Communication Strategies in Program Implementation

Ever missed a turn on a road trip… just because your co-driver forgot to speak up? 🛣️🗺️ Now imagine that happening in a high-stakes project. One missed message. One delayed update. ➡️ And the whole team veers off course. That’s the danger of poor communication during change. In project execution—especially when stakes are high and stakeholders are many—communication isn’t a milestone. It’s a constant. 🔄 📊 According to the Project Management Institute, project managers spend 90% of their time communicating during the implementation phase. Why? Because change doesn’t succeed in silence. 🎯 Picture this: You’re a project manager at Google, leading a transition to a new cloud storage system. If communication isn’t clear, timely, and tailored to every stakeholder—from IT to finance to legal—confusion spreads fast. Deadlines slip. Trust erodes. ✅ Best practices for communicating change: Start early, update often Tailor messages for different audiences Create feedback loops to surface concerns Be transparent about risks and decisions 💡 Great execution isn’t just about what you do. It’s about what—and how—you communicate. #ProjectEconomy #ProjectManagement #ContinuousLearning 🎯💡

Over the past few months, I have led a significant project at Coronation Group — the communication of our evolution from 13 entities within an ecosystem, to a unified group structure, with the issuance of a Capital Market Holding Company (CMHC) licence by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This pioneering step solidifies our position as Africa’s investment management powerhouse and enables us deliver a tough-to-match suite of investments, lending, and insurance services to our customers through one integrated platform. It was a rigorous process that culminated in a landmark event at the Nigerian Exchange Group. Dealing with diverse financial service areas, corporate governance, and regulatory requirements across entities, I had to learn, unlearn, and relearn. In a subsequent post, I will share ten (10) steps & tips I picked up, to help my colleagues in Strategic Communications navigate similar engagements. Just to preview some of these steps & tips:    1️⃣ Engage widely: Go beyond the broad stakeholder groups - regulators, boards of directors, customers, employees, and media. Go granular. Seek guidance from Directors, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Compliance Officers, Company Secretaries, other key employees across the businesses, to identify each stakeholder, understand their interests & expectations. Do not assume you know. Always have a notebook at hand.    2️⃣ Set the scene: Build on an established foundation. Before the transition announcement, generate interest in the media by profiling validators and highlighting accomplishments across the group of companies. Replicate this across the countries and regions where the businesses operate.   3️⃣ Mind the flow: Considering the sensitivity of a corporate transformation, the order and timing of communications is crucial. After regulatory approvals, go top-down and inside-out. Board memos should precede employee townhalls. Customer letters should precede press releases. Your team cannot do without a realtime tracking tool. 4️⃣ Repeat, repeat, repeat: Be consistent in your language choice and messaging across the website, intranet, memos, letters, press releases, presentations, social media posts, and talking points for spokespeople. Resist the temptation to vary your wording. Over time, you will notice your stakeholders adopting the same words. This signifies alignment and makes you smile as your mind says, hmmm I wrote that 😆    Above all, it takes a village to achieve a successful corporate transition. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my colleagues & partners whose deep expertise, guidance and support made this happen.   I am grateful for the trust and leadership of our Chairman/Founder, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. He awarded my team and I an “A-Star🌟” in his Announcement Address. You bet I will have that video handy during my next appraisal discussion😁   #StrategicCommunications #CorporateCommunications #CoronationGroup #YourProsperityPartner

I’ve spent the last decade building global MarComms programs within large, complex companies. Here’s what I’ve learned about activating internal partners and making quick progress toward goals: 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁. Focus on winning allies across the organization by understanding each colleague’s objectives and finding ways to support one another. Don’t worry about empire building. On paper, you may have a team of two, but in reality, you’ll have 50 people in your corner helping bring your vision to life.   𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱. When starting a position, quickly run a situation analysis and develop a hypothesis for the change that needs to take place. Even as your full strategy remains in development, identify and share a few core principles that can immediately unite your community. 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝘅𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗺 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻–𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘀. Folks in Greece may have a different idea for bringing a program to life than the team in Kuala Lumpur or Canada. It’s important to articulate non-negotiable standards while allowing for maximum local/regional flexibility. Results will be better if local teams feel empowered. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰. Communicate openly and often about your progress. Use internal communication channels to celebrate wins and recognize key players; make them look good to their managers. Host regular meetings to gather your internal community and even consider a light newsletter to share updates. When appropriate, communicate externally on LinkedIn – this can actually yield even greater internal momentum. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝘁𝘀. Within large multinational companies, it’s common for a team in one part of the world to be wrestling with an issue that a team elsewhere has already faced. With a global view, if you can connect colleagues across boundaries, you’ll speed up problem-solving – plus, you’ll achieve goodwill, which feeds back into the community-building efforts mentioned above. #Marketing #Communications #SocialMedia #Leadership

The healthcare landscape is filled with brilliant insights and promising pilots that never scale. As human-centered designers, we excel at uncovering needs and creating compelling solutions—yet implementation remains our greatest challenge. Transforming promising pilots into widespread practices represents a profound opportunity to shape healthcare's future. When innovative approaches successfully scale, they create ripple effects—enhancing patient experiences, improving outcomes, and often reducing burden on care teams. Our opportunity lies in developing implementation approaches as thoughtful as our initial designs. Institutional inertia often presents the first major hurdle. Overcome this by starting with targeted 8-week interventions that demonstrate immediate value. Identify informal leaders who shape culture—the veteran nurse or respected physician whose opinions influence others. Create visual artifacts that make pain points undeniable and build emotional connection to the need for change. Regulatory concerns require thoughtful navigation. Invite compliance partners into design sessions from day one, giving them ownership in finding solutions. Distinguish between actual requirements and accumulated practices—you'll often find more flexibility than assumed. Consider modular implementation where less-regulated components can advance first. Address the human element of implementation. Design changes that reduce workload in visible ways—for every new step added, eliminate two. Create a "change budget" that acknowledges the cognitive costs and limits concurrent initiatives. Develop frontline champions who receive dedicated time for implementation support. For measurement challenges, create simple dashboards that include both traditional and experience measures. Develop visual data stories showing impact through multiple perspectives to build a compelling case. Establish 30-day feedback cycles where users shape refinements. When moving from pilot to scale, build solutions with a stable core and flexible edges that adapt to different contexts. Document "implementation recipes" with specific steps and resource requirements. Connect implementation teams across sites to share adaptations and solutions. By addressing these barriers with practical strategies, we can accelerate human-centered innovation in healthcare—moving from isolated bright spots to transformative change at scale.

The success of a B2B marketing program depends on how effectively the CMO or VP of Marketing communicates the roadmap to senior leadership. Without clear communication, these programs often get shut down long before they have a chance to prove their value. Here’s the core problem: When there’s no defined path to revenue, profitability, and scale, leadership gets impatient. They’re expecting a sudden surge in leads or revenue within 30 days, and when that doesn’t happen, marketing ends up in the hot seat. This misalignment creates a vicious cycle where: ➡️ Marketing is pressured to show immediate results instead of building a sustainable program. ➡️ Unrealistic expectations lead to the premature shutdown of programs that might have succeeded with time. And ultimately, you set yourself up for failure before the campaign even begins. So, how do you avoid this trap? It starts with delivering a roadmap that doesn’t just outline the plan but addresses the expectations, benchmarks, and challenges upfront. Here’s what to include: 1️⃣ Reaffirm Pipeline and Revenue Goals Clearly communicate the specific pipeline and revenue contributions marketing is responsible for delivering. Set the stage for measurable outcomes tied to business results. 2️⃣ Break Down Metrics and Early Indicators Provide transparency around the leading and lagging indicators you’ll track. Highlight metrics like pipeline velocity and customer acquisition cost to give leadership confidence in the program’s trajectory. 3️⃣ Align on Time-to-Achievement Map out the expected timeline for each phase of the program, from early benchmarks to hitting revenue goals. Ensure leadership knows what to expect at every stage. 4️⃣ Address Potential Hurdles Identify major factors that could hinder performance—long sales cycles, market conditions, or pipeline velocity—and show how you’ll mitigate these challenges. 5️⃣ Be Transparent About Risks and Failures Acknowledge what could cause the program to fail and present contingency plans. Leadership needs to see that you’ve thought through every scenario, including when you’d pivot or shut down the initiative. 6️⃣ Communicate Resource Requirements Detail the tech, talent, and budget needed to reach each stage of scale. Make the investment roadmap clear so there are no surprises. When you deliver this level of transparency and alignment, you’re not just pitching a marketing program—you’re building a partnership with leadership. This clarity gives you the runway to execute effectively, avoids misaligned expectations, and sets a clear framework for evaluating success. Marketing programs don’t fail because they’re bad ideas; they fail because they lack buy-in and alignment. Show the roadmap, set the expectations, and prove the path to success.

11 Strategies for Physician Engagement in VBR transitions LinkedIn Colleagues, please share your thoughts... In recent conversations with healthcare leaders across the country, change management and the transition to Value-Based Reimbursement (VBR) have been top of mind. While some health systems are making strides, others are still early in their journey. I’m sharing some of their key strategies below, along with my own insights from decades of working with talented physicians: 1. Engage physicians early and often in the transition to ensure they shape clinical pathways and the implementation process. Their leadership and involvement is crucial for success. 2. Align Financial Incentives: Clearly communicate the financial and professional benefits of VBR. Compare physicians' current contracts with the new VBR structure and tie compensation or bonuses to quality metrics. 3. Physician Champions: Identify influential physicians to lead VBR initiatives. Their buy-in drives cultural change and helps communicate the benefits to peers. 4. Offer VBR and program education/training in a clear, jargon-free manner, tailored for physicians. Note: One MD shared that his “education” session was a PPT peppered with finance acronyms aimed at finance professionals rather than physicians. Sessions tailored for physicians work best. 5. Empower MDs with Accurate Data: Provide real-time performance feedback and demonstrate how their actions impact patient outcomes and cost savings. Relatable patient scenarios make the data actionable. 6. Communication: Ensure transparency with regular updates and feedback. This builds trust and keeps physicians informed about organizational goals. 7. Involve Physicians in Decision Making: Engage physicians in decisions that directly impact their work. This inclusion fosters ownership and commitment. 8. Simplify Workflows: Implement tech solutions to streamline workflows and reduce administrative burdens. Prioritize administrative relief before adding new tasks. Budget for resources and training to support these changes. 9. Recognize and Reward Engaged Behavior: Regularly acknowledge and reward physicians who demonstrate high levels of engagement. Recognition boosts morale and encourages others. 10. Build Relationships and Trust: Foster strong relationships between physicians and leadership. Frequent interactions and a supportive environment enhance trust and collaboration. 11. Segment the Engagement Plan: Tailor strategies to different groups of physicians based on their specific needs. A targeted approach is often more effective than a one-size-fits-all model. To my Physician colleagues—Does this list resonate? Is anything missing? I’d love your feedback! Leaders—What strategies have you found effective in engaging physicians in your organization? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! #Healthcare #VBR #PhysicianEngagement #Leadership #HealthcareInnovation KBKinetics.com

Project communications plans aren't change management plans Just because someone heard the message doesn't mean they understand it. Or are ready to act on it. As a PM, sending updates isn't enough. You have to guide people through uncertainty. Not just announce it. Here's how you can move from noise to impact: ✅ Engage Change is emotional. Ask for feedback. Listen actively. Make space for concerns before they become resistance. ✅ Repeat yourself (a lot) People don't absorb change in one slide or meeting. Say it again. And again. And again. Then in a new format. Clarity is built through repetition. ✅ Deliver the WHY before the WHAT When people understand the reason behind the change, they're far more likely to support it. Lead with purpose rather than process. If your communication isn't influencing behavior, it's mostly static. Build real buy-in to make real progress and impact. 🤙

Communication is the lifeblood of successful project management, especially when facing delays and budget overruns. When projects veer off course, transparent and proactive communication becomes even more critical. It's not just about conveying information; it's about building trust, managing expectations, and demonstrating accountability. By keeping clients informed of challenges, progress, and mitigation strategies, service providers can maintain credibility and foster collaborative problem-solving. This level of engagement shows respect for the client's investment and helps preserve the relationship, even in difficult circumstances. Moreover, consistent communication during project setbacks allows for timely adjustments and informed decision-making. It provides opportunities to reassess priorities, reallocate resources, and potentially redefine project scope or timelines. By involving clients in these discussions, service providers can ensure alignment on revised goals and demonstrate their commitment to project success. Remember, clients are more likely to be understanding of delays when they feel they're part of the solution rather than being kept in the dark. Effective communication in challenging times can transform potential conflicts into opportunities for strengthening partnerships and showcasing problem-solving skills. #ProjectManagement #ClientCommunication #TransparencyInBusiness #EffectiveLeadership #ProjectSuccess

91% of executives agree that improving corporate culture would increase their organization’s value. Organizational transformations often falter due to cultural barriers and employee resistance to change. Resistance to change is considered the single greatest threat to successful strategy implementation. Key Insights: • Cultural Alignment: Employees’ ability to navigate competing cultural norms is a significant driver of performance during transformation. Communicators can facilitate this by promoting a clear understanding of the desired culture and addressing any tensions that arise. • Change Communication Strategies: Effective change communication involves delivering pertinent information, ensuring message consistency, and enabling leaders to act as change accelerators. This approach helps in managing change fatigue and supports business transformation. • Employee Engagement: Involving employees in decision-making and implementation planning fosters a sense of ownership and reduces resistance. An open-source change management strategy, which is more collaborative and transparent, can decrease change fatigue and enhance engagement. • Leadership Development: Equipping leaders to operate in a more human way—being authentic, empathetic, and adaptive—is crucial. This approach helps in building trust and guiding teams effectively through change. • Resilience Building: Empowering managers to engage in transparent discussions about change and promoting resilience-building activities can help in managing change fatigue and achieving sustainable performance. The best way to implement these areas is to focus on the WHY and how the change will be advantageous for each audience. By focusing on these areas, organizations can shape a culture that not only aligns with strategy but accelerates transformation efforts. References: Gartner, Korn Ferry, Prosci, Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP Global), and Implementing Strategies