[00:00:56] Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode. It's wonderful [00:01:00] to have you here, not just listening, but leaving your reviews, sending me questions and topic ideas - please keep it coming. In today's episode, I'm going to tackle a challenge I know many comms teams face, and that is lack of resourcing. I've worked in and with nonprofit organizations, which run off the smell of an oily rag.

[00:01:22] So they are already pretty resource poor when it comes to communications broadly, let alone internal communication. Interestingly, though, in these organizations, I do find people get pretty creative and innovative because they have to work with what they've got. And I've also found that many leaders do their own comms a lot of the time simply because they just have to.

[00:01:45] And as a side note, that's one thing that shocked me a little when I went from a nonprofit organization to a comms team in a major corporate. I could not believe the amount of handholding that was going on for senior executives in terms [00:02:00] of their comms. Honestly, it was next level. I think, yes, there is a time and a place for that, particularly when there's sticky issues that you're dealing with; but the day to day or typical leader comms, honestly, I think you should just have the capability to do that yourself with some good advice from your expert comms people or your EA. Right. But I digress anyway. So. Yes, non profits and community organizations have to try and get a lot done with very little.

[00:02:28] But I've also worked in big corporates where they go through a restructure and hack away at the comms team, leave a few survivors standing, but then expect them to offer the same level of support that they always have and their stakeholders are used to receiving. Does that sound familiar? The fact is, most teams are not operating with the capacity they would love to have.

[00:02:50] I'm sure we'd all love to be doing much more for the people we serve, particularly those who work in house in organizations. But [00:03:00] circumstances very rarely change, so we have to find ways to deliver great work while still supporting stakeholders and driving organizational strategy from the inside out.

[00:03:10] So in today's episode, I'm going to share some ideas that have worked for me in the past and for my clients when we've had to deal with very limited money, resources, time, team, team members, but had to achieve a lot. So let's dive in.

[00:03:27] The first step. Any team needs to take is get clear on what you will prioritize and what you won't. Putting those guardrails in place is so important, but even more important is to actually stick to them. So if you're the kind of people who say yes to everything, because it's hard to say no, you're going to have to get used to being a little uncomfortable for a while. There's two key things to consider when working out what you will prioritize.

[00:03:54] And the first is: how do you want to position yourself as a team? If you want to be seen as [00:04:00] strategic advisors who work on the big juicy stuff, then you need to prioritize the work that supports that position. So no more copywriting monkey or prettying up presentations, okay?

[00:04:10] The second thing is: how you can support the organization's priorities? So when you can show a direct link between the work you do and helping the organization achieve its business goals, you show the value of strategic communication. So with that in mind, I suggest coming up with a framework that clearly outlines your priority areas. I've done this for a couple of clients and organizations I've worked for, and it really helps everyone get clear, not just your team, but your stakeholders and your clients as well.

[00:04:40] Now, usually the way I do it is a three tier framework. So tier one is top priority, and that's the stuff you get stuck into. And we usually define that as activity like building the CEO's internal brand, driving the organizational strategy, crisis communication. But typically this is work that's group wide or [00:05:00] impacts are as important to the entire business. It's really strategically aligned to business goals and reputation management.

[00:05:07] Tier two might be where you offer more of a light touch support. So that's like when a leader has developed some communication already, or they know they have to communicate something and it's not strategic at the organizational level, but it's important to their part of the business. So they might come to you for strategic advice, reviewing their messages, but you will not be doing all the work for them.

[00:05:30] Then tier three is where basically you don't get involved at all, but you offer a suite of self service tools, which I'll get to shortly. So that's kind of for more of the low level day to day BAU communication that most team members undertake. I strongly recommend you sit down as a team and think about a framework like this, then educate your stakeholders on it. That's really key because then they know what kind of service you can feasibly offer while still feeling like there is some level of support [00:06:00] for them out there.

[00:06:01] Also, as I said earlier, you need to stick to this! You must keep each other accountable to the framework because the minute you do one favor for someone, it sets a precedent. And a small tangent here, it's not unusual to also have someone do some name dropping to try and get you to do work that's outside your remit or priority.

[00:06:22] So for example, the CFO wants this done, so you have to do it. The first step is to actually check that because unfortunately I've had experiences where senior leaders had actually tasked that person to do the work and they basically didn't want to and tried to palm it off or the senior leader had no idea this person was asking us to do something and they knew how busy we were and wouldn't have asked.

[00:06:44] So do a fact check before you say yes. Also, if it really must be done because of some extenuating circumstances, then ask them. Well, what comes off the table? Because to make room, something has to be deprioritized. So make it clear what the options are. So for [00:07:00] example, if we spend time on this, that means we won't be able to get X, Y, Z done by the time you wanted it.

[00:07:06] What do you want to do? So put it back on them. Okay, so the next tip that I alluded to earlier is creating a set of self service tools. So these are a bunch of templates and guidelines and educational materials that reflect the most common requests or where you see the most butchering of your brand.

[00:07:26] The way I've done this before is to set up an intranet site with a range of templates like posters, invitations, agendas, etc. I've also created a set of templates for leaders. So templated emails on a new team member joining the team, team members leaving, changes to roles, et cetera. This is where you would also include your writing style guide and your brand guidelines.

[00:07:49] So everything is together in one place. And a good way to get started on this is to do a quick audit of the most commonly asked for support that you [00:08:00] could be realistically getting done by the person requesting it. So if they had a template to get them started, they could do it. You might have examples of work you've done for your internal clients that you can just repurpose into templates.

[00:08:12] You don't have to overcook it or go to a huge amount of effort to set this up. You can also think about developing some other short guides, like top tips for writing good emails, top tips for presentations, and so on. The big thing to remember. Is it's not a case of created and they will come really the big effort here goes into the change piece.

[00:08:33] You need to make people aware of what's available, show them the benefit and support them to start using it. So changing some habits. So run a few webinars for the key internal stakeholders in the business and anyone else who's interested and show them through all the templates you've got available.

[00:08:51] The guidelines for using them, etc. Help them see that this will actually save everyone time. There will be less back and forth between them and the comms [00:09:00] team. And you've already done half the work for them by creating the template. Sometimes people just need something to get them started. And that leads me to my next tip, which is build the capability of people in the business to be better communicators.

[00:09:15] And this is actually how I got started as a workshop facilitator. A company I worked for had very smart people who were very poor communicators, and it was having a big impact on employee engagement and communication with external stakeholders. And it was just me as the marketing and comms person. I was the comms team.

[00:09:34] I simply couldn't do everything for everyone, so we had to build capability. So I developed a training program and started rolling it out across the company. And over the years, as I moved organizations, I kept evolving that training program because surprise, surprise everywhere I went, there was a huge need for upskilling. And at my last corporate job, we had been through another big restructure and the internal comms team was slashed.

[00:09:59] [00:10:00] And yet we were still getting loads of requests for support, especially because people were just used to getting a certain level of help, so they'd never needed to build their own skills, right? So we had to bridge a gap, and part of that was the self service tools, but part of that was also just building capability in the business.

[00:10:18] So people had more confidence, they communicated better, and they had less reliance on us, especially, as I said earlier, for some of that more low level day to day stuff. The training was in person workshops, but also webinars, which we then recorded and put into the self service hub on the intranet. Those webinars were just really short, punchy topics like how to write a great email or an introduction to our company, writing style, or how to format a great looking email, et cetera.

[00:10:46] Now I'm not saying you have to go spend time creating your own training program, especially if the thought of facilitating a workshop gives you hives. But I was just lucky that I actually really enjoy that stuff, but I was... [00:11:00] always had leaders who supported the idea as well. So look at ways though, that you can support your internal stakeholders to build capability.

[00:11:08] It could be giving them a few training options from external providers that they could invest in right through to suggesting podcasts or articles to read, which again, you can then post that stuff on the self service hub. So my other tip for resource poor teams then is to consider how you can use artificial intelligence tools to bridge the gap.

[00:11:30] I won't go through all of these in detail because I've done this already in a previous episode. If you go back to episode 21, I've shared some ways comms pros can start to use AI in their work and keep themselves relevant. So have a look at that on your app that you're listening to this on or go to heymelcomms.training/021. But for the purposes of today's topic, I highly recommend a couple of AI tools to consider. And the first is, as you might have guessed, ChatGPT. [00:12:00] It is a great place for your internal clients to get started. If they're struggling to write a report or an email, get them to have a go with Chat GPT first, then they can tweak it to suit their needs.

[00:12:12] Then run it past you. If they want it empowers them, it saves you time. The other tool is called Tango.us. I've been using this a lot recently and I love it. So this helps you document processes that you can then share as training or self help tools. So for example, how to edit an internet site or how to use a template you've provided.

[00:12:33] And my final tip for today is just get creative, look at what you have and think about how could I use that more effectively? So, for example, could your intranet homepage pull through more relevant content for specific groups of people? Or could it be redesigned in a way that makes it easier? Easier to consume information.

[00:12:53] Are there features of existing platforms that are underused or just haven't been turned on yet, but they could be really useful? [00:13:00] Are there other people in the business who aren't in a comms team, but have expressed an interest to learn and you could use them to help deliver some work or tools as well?

[00:13:10] Creativity is not artistic ability. It's innovative thinking and problem solving and wondering what if, so what if we tried something different? Not only do you get an opportunity to hone that kind of thinking and skills in a resource poor team, but with that mindset, you can actually achieve really great things. And it's a mindset that's going to be of value wherever you go.

[00:13:34] So, it's time for a quick recap of today's episode. If you're in a resource poor team, ways you can still help your clients achieve without being overwhelmed by work, include, number one, determining what you'll prioritize and what you won't. And I've suggested starting with a three tier framework that positions you as strategic comms pros. Not copywriting monkeys who pretty up presentations.

[00:13:59] Number [00:14:00] two, setting up self service tools like templates and guides to take care of the low level work and give people confidence to get it done themselves.

[00:14:09] Number three, investing in capability building of stakeholders. So whether that's you upskilling, bringing in an external provider, or just suggesting other resources to help your stakeholders learn and bridge their skill and confidence gaps.

[00:14:23] Number four is thinking about how you might use AI tools to take care of some of the tedious work or to empower others to get started.

[00:14:31] And number five, get creative - look at what you have. Think about how you could use it more effectively.

[00:14:38] So that's it for today. Hopefully that's given you a few key ideas you can start to mull over and perhaps think about implementing in your own teams. I mean, speaking of self service tools and templates, my free 12 month comms toolkit is still running and you can join any time and you'll still get access to the tools that I've already sent out. I've sent out a bunch of templates. There's more coming through [00:15:00] until December of this year. So head over to heymelcomms.training/freebies and you'll be able to access it there or I'll pop a link in the show notes as well.

[00:15:09] But as always, if you have any questions or topic podcast, please get in touch. I'm more than happy to have a chat. In the meantime, have an incredible week. Keep doing amazing things. Bye for now.