May. 13, 2008 at 2:20pm

Ration, tier or clone? Part one: anticipate

Posted by Kathleen Deakins in Internal Communications, Planning and Strategy
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What do we do when we can’t do everything we’re asked to do? (And no marketing or communications department can!) This question was on the minds of the health care pros we polled earlier this year as we planned our ThinkLab program. So when our friends in marketing and communications came together in Gig Harbor Friday for JayRay’s annual ThinkLab, they were eager to talk about practical solutions.

Anticipate-evaluate-negotiate
Using the “anticipate-evaluate-negotiate” framework, we talked about shifting from reactive mode to better support the organization’s priorities. We’ll cover “anticipate” today and cover “evaluate” and “negotiate” in later posts.

In many organizations, anticipating or planning is the key to sanity. Getting out ahead helps assure time and resources are available to tackle the most important projects.

In an example from the financial services industry, senior communications professionals at ING interview senior executives each year to identify priorities. They ask:

1. If we could support only three organizationwide priorities this year, what would they be and why?
2. If we supported your highest priority, what would it be?

Politics and business results
These questions work in interviewing care line directors, too. They help tease out what is politically important as well as what they believe will contribute most to business results.

Many organizations formally rank priorities. We found four- and five-point scales are common, from absolute musts to drop like a hot potato.

Hospitals often rely on policy and process to exert some control over unrealistic demands. Organizations with the strongest policies require that all marketing dollars and staff must be in marketing’s budget, and they require significant projects must be budgeted in advance.

Secret dollars
Savvy marketers carve an “opportunity fund” out of their budgets to assure there is money available to address unanticipated opportunities and problems. Some find it’s best to keep the existence of the fund a secret to reduce demand.

Next time, we’ll cover some expected – and unexpected – criteria our friends use to decide what level of resources to devote to a project.

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