Creating a Culture of

Communication and Messaging for

MIECHV Home Visiting

2016 National Conference for America's Children

October 2016: Cincinnati, Ohio

WHERE ARE WE GOING?

• In order to know where we need to go, we need to know where we are today.

• We have to know how to talk about who we are, what it is we do, and why it matters.

OBJECTIVES TODAY

• Learn how Arkansas is purposefully developing culture around home visiting with communication planning and messaging materials.

• Engage in a discussion around best practice of communication plans and messaging materials.

• Learn from each other – hoping for lots of audience participation.

HANDOUTS

Jump drives with today’s PowerPoint, Arkansas plan, Texas

plan, and other materials will be distributed at the end of

the session.

ICEBREAKER

• Meet someone you don’t know already.

• Introduce yourself.

• Describe your latest favorite app or gadget.

WHY IS A PLAN/STRATEGY IMPORTANT? “WHY DON’T WE JUST GET ON WITH IT?”

• Taking time to agree what you want to achieve

• Plan ahead rather than last minute panic

• Leverage all the channels and resources available to you

• Agree on responsibilities

• Identify and seek resources

• Identify risks and plan how to deal with them

• A plan gives a framework against which to measure success

• A plan gives a process which helps you learn lessons for the future

Benefits of a Communications

Plan

Proactive

Helps control the agenda

Creates positive image

Avoid embarrassment

Builds trust

Builds confidence with partners

Profiles community for potential investors

WHAT IS A COMMUNICATIONS

STRATEGY?

• Written document – not just in people’s heads

• Collaboration between the project leader(s) and the communications professional(s)

• A reference document against which to judge progress

• Contains clear and measurable objectives

• Identifies relevant audiences

• A plan of activities and a timetable

• Identifies resources – financial and people

AUDIENCE(S)

Two considerations…

• Who holds the keys to success or failure?

• And who influences those people?

And…

• Don’t forgot the internal audience – e.g. colleagues in your department or division

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Identify all of the groups and/or individuals important to

your program and your long-term sustainability.

WHO - audiences and stakeholders

WHAT - information needs to be communicated

WHEN - establish deadlines

WHY - why are you communicating

HOW - tools and mechanisms

BY WHOM - assign communications responsibilities

Communications Plan

Elements

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

• What are your objectives?

• Your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

• Learn lessons from previous projects

• Learn lessons from peers’ and competitors’ experiences

• Look at past media coverage, event attendance, web visits

• Speak to colleagues – experienced and fresh-faced

• Focus groups and surveys among your key audiences

A COMPREHENSIVE

COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

Audiences

Research

• MISSION

• VISION

• MESSAGES

Aims

Objectives

Channels

Timing

Resources –

Financial and other

Risks

Evaluation

DO WE HAVE A BRANDING

PROBLEM?

BRANDING AND IDENTITY

• Does the public know who you are?

• Do they instantly recognize information

you provide?

• What image do you convey to the

public and is it what you want?

BRANDING AND IDENTITY

Just do it.

The Uncola.

It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Melts in your mouth, not in your

hands.

Don’t leave home without it.

IS IT A CULTURE PROBLEM?

Culture is best defined as -

“how things get done around

here.”

Vision explains where you are

going.

Mission explains what you will

do to get there.

WE NEED CULTURE CLARITY

Defining your culture is the first

step to changing it.

Culture Clarity is the first step in the

culture-development process.

WINNING CULTURE THROUGH

CULTURE CLARITY

• Vision:

o Where your team is going.

• Mission:

o What your team is doing.

• Guiding principles:

o How your team does what it does.

• By defining vision, mission, and guiding principles you can provide culture clarity to all involved.

• Once they are clear on where you are going together, what you do together, and how you agree to behave together, they will own making it happen.

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HIGH PERFORMANCE CULTURE

• Strong culture encourages adaptation --

o provides a sense of identity to members and

increases commitment.

o provides a way for those involved to interpret the

meaning of events.

o reinforces the values of the group.

o serves as a control mechanism for shaping behavior.

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BUSINESS VIEWPOINT --

IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE

• Culture integrates members so that they know how to relate to one

another. (Internal)

o Guides day-to-day work

o Determines how communication occurs in the workplace

o What behavior is acceptable

o How power and status are allocated

• It helps the organization adapt to the external environment.

(External)

o How organization meets goals and deals with outsiders

o How organization responds to customers/competitors

WINNING CULTURE COMMUNICATION

• Culture presentations: Create a core culture presentation (five slides max) that starts all meetings held by high-level leaders to communicate the vision, mission, and guiding principles.

• Culture cards: Create culture cards for every associate in your team.

• Culture dialogues: Open culture discussions with leadership teams, associates, etc.

• Leadership communication toolkits: Provide all leaders with a communication toolkit that ensures consistent delivery of the culture message.

NEW NAME – NEW LOGO

MISSION AND VISION

• Mission -

o Is to build stronger families and brighter

futures for the children and communities of

Arkansas.

• Vision -

o Is that every family in our state is equipped to

help its children achieve their greatest

potential.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• ASSESS CHILD AND FAMILY NEEDS

• TEACH AND GUIDE FAMILIES

• HELP FAMILIES FIND SUPPORT

• REFER FAMILIES TO RESOURCES

TELLING OUR STORIES

MESSAGES – OUR ONE PAGER

• What do you want them to know?

• What do you want them to think?

• What do you want them to do?

• Why should I care? How does it affect me?

• Tailor them but avoid contradiction and false promises

• Statistics and case studies

• Third party endorsements

EVALUATION: DID YOU SUCCEED?

• Often neglected

• Did you change understanding, opinion and behaviour?

• How will you measure – and will it cost anything?

• Quantitative

o Event attendance, website visitors, donations, column inches

• Qualitative

o Feedback forms, focus groups, key messages in the media

• ‘Wash-up’ with the project team

EXAMPLES OF PLAN

MEASUREMENT TOOLS

Internal surveys

Online surveys

Web hits

Newspaper clippings

Number of news releases

How do you plan to measure whether or not

you are achieving your communications goals?

RISKS AND MITIGATION

• Identify risks that could prevent you achieving your

objectives

• How you will deal with them?

• Identify options – a plan A and a plan B

• Prepare ‘lines to take’ – anticipate audiences’ reaction

AND FINALLY…

• Keep a record of the communications strategy

o Electronic and printed copies of material produced

• Keep a record of quantitative and qualitative evaluation

• Record lessons learned and keep a contacts list

• Share best practice with peers

• Publicize your success - It’s good PR for our profession!

GIVE ME THREE STEPS

THANK YOU!

To find out more about Stronger Families, Brighter Futures, the Arkansas Home

Visiting Network, please visit us on our website at www.arhomevisiting.org or

email me at pillowpricekl@archildrens.org.

All funding for this project is provided by the Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting

Program of the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services through the Arkansas Department of Health.