Effective communication in schools and districts is complicated by the fact that what we are communicating is often complex. In addition, our audiences are often varied and the way in which our stakeholders wish to receive information differ from group to group and person to person.

With this in mind, whenever you communicate, whether you communicating something on a one-time basis, perhaps a change in the curriculum, or creating a full-scale communications plan, do not begin with what you are communicating or how you will communicate. Instead, start by determining why you are communicating in the first place and what success looks like for your communications effort.

Start every communications effort by asking these two questions: “Why are am I communicating?” and “How will I know if my communications efforts have been successful?”.

If you do this in all of our communications planning, you will find that your efforts become much more effective.