Image by Klimkin from Pixabay
Over the years, you learn that time and energy are very precious. Here is how I am setting goals and working smarter, not just harder. As you all know by now, I work in the area of communications and for those of you who do too, I am sure you are familiar with the question “What is it that you do exactly?”.
“Communication” is such a broad term that it is not surprising that people just don’t know what we communicators actually do. That’s fair enough. After all there is a wide spectrum of tasks that could all be included in “communication” (both internal and external ones) and many different specific jobs titles that illustrate a range of different skill sets.
This leads to the topic of this article. If like me, you work alone in communications in your organisation, or have a very small team, and a mountain of tasks, then you will find yourself doing multiple jobs and being constantly under pressure to perform across a range of vastly different areas.
Therefore, if we are going to be effective and efficient at our jobs, and not suffer a burn-out, we need to work according to a plan. We need to be smart.
I recently went on a training course offered by the Norwegian Communication Association (Norsk Kommunikasjonsforening) in Bergen on planning, targeting and evaluating communication work. It was an interactive day, conducted in Norwegian by Svein Inge Leirgulen, with a lot of useful advice, material and homework to take back to your desk.
The main aim of the course was to teach us how to create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based) goals for our communication work. This way everything we do fits into a plan and we avoid drowning in ad-hoc tasks which, at the end of the day, do not matter (as in they do not align with these goals).
One of the key messages from the day was that we need to learn to say “no” to suggested activities or tasks that do not directly contribute to the SMART goals set out for our communication work. Communication work all too often equals aimless hustle and bustle (“kommunikasjonsarbeid = formålsløs travelhet”). This is an important take-home message.
Another point which really struck home, and which I needed to hear again, was that communication needs to work closely with management. If we as communication, public relations experts are not seen as relevant in strategy development, if we do not know what the future directions of the company are, then we cannot properly carry out our jobs. Communication activities should be directly linked to organisational goals.
We explored and used the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework tool, which is an evaluation method which shows the effect that communication work has on the objectives of your organisation. It can be divided into three areas: preparation (aligning organisational and communication objectives & informing and preparing communication), implementation (activities), and measurement and insights (measuring activities, audience response and effects, and finally organisation & stakeholder impacts). I invite anyone to consult and use this helpful evaluation model; there is even an interactive online version.
I have since spent a considerable amount of time trying to fill in this tool for my current employer, CESSDA, though as mentioned during the course, I cannot do this alone. It is very much a joint activity which I look forward to developing further together with a handful of colleagues. The organisational and communication goals should then be shared in a comprehensive and clear way with all employees. These should be goals that everyone can get behind. This would be communications done right.
The question which the trainer put to us when he introduced the concept of SMART goals and goal hierarchy was the following. Why should you measure and evaluate your work? And the answer is that you should plan, set goals, target and evaluate what you do, as that way you will save time. Basically, you should do what you need to do, achieve what you want to achieve. Then you drop the rest.
I would love to hear your thoughts so please do comment below. If you would like to share your experience or ideas with me, contact me directly on LinkedIn or here.
