When we are leading a coalition, we can feel like we are always talking about what we are doing and can sometimes start to think that everyone else knows what we are doing too. 🙂 Even though we can be easily overwhelmed by emails, if there is infrequent and only occasional communication with only a few coalition members, the overall coalition will lose interest and engagement. It can be easy to communicate so frequently with a small group working on a specific project that you forget to communicate with the larger group. Even though you may be sending email updates to the larger group, if they are not part of small or large group conversations, they may not feel connected and engaged. Also, if you are relying primarily on written communication, some of your members may not be actually reading your material (I know, I know…how can that be?!). It is easy for all of us to experience Partnership Pitfall #8 Under communicating. Join me this week as I highlight three steps you can take to work toward overcoming “under communicating.”
- Review your current coalition communication efforts. What are your primary communication methods? How frequently are you communicating? Who are you communicating with utilizing these methods? Are you sending a weekly email newsletter, are you hosting monthly workgroup meetings, do you meet quarterly with your overall coalition? Spend some time reflecting and writing down your communication efforts.
- Assess communication satisfaction. Utilize the information you organized from your review of coalition communication efforts and develop a brief electronic survey, schedule one-on-one time with 5-7 members, host a small group meeting to discuss coalition communication and/or review the results of your electronic survey during a large group meeting.
- Apply what you learned. You may not have capacity to do everything your coalition communication assessment recommended; however, you can start with one suggestion from your assessment. Consider implementing either the most common recommendation you heard from your coalition members and/or the one that is easiest and most feasible for you to implement.
So, what about you? What are you going to do this week to either assess your communication efforts or apply what you have learned from your coalition regarding communication efforts?
If you haven’t yet downloaded my current worksheet, Overcoming 10 Partnership Pitfalls, click here!
If you missed my Facebook Live on this post, check it out here!
