Purpose of the Communication Planning Tool
Your boss asks you to prepare a proposal or give a talk. Your next question might well be, "Where do I begin?" This tool was designed to help you address that question and become more successful in achieving your business objectives. The Communication Planning Tool divides the analysis and planning procedure for any communication into five sections.

1--Participant Analysis: looks at the people, tasks, and goals involved
2--Audience Analysis: looks at the questions the audience will want you to address
3--Package Analysis: looks at the best way to package and deliver your message
4-- Segment Analysis: looks at the different sections or parts of your communication
5--Step Analysis: looks at the different steps involved in preparing this communication

Using the Communication Planning Tool
As you fill in the blanks in the Communication Planning Tool, the challenge comes from thinking and reflecting on each point. One of the biggest mistakes many unsuccessful communicators make in creating documents or presentations is to ignore these concerns or to address these concerns in a trivial or casual manner. Such poor planning often leads to misunderstandings and documents or presentations that fail to achieve the communicator's desired objectives.

For experienced, effective communicators, planning becomes second nature. Research indicates that a significant difference between more experienced communicators and less experienced communicators centers on the fact that experienced communicators have accumulated well developed strategies they consistently use to help them plan and create their various communications. Experienced communicators have techniques they call upon for planning and executing documents and presentations. Experienced communicators also realize that spending some time on the planning process benefits them in terms of increased communication effectiveness and amount of saved time overall.

Whether you are an experienced writer and speaker or have less experience than you would like, this tool will immediately improve your planning and help you create more effective business communications.

Businesses, business people, and business communications are task and goal driven. Whenever you write a document or prepare a presentation, you need to be clear about the people, tasks and the goals involved--especially your task and goals. It sounds simple, but unfortunately many ineffective communicators agree with this point in theory, yet they ignore this common-sense point in actual practice. Before starting to write any document or create any oral presentation, effective communicators spend some time analyzing the different communication tasks and goals to develop some essential information necessary to communicate well.

Successful business people have clearly defined tasks and goals and realize that written documents and oral presentations serve them as a means for accomplishing their tasks and goals. Some people argue that every time we talk or write we have an objective or goal in mind. In business, successful communicators always remember that their documents and presentations help them achieve their goals or objectives.

These following questions will help you analyze the participants, tasks and objectives:

1. What is My Position?
Although your official job title might read "front-line manager," you may also be an advisor to clients, a spokesperson for the company, a consultant for a co-worker, an official in a company-sponsored community organization, and so forth. The important point remains that our communication positions and roles vary in connection with each situation and our intended audience. You are not a different person when you communicate, yet you play many different roles and hold different positions.

2. What is My Measurable Objective?
Whenever you set out to communicate anything in business, you have to be clear about your objective (or high-level goal). Otherwise, why waste your time? Ask yourself, "What is it I want to accomplish?" And be sure to follow that question with, "How would I measure the successful completion of my objective (or goal)?" For example, an entrepreneur who wants to launch a new business might set a measurable objective of raising $10 million in venture capital to start the new business. Successfully raising the money would be the ultimate completion and measure of an effective business plan, business plan presentation, and negotiation sessions. Another example would be a marketing manager with a measurable objective of increasing market share by 11% in a particular region within two quarters. Successfully raising the company's market share within two quarters would be the ultimate completion and measure of a successful marketing plan and campaign.

3. What Immediate Action Do I Desire from Audience?
In addition to a high-level, measurable objective (or ultimate goal), you want to be aware of the immediate action you desire from your audience. For instance, the immediate action an entrepreneur would want when submitting a business plan to a venture capitalist would be follow up contact that that reflects interest in the proposed business plan. The immediate action a marketing manager would desire after submitting a marketing plan to upper management would be a request for the manager to present the plan to upper management at a meeting--or in some exceptional cases outright approval of the plan, forgoing the presentation. Identify the precise action you want your audience to take. In other words, don't state that you want your audience to understand your training program when you actually want the readers to contact your firm to purchase your company's training program. You might find it useful to fill in this blank: "I want my audience/reader to ____________________________."

4. Who is My Audience?
Identify and describe your audience. You can't create successful documents and presentations until you know who you are addressing. Identify your primary audience first, and remember that sometimes you will need to consider secondary audiences, too. For example, besides the shareholders, an annual report has a number of important secondary readers that include industry analysts, the Security Exchange Commission, stockbrokers, employees, the general public, the media, and competitors.

5. What is my Audience's Objective (from their perspective)?
Identify your audience's objective (or goal). A big part of your communication task involves making it easy for the reader to make a favorable decision. The better you understand what your audience wants and needs, the better able you are to create an argument that will also help you achieve your objective (or goal). For example, a venture capitalist might have an objective of increasing the number of high-return, manageable risk investments that can be offered to clients.

6. What is my Audience's Immediate Task (from their perspective)?
In addition to the higher-level objective most successful business people adopt, audiences usually create an immediate, lower-level task for themselves when reading documents or listening to a presentation. For example, in reviewing new business plans, a venture capitalist might have an immediate task of identifying "potentially good" business investments for clients. Here, qualifying good investments might include 1) assessing the investment's potential to generate a return on investment (ROI) that's greater than typically found in other modes of investments, 2) evaluating the viability of the management team, and 3) estimating the need for the product or service. In this case, knowing the qualifications procedures venture capitalists employ helps an entrepreneur build a more successful business plan.

When you communicate in business, you want something. Your audience is not any different. Your audience always wants (or needs) something, too. You increase your chances of getting your desired action from an audience when you spend some time planning and anticipating your audience's needs. An effective strategy explored in this section involves anticipating the kinds of questions people would want to be addressed given the communication you need to deliver to them.

Yet anticipating the audience's questions and giving them the answers they want and need is not enough. As audiences read documents or listen to presentations, they make decisions, agreeing or disagreeing with points, while actually in the midst of reading or listening. Typically, audiences do not withhold decision making until the communication is finished--that's often when others are merely informed of the decision. The point here is that it's important to know that leading audiences to take action (i.e., make a favorable decision) is a process--a gradual, incremental process. And, your arguments should follow a gradual and incremental process, as well. Persuading audiences to take action, then, requires a carefully constructed argument that steers the audience bit-by-bit to accept your answers to anticipated questions and then prepares them to move step-by-step onto the next logical question and response. Since successful arguments that lead to successful decision-making and action grow on the audience, the order you choose to deliver your content and arguments becomes significant. The most effective communicators build arguments that lead audiences to take action by taking advantage of insights into the audience's decision making process, helping the audience make small decisions throughout the document or presentation that lead to the final desired action at the end.

Audience Analysis Procedure
It helps to visualize and construct an argument by first examining some of the questions you anticipate the audience will ask and then placing the questions in an order or sequence that allows you to build an argument that follows a logical or chronological sequence. You'll probably add additional questions as you create the sequence you want to follow.

First, identify and list the questions that your audience will pose while moving through their decision-making process. Then, establish the priority you'll use to order the questions--for example, "What is the most important question or issue your audience must have answered before it will respond favorably? What does your audience need to know next?"

Second, determine how you will respond to each question and make notes about each response.

The packaging and delivery of your message is as important as the message itself. A report that rambles on and buries the very information the audience wants to see or hear will annoy the reader and negatively impact your message. Packaging a 10-minute presentation and delivering it as a 45-minute talk that drones on will negatively impact your message. The packaging of business messages involves attending to details that ineffective communicators overlook as they rush to focus on the message. Here are some things you need to consider as you package and deliver your communication.

1. How much time would an audience devote to this communication?
One of your audience's constraints concerns time--or, actually, the lack of it. How much time do you have to grab the audience's attention before they set aside your document or tune out your talk? How much time, assuming you've grabbed the audience's attention, can you realistically expect to keep the audience's attention?

2. How long should I make this communication?
Given the time the audience might devote to your communication you need to determine how long the document or presentation should be. Use the 50% rule. If a person might devote 20 minutes to a report, limit the pages in the report (excluding the appendix) to what a person can read in 10 minutes--and make the executive summary readable in one minute! If an audience might actually spend 30 minutes for a presentation meeting, keep the actual presentation under 15 minutes, saving time for questions and discussion.

3. What format and impression should I create for this communication?
People are always impressed with accessible formats and high quality--whether looking at a memo, letter, report, or oral presentation. Too often, we tend to focus only on the message and neglect the wrapper that surrounds the written message or the oral message. The quality of the wrapper enveloping your message starts communicating to the audience (and, in turn, making an impression on the audience) long before the first word is ever read or heard. Memos, letters, reports should follow conventional, easy-to read formats established by the company or a suitable style handbook. When you are trying to create a favorable impression, it pays to use the best quality you can afford in your communication. If you cut corners to save money on paper, covers, binding, transparencies, flip-charts, easels, presentation equipment, and so on, you communicate an unwanted impression to your audience. The same holds true for the quality of the printing, copying, layout, art work, visuals, color, computer images, and other design features relating to documents and presentations.

4. What tone should I adopt for this communication?
Whenever you read any document or listen to any presentation, a distinct tone can be discerned. The time to think about tone is before you prepare the document or presentation--not as a one or two sentence afterthought. How do you want your audiences to "hear" your tone--as assured, confident, decisive, determined, encouraging, enthusiastic, friendly, inviting, motivating, optimistic, positive, promising, resolved, responsive, supportive, sympathetic, understanding, upbeat, warm? For instance, a corporate campus recruiter might decide he needs to sound warm, friendly and inviting during a recruitment talk.

5. What visuals should I include in this communication?
When used sparingly, visuals make a dramatic impact on audiences. Determine whether icons, pictures, charts, graphs, or other visual aids will further address your audience's questions and make it easier for them to take the action you desire. Keep in mind that you want to include relevant and persuasive visuals that interpret, dramatize, or simplify your argument.

6. What additional materials or contacts are necessary for this communication?
Frequently, one communication alone will not allow you to realize your business objective. For example, sending a resume rarely results in an immediate job offer. The resume and accompanying cover letter merely begin the audience's decision-making process. Successful resumes, at minimum, are followed by an on-site interview and then some level of negotiations. To maximize your chances of success, think about the additional material that should accompany your primary communication. List the materials and make certain each piece of your communication groundwork here provides your audience with new and usable information--avoid redundant materials. Although you want audiences to be able to associate all your material, you want to avoid repeating the same points over and over again. Identify additional contacts or communications that allow you to follow up on your primary communication and tap into your audience's decision-making process. Since you want a specific action from your audience, you will want to keep the communication channels open. Often, your additional materials and contacts allow you to maintain your audience's interest and lead your audience to take the action you desire. For example, you will want to send a thank-you letter to an interviewer after an interview. Or, you might wish to telephone a client to hear the clients's early reactions to a new product.

7. What theme (explicit or implicit) drives this communication?
Developing an overall theme for every communication helps successful communicators remain focused on the purpose of the communication and helps them link the arguments in different sections or parts to the whole. A good theme lets acts like the hub of a wheel that connects seeming unrelated material in a document or talk. Marketing Associates using an overall theme of "Launching this new product benefits the company" helps foster an obvious audience objective and offers the writer an easy way to focus and connect the arguments in different sections of a marketing plan or presentation. While preparing a section that discusses projected market share increase, the successful communicator uses the theme to concretely translate how that increased market share will directly benefit the company, and when preparing the section on costs, the marketing associate easily adds an explanation of the benefits the company will realize for the expenditure.

Documents and presentations are longer arguments built on blocks of smaller arguments. One useful strategy for constructing arguments relies on addressing the audience's needs. Audiences wants effective responses to their questions, and they need them presented in a logical (or at times chronological) order. Looking at the audience's questions and needs (section 2 above) usually provides an easy-to-use set of core segments that will help you organize and structure your document or presentation. In addition, you need to consider what other arguments or information the audience will need to help them make take the action you desire. For example, a longer business report might require an executive overview, an appendix, several subsections related to the core audience questions, and even a table of contents.

After completing the sections above, you should be in a better position to assess the different pieces of this communication puzzle and know what pieces of the puzzle you have in hand and what pieces you need to research, find, create, outsource, etc. The more carefully you complete this section the less time you will spend backtracking--or worse, the more time you will spend delivering a communication that wastes everyone's time.