Mel: We're now getting to the pointy end of the year, and realistically, when you factor in time off over Christmas and New Year, there's only a few weeks left to get your planning done for 2026. I know that's a scary thought, especially when you have probably still got a lot of things you need to get done by the end of the year.

But if not now, then when, if you are feeling super busy, overwhelmed, and like you're treading water now, then that is not going to go away in 2026 unless you take the time to set some goals and boundaries. I know, however, that when you're feeling under the pump, it can be hard to know where to even start with something like this.

So today I'm going to share a simple step-by-step plan to developing your 2026 team communication plan. Now, whether you're a big team, a little team, geographically, dispersed team, or all of the above, or anything in between, this plan has you covered. So what are those six steps? Stick around to find out.[00:01:00]

Hello, friend, and welcome back to another episode of Less Chatter, more Matter, the communications podcast. My name is Mel Loy and I'm recording this on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people here in Meanjin, also known as Brisbane, And on today's episode, I'm sharing how to create your team's plan for 2026.

Before we get into what's in the plan though, let's talk about how this plan will come together, and this is something that you absolutely need to do together as a team because you want your team to feel like they have a sense of ownership over the plan too. Also, they will often have really good ideas you can incorporate and good intel from around the business that you should be considering.

They also have to agree and align with your goals because if they don't, it's going to be really, really hard to get them to work towards them. So this is something that you need to get them involved with from the start. I would also consider looking externally for inspiration as well. Now in this highly [00:02:00] connected world, you do not have to look far, see what others are focusing on in the comms world by following some key people or agencies on LinkedIn.

Checking out some of those articles on future predictions from places like Gartner. Uh, attend networking events. There's heaps of those at this time of year. Or getting an external facilitator to help guide the whole team. Sometimes just having that external voice can be a game changer because it makes a safe space safer for everyone.

The point is bring in some external perspectives because it is really easy to get stuck in our own bubble and in the process miss out on some opportunities. I would also suggest this planning session be a half day an offsite event if you can do it. The reason being that it's too easy to get distracted by the work you have on your plate already if the meeting is in the office.

So maybe even make it an enjoyable session, like doing it over brunch. Bring a bit of fun to it. That's never a bad idea. So that's a few considerations [00:03:00] on the logistics. Now let's get stuck into what should be in your plan, and I've got a little surprise for you at the end of the episode, so make sure you stay tuned for that.

So step one, align your team goals to the business goals. And we've talked about this before in episodes, particularly around measurement, where we want to make sure that whatever we are doing is actually contributing to the business, achieving its goals. That is how we add value as strategic professional communicators.

So what you should be doing is looking at your work's goals, and that will be in things like strategic plans, it's probably in the annual report, all those sorts of things. And look at, well, how can you as a comms team help to deliver on those goals? Now, you won't be able to deliver on all of them. There may be a few that are really focused for you and others that you just have very little influence over.

But that's exactly the point. Think about what do you have influence on? What can you contribute to where do you have some control? And at the end of the year, what would you have achieved to [00:04:00] deliver against those goals? So this is where we're looking at things like. Uh, the reputation, how much people trust you as a business, what people say about you when they're leaving the business or when they're joining the business.

All those things that help to improve the bottom line, improve attraction as an employer, but also retention of staff as well. But ultimately, how have you helped to deliver on the organisation's strategy? So this is where when you're setting these goals, you also need to think about measurement. And again, I won't wax lyrical here because I have spoken about measurement at length a number of times on this show.

You can go back and listen to any, any of those episodes, but think about impact measurements. So if you achieve these goals, what's the impact that you will have achieved and how will you know that? So this is less about we have to put out three media releases a month, and you know, three. Uh, social media posts a day and X number of people read the intranet.

They are output measurements. They're not [00:05:00] outcomes, which is what you've achieved. So you've achieved a goal, but then the next level is what's the impact of you achieving that goal? So what is the impact for the business, for your people, for your customers, for other stakeholders as well? So that's step one.

Look at the business goals, and then as a team work out well, what are our communications goals? That are going to align to those business goals so we can really show value as professional communicators. Okay, so step number two. So you've done the first layer, you've set up your goals, the big picture things, the big ticket items that you're going to achieve.

The next step is to set your deliverables. So this goes against all the goals that you've set. And hopefully you haven't set too many as well. I should have said that earlier. Like everything, you wanna make sure this is feasible. So setting 10 goals. Probably way too much, three to five, probably a sweet spot because then you've gotta have deliverables against each of those goals.

So this is step two. What will you actually produce or do to help [00:06:00] achieve those goals? So for example, maybe you've got a bunch of events in the pipeline, maybe you're looking at new ways of reaching people, getting more feedback and acting on it, all those sorts of things. But again, check if those deliverables are feasible.

There are a lot of things we can do, and we often put everything in there with the best of intentions. But if you don't have the resourcing and you don't have the tools, is it doable? So really think about in the context of everything you've got and everything you need to do. What is feasible to achieve.

Now, if you're not sure, little tool here, you can use just a really simple two by two matrix. So along one axis, you've got... strongly aligned to goals versus weekly aligned to goals. And along the other axis, you've got, we have the resources and capability already versus we don't have them. Now, if these deliverables that you are coming up with are strongly aligned and you have the resources, then great.

Do those things, [00:07:00] but if they aren't strongly aligned and you don't have the resources, they're just a nice to have, they're not really gonna help you shift where you need to go. So again, think about what are the deliverables that you're going to put out there that you're going to achieve and do to achieve those goals and make sure that they are feasible when you do those.

So that's step number two. So again, we're, we're going down in layers here. So the first layer was the big picture stuff. It's the goals, it's what you're going to achieve in the end. Then we've done the deliverables, so the activities that we're actually going to undertake to achieve those goals. And from that, you can actually extrapolate and come up with a nice big action plan.

But we're not quite there yet because the next layer down is your enablers. So step three, determine your enablers. So your enablers are things like. What are the capabilities that you need to build in order to achieve these goals? So these might be capabilities you don't have on the team already, or some people have.

So we need to factor [00:08:00] in learning and development, but also potentially. Recruitment for specialist roles, and we know that the landscape of work is changing. There's, you know, much more interest in data analytics and AI and automation and all those sorts of things, and maybe you need some of that specialist skill, or you need to build that specialist skill on your team in order to enable you to do the things you want to do.

And I would suggest that particularly with data. The ability to mine data from good sources throughout the organisation to get more if you need it, and then to analyse it and make it useful for you as a team. That is a skill you should be looking at investing in. So apart from the capabilities, other enablers are things like what are the platforms or technology that you currently have and what would you need to make this happen?

What budget might you need? So think about things like, okay, have we got the right scheduling suites in order to our social media posts? Have we got, you know, a version of SharePoint that is most up to date and actually useful [00:09:00] for people, not just us as the, you know, the guardians of it, but the people who, who matter, the user, end user as well.

Do you need more, uh, ability to do more ab testing with your messaging to really find out what works and what doesn't, particularly during change intent? Do you need things like... Uh, specialist tools that you can use to help whiteboard, to help other people build strategies, all those sorts of things. So do a bit of a tech audit and compare that to the deliverables that you want to do and the goals that you want to achieve.

And think about where the gaps might be. Now, it could be that you've got platforms in tech there that you're just not using to the best of their ability yet. So again, this can tie into that capability piece, building capability to use those tools more effectively. And the third thing that's within the enablers category are your ways of working.

So as a team, how are you going to communicate? How are you going to meet And make sure that you are sharing learnings that you are [00:10:00] making sure that you're across the things that you're across at the right. People are involved in the right projects at the right time. What are your processes for reviews and approvals, and how do you make sure those things are nice and quick and easy when they have to be like in times of a crisis?

So this is that sort of fundamental layer of how do we do what we do every day with each other? This is really important because this is, can, you know, this kind of ways of working can make or break teams, especially when you're under pressure. You want things to be running smoothly. You want to know...

What works, what doesn't. You want to know how often you meet and when you do that, but also one thing that teams often don't do and very rarely do actually when you form a new team or when you onboard new people, is talk through, well, what do we do if we have a disagreement? What do we do if we don't agree on a particular point or a direction that we're heading in?

What do we do if two people just aren't getting along for whatever reason? Think about those processes as well. How will you as a team, [00:11:00] Commit to having challenging conversations to commit to having conversations that enable real time feedback that people don't get hurt by? So that's a really important part of that.

Ways of working, how will you handle disagreement? So that's step number three, determine your enablers. So there are all the things we're going to do. Step number four is what we're not going to do. So step number four is setting your boundaries. When you come up with your plan, as I said, it's not just about everything you are going to do, it's about what you won't do as well.

So if, for example, you have a goal as a team to position yourselves as strategic advisors, that you'll no longer be part of that servant master relationship, that you just do the doing, you do the pretty up the PowerPoint stuff. If that is one of your goals, Then think about what your boundaries are. So what are the things you're going to say yes to, and the things you're going to say no to as a team.

[00:12:00] This is really important because what tends to happen is this is where this busy work comes from. That leaves you going back to exactly where you started treading water, overwhelmed, super busy, just doing tactical stuff, not stuff that actually really adds value, et cetera, et cetera. And people get burned out.

People don't feel like they're achieving as much, they're not as motivated, and you lose good people when this happens. But the reality is that, you know, we often just go back to these cycles because it's what we know. Because it's what we've allowed the business to expect of us as well. There's a bit of learned helplessness here in businesses.

I see it all the time. So part of this is when you set your boundaries, again, what will you do? What won't you do? Think about, okay, what's strategic versus what's BAU? What's critical versus non-critical? Because there is critical BAU stuff, right? Like keeping the lights on type of stuff. But there's also critical strategic stuff, which should take up a lot of your focus.

But if it's non-critical and it's BAU, the kind of prettying up [00:13:00] the PowerPoints, bs, that gets thrown over the fence, that's a no. Two things we have to say about this, number one is that you have to stick to this. You have to keep yourselves accountable to these boundaries, accountable to what you will and won't do.

Because the second you say yes to something, it sets a precedent that people then come to expect that you will keep doing those things. The second thing is you don't actually have to say no. And I realise that's a really uncomfortable place for people all the time. They get asked to do something and they don't wanna say no because they wanna keep people happy.

So it's a bit of people pleasing that goes on, or you know, whoever's asking 'em is the head honcho of blah, blah. You don't have to say no, but you can redirect. So for example, you can say, look, we don't do that, but here's a tool that can help you do that for yourself. Or have you asked, blah, blah, to see if they can support you with this work.

Uh, you can also say, look, we don't do that, but here's a template for you [00:14:00] to help, for example, so redirect them. It's not like you're saying no outright, you are actually giving them another option or you say, yes, and while we're doing this, so for example, again, let's go back to the prettying up the PowerPoint, because it just happens all the freaking time.

Somebody throws that over at you and says, can you work your magic on this PowerPoint? And you know, all they want you to do is tidy up the pictures and colours and that sort of thing. But if you can see an opportunity here to add real strategic value, then take it. So it'd be like, yes. And while I'm there, I'm also going to be looking at the messaging.

I'm going to be looking at the story that you're telling, blah, blah, blah. Now any person worth their salt is gonna say, oh, thank you, that's great. Others will be like, no, no, no. I just want you to pretty it up. If that's the reaction, give 'em a template. See you later, mate. So again, this is about setting real boundaries that will help set you up for success in 2026.

Step number five, reward and recognition. Again, this is something that gets forgotten a lot when we do our plans for the year [00:15:00] ahead, but this is about really positioning your brand as a team, again, as experts. So internally. Think about, well, how will you share your own wins and learnings as a team? You know, you probably do have some great wins that you can share amongst yourselves with key stakeholders in the business.

Uh, but also you learn a lot of those from those things. So make sure that you're sharing those in formal and informal ways as well. Just make sure you're doing it because we don't wanna gate keep knowledge either, but externally. Look at what awards are out there that you could potentially submit an entry to.

So are there industry awards or awards offered by bodies like IABC or CPRA or Change Management Institute that your team could potentially apply for and why not? You know, the worst that can happen is you don't get picked, but ing, you're gonna be fine. But on the flip side, you could get shortlisted, you could win an award, and that's something you can talk about as an individual and as a team as well.[00:16:00]

Um, look at, are there any external speaking opportunities where one of your team members could, you know, hop on a panel, share a case study, those sorts of things. This is really important, as I said, for your brand as a team, but also if we go back to positioning yourselves as experts and strategic advisors, having this external recognition goes a long way to building internal recognition.

It's ridiculous, but it works. Okay, so that's step number five, reward and recognition. And the final step, step number six, is get buy-in from your stakeholders. It's gonna be really hard to do what you want to do if. There are particular people in the organisation who are your key stakeholders, like your CEO, your CFO, whoever it might be, who aren't aligned to this plan either.

Now, look, they don't have to be involved from the start. Absolutely not. This is more about giving them the plan, talking them through it and saying, this is what we're going to achieve for the business. [00:17:00] This is what we're going to achieve. For you in your role as CEO in your role as CFO. It's about positioning it about them, not about you as a team, right?

And at the end of the day, this is building your business acumen as well. This is one of the key skills we have to have as corporate communicators is business acumen. So you need to be able to talk their language. So when you do present this plan back to whoever those key stakeholders. Not only is this getting agreement and alignment, but it is an opportunity to showcase your strategic value because you're showcasing your business acumen.

You're saying these are the trends we're seeing externally. These are the goals that the business needs to achieve. You're talking in business terms, not in corporate comms terms. It just so happens that corporate comms is going to be enabler of those things, so again. Once you're happy with this, take it and share it with those key stakeholders and get their agreement on it, particularly if you do have a role for them to play.

So, you know, you might be [00:18:00] asking the CEOs do a bit more in video or whatever it might be. Uh, but again, we've talked about this on the show before, don't give them like a 1240 page plan, whatever it might be. They're not going to read it. We know that they're too busy and you know it, it's low list of priorities as far as most of them are concerned.

Get it on a one pager. And talk them through it so they can keep that one pager there. You've done your job and with any luck, they will keep that as a reference piece that they can keep referring back to as well. Alright, so it is time for your episode recap. So today I talked through six steps to build out your plan for 2026 as a corporate comms team, or a change team, or a change comms team, whatever it is your setup looks like.

But we started with talking about some of the logistics of the planning. So make sure it's offsite if you can, make sure it's something you're doing together as a team so they've got skin in the game. And also make sure that you are bringing in external sources so that you can really [00:19:00] talk to, well, what are the trends that are out there that we need to respond to or be aware of what else is happening that we haven't, you know, been made aware of?

Where are the opportunities for us? And then we got into the six steps of actually planning. So step one is align your team goals to the business goals. You are a strategic communicator. You need to add value to the business. As a team, how can your work as a comms team help to deliver the business goals?

Then step two is against each of those goals, list out the deliverables, the things you're actually going to do or produce in order to achieve those goals. Step number three is determine your enablers. So these are the capabilities, the platforms, the technology, and the ways of working that are going to set your team up to be able to deliver on that plan.

Step number four is set your boundaries. So again, the plan isn't just about what you will do, it's also about what you won't do so that you can focus on the stuff that [00:20:00] matters and you don't end up back where you started. Step number five, look at recognition and rewards. So internally, how do you celebrate your wins and how do you share your learnings, but externally?

Look at what awards are being offered by different industry bodies, by professional organisations. Look at speaking opportunities such as panels and case study presentations, for example. And step number six, get buy-in from your stakeholders. So make sure you're positioning this plan as something that supports them and the business goals.

It's not about comms, it's about the business. And it's your opportunity to showcase your value as a strategic communicator and demonstrate that you have business acumen. Okay folks, at the top of the episode, I offered a little surprise. So basically this is a little bit of a Easter egg, so if you've listened this far, good for you because you get to find out what the surprise is, and that is if you would like a template to help you with this plan, then please just email me.

I will send that over to you. There's no gimmicks, there's no [00:21:00] strings attached. I just love making templates, so get in touch. Otherwise, next week we'll be back with a fresh new episode of Less Chatter, More Matter. We have one more interview scheduled for the year and I'm really excited, to bring you this one, so look out for that.

In the meantime, keep doing amazing things and bye for now.