Communicating difficult information to members/unit holders
/In my *cough* 22 years of financial communications, I’ve learnt quite a bit, made a few absolute shocker^ mistakes, and have developed a framework along the way that now makes comms quicker, easier and more importantly, less risky for the organisation.
Here’s what I’ve learnt. First, last and the bit in between (!) YOU NEED A PLAN. Yes, I know, you’re in a rush and you just have to get the damn letter written.
However, even 30 minutes planning can save you a massive amount of heartache down the track. Ideally you’ll get the plan reviewed before you start writing any comms, but even if you are the only person who ever reads it, it will still help you deliver significantly better results for your customers and your business, which should always be the overarching goal.
Your plan should include:
Business objectives – Why are you bothering?
Comms objectives – What do you want people to do as a result of these comms?
Stakeholders – both the people receiving the comms and anyone that needs to know about the comms, both internal and external.
Key messages – Obviously.
Calendar/timetable. (sometimes this is down to the hour and that’s OK!)
Risks and mitigants.
Unfortunately, nearly all of these are ignored too often. And you know what? It always bites you on the bottom as a result. Let’s go through them:
Business objectives. Without these, you don’t have agreement on why you’re even writing the damn comms in the first place. Which then means that when you try to get signoff, it’s going to be very tricky.
Comms objectives. You must have a clear idea of what action you want the recipients to take. Often it’s ‘do nothing’, which is fine, but make sure that everyone is in agreement with that objective.
Full list of stakeholders. Stakeholders get VERY upset if they feel that they should have been told before the comms went out. I have seen this so many times. It’s not only poor form, but it’s also career limiting. Severely career limiting if you really stuff it up. And it’s not who you think should be told, it’s the list of the people who believe that they should be in the know. I have seen this mistake derail very sizeable projects and it’s always a sh*tshow as a result.
Key messages. Enough said!
Calendar/timetable. It’s often only by writing this out that you realise that you’re going to be crunched for time at some point during the process. Better to figure this out up front and devise a different plan of action than fly by the seat of your pants and piss everyone off around you.
Risk management. Yes, I know, it’s boring. However, as we all know, we are working in a highly regulated industry, often communicating highly fraught information. This is not the time to just assume everything will work out. And if you know something bad is probably going to happen, the act of writing it down and sharing it with the project team/ management will raise the issue early, and help cover your butt if it does actually happen.
So that’s your plan sorted. Then, the actual comms. Here are a few of my favourite tools/tips that increase your chances of success. (I’m assuming you can actually string a sentence together here).
If you don’t need the person receiving the comms to do anything, make sure you tell them! And up the top, not over the page.
Use subheads. It makes it much easier to read, especially when the recipient isn’t that interested and just wants to get the gist of it.
Keep it brief. If you need to explain more, have FAQs or ‘read more’ on the second page. Remember that the person reading this is standing next to the bin, skim reading your letter, deciding whether to throw it out or keep it.
Short sentences/short paragraphs/no jargon. See ‘bin’ explanation above.
Don’t assume ANY knowledge. During the GFC I wrote a short piece about ‘how banking works’. You know the drill: ‘deposits come in, they are then lent out as mortgages’ etc. The compliance team couldn’t believe that something so bleeding obvious was required, but you know what, financial advisers loved it because their clients just didn’t understand the basics.
If it’s bad news, just say so. Honestly, your average punter really does appreciate just being told what the situation is. We are all busy, stressed and struggling a bit at the moment. Don’t make it worse!
Get someone to proof read everything. Please.
And lastly, before anything goes out the door, go back to your original plan, check that you’ve done what you said you were going to and check that ALL the stakeholders have been notified. Missing a key stakeholder will turn your fabulous comms into a dumpster fire, and nobody wants that.
Really great member/investor communication isn’t rocket science, but it certainly benefits from some thinking, planning and editing. Like most things I suppose!
So next time you’re in a massive rush to just ‘get it done’, or you’re hassling a colleague or team member to do just that, take a deep breath and remember that even a small amount of planning up front can deliver you a much better result, and a whole lot less rework later.
^ If you’d like to know some horror comms stories (both my own plus some doozies I’ve seen over the years), you’ll have to buy me a coffee. I have a whole list but I’m not writing them down anywhere…