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Organizational Change And Communications Research Paper

Urban Communications Plan There are essentially three stakeholder groups for the communications plan. The City in the sense that whatever plan is communicated will in part hold agents of the city accountable for following through on whatever promises are made in the plan. The second is the incoming people and those interested in moving to Oakland. False controversy over migration is something that can dissuade people from coming to Oakland and investing in the city. The current residents, especially the nimby-types who are complaining about change, are really a tertiary group in the communications plan. The second group is really the most important target for the communications plan at this point because the City wants to encourage continued investment that will create jobs, decrease crime, and increase the quality of life.

These main stakeholders may be newer residents of Oakland, but they may also be people who are considering moving to Oakland. Perhaps most important are people who look at the area's shifting demographics and are considering starting a business in Oakland. Leveraging lower rents, Oakland can begin to attract start-ups, artisanal businesses and other engines of job creation.

SMART Goals

The communications plan has to have some specific goals. Marriage to the idea of SMART goals, however, ignores the fact that not all knowledge is capture in finite, measurable numbers. There is nothing smart about blindly tossing out numbers and calling them goals. There has to be a "why." So first it is advise to consider the overarching goal, which is to change the narrative from one that conveys a message that newcomers and change are inherently bad, to one that embraces Oakland's arrival as a modern city. The reality is that global cities all of the world are facing these same changes, with sharp increases in housing costs, rapidly-changing neighborhoods, and complaints from people who aren't prepared to adapt to change. Oakland can't stop global economic forces; it's messaging cannot convey sympathy for foolish attempts to do so. People who don't want to adapt to the way the world is today honestly have no hope of winning, and their lashing out against "others" is exactly what the City doesn't not want to help facilitate in its messaging. So the City really needs to change the tone and narrative of this discussion towards the fact that newcomers are diverse, they are families, they create jobs, they bring money into the city, and they result in lower crime rates and a higher quality of life.

A key element to creating SMART goals is to know where you stand today. This is especially needed for a plan that aims to change perceptions -- your goals will likely have a starting point and an ending point. In other words, you can't increase something 10% if you don't know the current level. So before setting out SMART goals, some formative research is required, so that the evaluative research can be compared...

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First, there will be measurable output goals associated with each element of the communications plan. That just means targeting the number of tweets, Facebook posts, ad buys, blog posts and other such outputs. Output targets simply hold the communications department accountable to a certain level of production, to ensure that this program does not fall by the wayside or become superseded by other priorities -- that whatever content strategy is put into place is executed consistently over time. This should include goals about measurement and testing, as well as raw output. That means setting goals around the number of A/B tests you will do, or to ensure that you develop -- and can accurately track -- x number of meaningful metrics. In other words, you don't start with SMART goals; you have to understand why you want to track those measurable and make sure that you actually can. "Measurable" doesn't just mean "quantitative," it means you have to be able to accurately measure it, and that's easier said than done for really intelligent communications objectives.
Some goals that are a good starting point for this communication s plan are:

• 1 blog post on the City website each week about the positive nature of change

• 5 tweets per week about something positive relating to the change.

• Increase Twitter followers by 100% in 1 year

• Increase positive Twitter interactions by 50% in 1 year

• Increase website to traffic to our Invest Oakland portal by 200% in 1 year.

• Increase positive opinion of Oakland among people who live elsewhere in the Bay Area by 10% within one year (need a baseline survey)

• Shift the balance between positive and negative stories in third-party media by 20% within one year

• Increase awareness among current Oakland residents about City services to help them within one year (job training programs, etc.) to 75%

• Increase awareness among renters of renters' rights to 50% within 1 year.

• Add one local Oakland high school graduate to the communications team

These are just a sample of goals. It is expected that there would be quite a few more goals, both pertaining to output and to results. Results-driven goals are important because they give focus in terms of the messaging, and they set important targets. Communications managers at the City can change tactics if their approaches or messaging are not showing results.

Schedule for Communications Plan

This communications plan is set for one year, at which point new goals will need to be set. The overall messaging will probably continue for many years, but for the plan to have meaningful SMART goals, it should only last for one year so that fresh goals can be set against next year. There should be a month-by-month schedule for rollout. Some activities will be ongoing, such blog posts and tweets. But there also needs to be an schedule for the communications plan to take it through the year.

Q1: Create Local Awareness

• Create new slogan for the City around the message

• Train key civic leaders on the message to ensure consistent delivery across all platforms, including media spots

• Use State of the City to further elaborate on key elements of the message

• Support…

Sources used in this document:
References

Anderson, L. & Anderson, D. (2015) Six faulty assumptions about organizational change. Change Leaders' Network. Retrieved April 30, 2017 from http://changeleadersnetwork.com/free-resources/six-faulty-assumptions-about-change-communications

Bradley, J. (2017) Measuring communications objectives. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved April 30, 2017 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/measuring-communications-objectives-74909.html

ILO (no date). Guide to writing SMART goals. International Labour Organization Retrieved April 30, 2017 from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_mas/- -- hrd/documents/instructionalmaterial/wcms_393392.pdf

Macnamara, J. (2011) PR metrics: How to measure public relations and corporate communication. AMEC. Retrieved April 30, 2017 from http://amecorg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/PR-Metrics-Paper.pdf
Stucky, S. (2014) Do you know your communications objectives? Well Said Communications. Retrieved April 30, 2017 from http://www.wellsaidcommunications.ca/communications-objectives/
Westminster (2011). Evaluating your communications tools: What works, what doesn't: The Westminster Model. City of Westminster. Retrieved April 30, 2017 from http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/Newdocstores/publications_store/communications/evaluating_your_comms_aw_lr-1319206316.pdf
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