When assembling a team to put together a strategic communication plan, there's often uncertainty over who should be involved.

"You may be tempted to put together the strategic plan yourself, or with just a very small group of senior people," says Barbara Fagan-Smith, author of Strategic Planning for Internal Communicators. "But this is nearly always a mistake." She suggests the following checklist of invitees for a more constructive planning meeting with a higher chance of success.

Who needs to participate?
For your planning meeting, you need to invite:

1. Anybody who will be a part of implementing this strategy.
2. Anybody you need for the strategy to succeed.
3. At least one person from any group or function whose work the strategy will impact.

The checklist below suggests some of the people who might fall into these categories. You may question the wisdom of including so many people, but remember that inclusion is your friend, because more people will have a vested interest in making the plan they help develop succeed:

Your bosses
It may daunt you to have them scrutinize your goals and processes to the nth degree in a live meeting, but they're inevitably going to have a say at some point. Remember that they likely have knowledge and experience that can help you. And by including them at the outset, they will be less likely to question things later.

Administrative support
With the whole team "out of office" you may feel it's a poor use of resources to involve support staff in the meeting too. Quite the opposite. They, as much as anyone, will be fundamental to its execution – and they have direct experience of the day-to-day issues that may spell the difference between success and failure.

Non-communication professionals
You might think it's difficult to get people outside the communication team to participate, but this is rarely the case. The bottom line is that, if it's done right, this is a fun, energizing process. So put your best communication skills of persuasion to work when you're inviting people. If there's that energy up front – even if they don't have to participate, which is often the case – people will feel privileged to take part.

By the way, sorry you didn't receive your usual instalment of The Source last week, we were experiencing a few technical problem's. But don't forget you can access past issues any time you like from The Source archive.

See you next week!

 P.S. I'll be chairing Melcrum's Employee Engagement Conference in London on May 15, I hope you can make it!

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The Source for Communicators is a free resource for corporate communicators from Melcrum Publishing.
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