Some DOs of Effective Communication

Some DOs of Effective Communication

1. Analyze the issue at hand thoroughly before developing a plan: Find answers
to the following questions (within constraints of planning & budget):
• What is the character and extent of the issue?
• What are the causes of the issue? Try to distinguish technical from human
factors.
• What are the targets of the policy?
• What are the possible solutions?
2. Identify the role of communication in an early stage: In many cases this role is
regarded after plans are made, thereby, reducing the potential benefits of
communication greatly. Even though often communication alone cannot solve the
problem, it can be a supporting instrument in most situations when integrated in the
strategy during initial planning.
3. Know the target groups and stakeholders: Effective communication requires
knowledge of the parties involved. Find out the target groups and stakeholders and
study their knowledge, attitude, behavior and interests in the issue at hand. Experience
shows that if you don’t know the ones you want to reach, chances are high that
communication will fail to have the desired effects.
4. Define communication targets: Targets should make clear which results one wants
to achieve. It is essential that communication targets are SMART: Specific, Measurable,
Acceptable, Realistic and Time related. Communication targets can range from
involvement in problem-solving, to attention, knowledge, awareness, motivation,
behavior and skills. In most cases, communication will be used in combination with
other instruments to achieve the desired results.
5. Identify partners and intermediaries: In many cases it is costly, complex and
time consuming to communicate directly with the target group, especially when a large
audience has to be reached and when many different target groups are involved.

Communication in co-operation with partner organizations and through intermediaries
can have the following advantages:
• It can be more economical.
• Intermediaries/ partners can have databases with addresses and figures
of the target group so they can be reached effectively.
• Intermediaries can have support from a large audience or can have grass
root support.
• Intermediaries can have a reliable, solid image for the target group and
authority based on expertise.
6. Always pre-test: Ensure that the target group understands the messages and detect
unexpected interpretations of your message by pre-testing it. If there is no time,
personnel or budget available for a pre-test, conduct at least a ‘disaster-check’:
confronting a small number of people who were not involved in the development of the
communication plan.
7. Evaluate results: Evaluation is aimed at assessing the effects of your
communication efforts. Furthermore, evaluation can also be aimed at judging the
processes during the preparation and execution phase. After evaluation it becomes
clear which methods are most effective and most efficient. Furthermore, you learn how
you can organize and manage the communication process more effectively in the future.
Justification of communication efforts for the leaders of your organization and its’
stakeholders is another reason to evaluate. The results of an evaluation will point out
which future steps are necessary to be initiated.
8. Define the medium for the message: Since each medium has its own advantages
and disadvantages, one should define which medium can most effectively relay
messages. For example, the Internet may reach a worldwide audience and therefore
may seem to be the perfect medium to reach audience around the world, but the Internet
penetration in some countries is low. People who do not have access to the Internet

will not be able to receive the message. TV has a higher degree of household
penetration, but most TV broadcasts are local; in this case, TV may be a good medium
to reach a wide range of audience within a country, but not worldwide.
9. Establish a budget: Almost everything takes money or staff or support resources.
10. Think creatively: It is a sad truth that while conservation is important, it isn’t always
interesting. Communicators need to add sparkle dust to bring issues alive.