others. It could be an event, training programme, customer forum or new product launch. Then plan your communication around it using our CommsQuest ‘Warm-up, Stand-up, Follow-up’ approach
• Involve people – Check that your plan encourages two-way dialogue and give people a voice. If not, encourage your audiences to get involved and use this interaction to build a fresh perspective. Once you know what’s going down in the real world you can respond you can make the necessary changes to your communications to keep them tuned in.
• Be visual – Talented artists can draw up (minute) the main points made in a presentation, event or meeting that might be on your radar. The boards can be the size of a wall and very striking, acting as a reminder and interesting backdrop to the event. They also have longevity as ‘cropable photos’ and work brilliantly if a main presenter is filmed talking through the sketches. Check out our ‘visualisation’ case study.
• Film for raw footage – Always film important moments – there are lots of creative ways to get around accessibility issues so don’t let that hold you back. Buy a camera or invest in a cost-focused crew to film special events and worry about the edit later when you want to create a BBC style video montage of the year. See our case study on using film for internal communications.

If you would like to find out how we can help support you this spring, why not get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.