communication strategy for action groups The first step in our approach is to consider that, for most groups, almost everything you would like to achieve will come about as a result of effective communication. That is, communication that changes behaviour. From that perspective, the group makes a deliberate decision to develop an effective communication program, and makes that a priority within its operation. Someone takes responsibility to work with others to make it happen. The approach is described in six stages: Development within the core action group Outreach to the group's own community and natural partners Project development, in response to a need Developing wider participation in the activities of the group Evaluating and reporting; thanking participants Taking the message to a wider audience through mass media Achieving the objectives for one stage provides some of the resources that will be needed in the following stage. At every stage, the group learns to tell its story in a progressively building way. New connections are made, new resources become available, and the experience directly contributes to the inherent strength and effectiveness of the group. Innovation becomes possible. Since most groups will be well along in their development process, adopting the strategy means using it to re-visit their process, to ensure all the essential elements are in place. Wherever you choose to start, scrolling up and down in these pages can help you to get a better handle on the process that's going on in your group. In each stage of the approach, the link to uses of media connects to the media most likely to be used at that stage. The guidelines are intended to help you make best use of the strategy. So, it's essentially a process of creative discovery. If you have questions about how to implement the process with your group, please contact us here.

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first stage: within the core action group The foundation of an effective communication program must be laid within the core action group itself. From the initiative of a few people, a group gathers to address an issue. No matter how large the group may eventually become, there is usually a core of three to eight people who start and drive any group, project, or committee. It's important that this group (sooner rather than later) takes the time necessary to clarify and write down the most basic shared values that motivate them to work together. If possible, this is done in direct dialogue that includes as much of the wider membership as possible. Why is this important? Because values are emotional drivers: these are the values (motivation) the group will be appealing to in anyone who could help them. Values are the foundation of any effective civil communication program. MORE ON VALUES A second priority is to identify--or recruit--a member of the core action group who is willing to be responsible to document the expression of the group's values, its goal (based on the values) and the objectives it has to meet to achieve the goal. Until one person, who has the support of the rest of the group, says: "OK we're going to have a good communication program, and I'm willing to do what's necessary to put that in place", communication will remain an abstraction. The person responsible for this documentation, and for formatting and distributing it in ways appropriate to different situations, is the group's communication coordinator. Their actual title (or having a title at all) is not important. It may be the group's Chair or Secretary. What's important is that the core group acknowledges the importance of communication by working out a few basic statements, and that some one person in the group has taken on responsibility to ensure that this is done. Groups often dismiss this internal part of an effective communication strategy, focusing instead on what everyone "knows" needs to be done about the issue. Why spend time on process? And if the group finds it's having difficulty going through the steps, why is it worthwhile to look for an experienced outside person to help? First, to make as certain as possible, at every step of the way, that trust has been established, and that everyone can sing from the same songbook. The process of developing a goal statement in itself develops trust and better communication among participants. Second, with this material already in place, it is much easier to use media to generate effective communication with your immediate community, with others who can help you, and with wider audiences. Third, the organization gains the benefit of the guidance provided by a well-developed goal statement. It can help to resolve difficult issues to ask: which of the alternatives will do most to get us to our goal? Is this proposal consistent with the values expressed in our goal? Again, a great deal of energy can be saved if you have a goal in place to refer to. Fourth, through this process, all members of the action group feel ownership in the goal, and by that they are all empowered to be effective spokespersons for the group. That's why many successful organizations spend time, not only to establish their basic statements in the first place, but to repeat the process regularly, so their goal and objectives stay in tune with current circumstances and possibilities. The good news is, it doesn't have to be perfect, or complete, the first time around. It's OK to draft a tentative goal statement and some possible objectives as a basis for further discussion. It's OK to modify your objectives. In fact, one of the best uses of having these things written down in the first place, is that it gives the basis for discussion of what changes should be made. Here's a simple way to go about establishing a goal statement. If you have any case-histories that illustrate this process, please email your story.

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second stage: addressing your immediate community and natural partners The first audiences the group needs to address are within its immediate community. As much as possible before firm decisions are made about strategy and projects, notifying those who might be involved or affected that your group exists, generally what it is trying to do, and how it can be contacted, is a courtesy, a demonstration of respect and inclusiveness that will lay a foundation for further communication. At this level, the story is kept as simple as possible. The immediate objective is to hear response; if appropriate, to ask for support, or quotable comment. A further objective is that this round of communication will give the action group an indication of the support available from within its community, and a sense of a strategy likely to be effective. As an extension of this stage, the group will also want to contact some of its "natural partners": individuals, other groups and agencies that you have reason to think might support and possibly assist in meeting the action group's goal. The story for natural partners at this stage can include whatever expressions of support came from your immediate community, and it will further refer to how the interests of the possible partners may be served by whatever strategy the group develops. The objective with this outreach is, again, to hear response, but now with the intent of following up with specific requests for assistance with your project. These preliminary rounds of outreach can usually be effectively done using word of mouth, letters, personal email and informal meetings. The priority objective is that the group gets a firm idea of the resources and support it will have available, and can adopt an appropriate project supported by a realistic strategy. In short, the simplest, least expensive basic media can give your group what it needs to use all media effectively: a story. MORE ON STORY Comments, suggestions?

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third stage: project development The third stage in your use of media begins when the group has used the information gained in the first two stages to outline a strategy and to choose a project as an element in their strategy. The rubber hits the road when a group decides to carry out a project. That is, a specific active response (no matter how small or preliminary) to a perceived need in the community. The project can be as simple as calling a meeting, as complex as arranging a benefit concert or an environmental clean-up. Or, as we are doing here, you could post a website. Choosing among possible projects must be carefully done in terms of practicality and costs, but most important in terms of how well the project will help achieve specific objectives. If a priority objective is to influence a small group of policy-makers, then a large public event, even if it is "successful", may be less effective than a carefully prepared meeting. Once a project is chosen, outreach to natural partners and the wider community has a focus. The possible uses of media at each stage of outreach will depend on the nature and scope of the project. It will also take you to the next level of communication strategy, telling your story. In this stage, your project is the story. Your immediate community and natural partners are still your first audiences, but now you are telling about what you propose to do, and inviting their participation in fulfilling your project. The objective, as always, is to use active listening to hear peoples' reactions to your plan. Expecting and respecting their reactions, you have opportunity to modify your plan, and you learn how to tell the story of your project so as to gain whatever wider participation is necessary to your goal, while still maintaining the integrity of the story. In preparation for taking your story to a wider public audience in the next stage, home audio and video recording can be very powerful. First, you can use them the way a golfer uses video to improve their swing: taping and seeing / hearing themselves gives members of a group an opportunity to modify their presentation in any way they choose. Many people will at first be shy about being taped, but once a group gets into it, it's a really fun and very useful exercise. Second, if you're satisfied with a presentation, giving it to individuals in some audio or video format they can play for other people, can be an effective use of low-cost media. Small meetings are frequently used at this stage as an effective medium for personal contact and engagement. It's useful to consider that any meeting or event is a medium in its own right, and can be organized to support effective communication. Meetings will be more productive if the group is presenting materials they've worked out in advance, while allowing lots of opportunity for guests to respond and make suggestions.

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fourth stage: wider participation The overall objective of this stage is to gain wider participation in your project: so that people come to your event, or sign on to your petition, become a member of your organization, make a donation, write a letter, help with a clean-up. So this version of your story must relate your project to the interests of the wider community, and may use email, the web, list-serves, local newspapers, periodicals, radio, and cable or regional broadcast television. To be as effective as it can be, this stage does not begin with press releases or public service announcement (PSA's). It begins with making personal connections with individuals in your local communication and cultural communities: people who work for newspapers, radio and television stations, editors, writers, musicians, artists. Your objective is to gain their interest, and to have them tell you how best to tell your story to a wider audience through their particular medium. Naturally, not everyone you contact will want to help. But the point of the effort is that the cultural community generally has a high percentage of people who are likely to be interested in issues related to a healthy civil society. From those who are able to help, you will learn how to distribute an effective series of public service announcements (PSA's), how to write an effective press release, why you don't send it to all media at the same time, and why you send it to people who aren't in the media; how to conduct an interview with a journalist; how to combine and schedule the uses of various media for maximum effectiveness. Most important, they will help you re-frame your story to appeal to their broader audiences. The reason for this is very simple. Their business, by definition, is to address the widest possible audience. They will select and feature material they judge to be of interest to the widest possible audience. The re-framing will emphasize the public interest served by your project. To illustrate, which of the following statements is likely to be of wider public interest? Why? 1. School librarians in Richmond County have started a project to catalogue their high school libraries. 2. Graduates from Richmond County high schools are going on to university with no experience in using library catalogues to do research. At this stage, your responsibility is choice and focus. Experienced people can advise how to use their media. You must decide, from your goal, objectives and available resources, which audiences you need to reach to fulfill your project, and which media will do that most effectively within your budget. Don't limit your idea of "media" to newspapers, radio and television. Songs, graphic displays in public places, art shows, performances, meetings and other events, all have the potential to contribute powerfully to your communication effort, depending on your audiences and objectives. Continue to use home audio/video and photography to document events, meetings, displays. Keep copies of your own press releases and of any articles that are printed. Ask someone to tape any radio or tv interviews that are given. In addition to giving the group valuable feedback on its strategy, this material can be very useful if the group anticipates going to the sixth stage in its use of media. Please contribute your experience here.

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fifth stage: reporting The fifth and "final" stage of a communication cycle is to report out to the participants, with an evaluation of the effectiveness of your project, an acknowledgment of the contributions of participants, and a request for their comments on the project and suggestions for follow-up. A newsletter is a relatively inexpensive medium for this purpose. In practice, there is no final communication stage because a particular project is usually only one element in a strategy to achieve a long-term goal. The objective of this stage is to do an evaluation and communicate the results, so as to lay the foundation for further communication cycles. Thank you for visiting our site. We'd appreciate your comments and contributions.

stages group community project participation reporting mass media objectives evaluation reporting out further participation resources contact list story evaluation active listening re-planning guidelines keywords uses of media

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sixth stage: mass media Depending on how wide an audience the group ultimately needs to reach, one of the most useful outcomes of its first communication cycle is that the group will be much better prepared to relate to "mass" media: national radio, television, newspapers and journals, documentary film and video, the World Wide Web. And you will have developed connections in the cultural community that can help you take your story to that level. Comments, suggestions?

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case-history: richmond librarians For the group of school librarians who drove the Richmond Library Liaison Project, the goal was to provide quality library services in their high schools. Their priority objectives were (1) to have accurate card catalogues in place, as the critical component of collection control; (2) to influence their schools and school board to adopt and support their goal. Their natural partners in the process were teachers and students, the N.S. Provincial Library, and other professional librarians. Their strategy was to take advantage of a federal summer student employment program to provide the funding to catalogue the existing high school libraries. This project was the basis of outreach to student participants and to the Provincial Library for the resources it brought to the effort. The use of newsletter, newspaper and radio media brought wider awareness in the school and general communities, and helped to influence the school board to make library development a priority. In this way, their objectives were achieved, and became the basis for an on-going program that resulted, within five years, in over $100,000 being put into high school library development; the adoption of a progressive policy on libraries by the school board; one of the first experiments in the province in computer-based library cataloguing; personal professional development for the librarians. holistic management We believe that one of the most important contributions we can make to building more effective communication for civil society in our region, is to model a systematic approach that includes a long-term view for the success of the enterprise. That is, to have consciously adopted a way of managing our effort toward achieving our goals, that is consistent with our values. The approach you see in Bluedoor is a direct adaptation of the Framework for Holistic Management originally developed by Allan Savory, represented by the Savory Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The key entry point for any group that wants to use the approach is to develop (or re-visit) its goal statement in what turns out to be a very productive way. MORE ON GOAL For examples of adaptations of the holistic management framework in use, see WRWEO: General Framework for Sustainability and Bluedoor: General Framework for Sustainability [being revised]. You will find the original materials at the website of the Savory Center.

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