WRONG QUESTIONS, WRONG RESULTS

Three questions that reveal if your communications

program is built to succeed.

Photo: Tumisu

Most communications programs begin in the wrong place. Not with the wrong people. Not with the wrong tools. With the wrong questions. And most leaders never realize it.

The question organizations typically start with is: what should we be doing? The calendar fills up. Tactics get executed. And somewhere along the way, a harder set of questions never gets asked. Three questions, specifically. And how clearly your leadership team can answer them right now tells you almost everything about whether your communications program is positioned to succeed — or positioned to look busy.

The questions for creating successful communications aren't complicated. What's surprising is how rarely they get asked.

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Learn more: See my 5-Step Approach

to public interest communications

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1. "We've tried the standard approaches and they haven't moved the needle. What are we missing?"

   What's missing is almost always the same thing: the willingness to set aside conventional approaches and focus instead on what the organization actually needs to achieve — and how communications can help get there. In my experience, the right answer is rarely the expected one. You can only find it by asking the right questions first.

   Three questions drive that focus: What tangible outcomes must the organization achieve over the next one to three years? Who must do what — and what will move them to act? And how will you measure whether communications is driving that change?

   Two examples: 

   The CEO of a climate policy think tank assumed standard news media placements were the way to promote a new policy proposal. The actual answer was a showcase event at a UN Climate Conference introducing the proposal directly to high-priority government ministers. The CEO walked away with the endorsements he wanted and new funding he never anticipated.

   At a water security organization, the challenge wasn't awareness — it was a sluggish membership base that wasn't growing. A precisely targeted branding and marketing campaign, built around what water utility professionals specifically needed to trust the organization, exceeded a 10% membership growth goal within six months.

   
   

2. Where do I even start?"

   Start here. Ask the leaders of your organization these three questions and listen carefully to their answers.

• What does your organization need to accomplish over the next one to three years?

• What has to change — in policy, in funding, in public understanding — for that to happen?

• Who holds the power to make that change?

If those questions were answered before your last communications plan was written, you are ahead of most. If they weren't, your communications program is almost certainly working harder than it needs to and delivering less than it should. Not because of the team. Because of where the conversation started.

Every organization's communications challenge is different. The most useful question is usually the one specific to yours. Ask it in the comments and I'll answer it.

3. "I know communications matters. How do I make that case to leadership?"

Stop arguing for it. Show what it changed. Draw a direct line from your organization's objectives to the communications activities that helped achieve them. What measurable shift — in policy, in funding, in public understanding, in partner behavior — can you point to as a result?

When leadership can see that line, they stop thinking of communications as overhead. They start thinking of it as how the mission gets done. The conversation about budget and having a seat at the leadership table follows from the evidence.

The three questions I've listed are the ones I hear most often. But the conversation that matters is the one specific to your organization — the challenge you haven't quite been able to name, or the one you've named but haven't been able to solve.

What's the communications question your organization is wrestling with right now?

Ask it in the comments — I read and respond to every one, no exceptions. Prefer a direct conversation? Reach me via LinkedIn message or at gisele@giselemcauliffe.com.