A Meaningful Communications Plan

A communications plan is a decision about reputation, made in advance.

Many guides to writing a communications plan move quickly to messages or spokesperson media training. That is the wrong starting point. Those are outputs of a plan. The plan is the thinking that precedes them.

This is just as true for Crisis Communications planning as it is for Reputation Management. The thinking still comes first; the starting point is different.

I like every communications plan to begin with a single question: What reputation do we want to have in three years? That is the Aim.

For a telco, a retailer, professional services, or a school, the question is the same.

Again, It is the same for a crisis communications plan crisis as it is for a company building its reputation – only the starting point is different.

The timeframe matters. The default is three years, because that is often how long it takes for an organisation to move from the plan to results.

A weak Aim sounds like a corporate spin: “to be recognised as a leader in our industry.”

A strong Aim is more specific: “to be regarded by federal policymakers and national media as the most credible voice on the challenges facing the sector, within three years.”

Context describes where we are. The circumstances, now, that make this plan necessary.

For KPMG Australia, for instance, a whistleblower’s allegations were that staff used confidential information from companies to help win rival tenders.

The context was that trust was already low. PwC Australia, KPMG UK and KPMG Netherlands had all been caught with cultures that led to misconduct, coverups, and then leadership that resisted reform until forced.

Don’t even think about a coverup, it would be inviting sacking by clients and punishment from Canberra, and the termination of innocent staff.

Guiding Principles are the rules we must have now. When someone in the organisation faces a difficult communications choice, the principles should answer the question as soon as they ask it.

Optus, for instance, had three serious crises in three years: a data breach in 2022, a network outage that disrupted triple-zero access in 2023, and a second triple-zero failure in 2025 linked to four deaths.

Guiding Principles might include:

Saving lives overrides everything: The moment Optus identified that triple-zero calls were failing, the primary question was: how do we restore the service and how do we tell people to find an alternative?

Speed is essential: the delay with the second crisis compounded the distrust, because the public had already learned that Optus is slow.

Say what you know: communicate quickly and accurately. Trust = Truth + Transparency + Traceability.

Actions before statements: Don’t announce reforms you haven’t made yet. Say what you have done. The worst outcome, when trust is already low, is to promise change that the next incident proves hollow.

(Wilkinson Group’s ‘rules’ are five behaviours: Excellence, Nimbleness, Creativity, Strong & Honest Relationships, Constant Learning)

The Aim describes the destination. The Context and Guiding Principles define where we are now. Objectives describe what must change to achieve our Aim.

Sometimes Objectives will be achieving a set of outcomes, such as the strategic objectives in a business plan.

Most often, however, the Aim can be achieved by addressing each stakeholder. The communications plan becomes a series of conversations with specific groups, each of whom has a different set of concerns.

For example, a school facing a rape crisis has many stakeholders (a sporting team can be similar). Not everyone is equal or reached at the same time, but each needs care.

Under the pressure of a crisis, this can be done quickly. The easiest way to start each is with the word ‘Ensure’.

The alleged victim and their family. Ensure the person and the family received direct, private contact from the principal expressing care and confirming the school’s cooperation with police, with counselling offered immediately, regardless of legal caution against engagement.

The accused students and their families. Ensure each family is informed promptly and privately of the school’s actions, their child’s procedural rights within the school, and the school’s commitment to protecting their child’s identity to the extent the law allows.

The classmates. Ensure students in the immediate peer group receive age-appropriate information from a trusted adult within the school, before they encounter the story through social media or playground rumour.

The broader student body and their parents. Ensure all families receive a communication that acknowledges the matter, confirms cooperation with authorities, states the support available, and demonstrates care rather than defensiveness.

Teachers and staff. Ensure every teacher is briefed on what the school has said, what they can and cannot say, and where to direct questions they cannot answer, so that no parent or student encounter receives an improvised response.

The board/council. Ensure the board is briefed on the facts, the legal exposure, the communications plan, and any decisions that exceed the principal’s delegated authority, before any public statement is made.

Media and social media. Ensure the school’s position is prepared, approved, and consistent with everything already communicated to the stakeholders above, so that when the journalist calls, or a post circulates, people already know.

Implementation is where the plan moves from intent to action. It answers four questions for each stakeholder objective: what is the strategy, what are the tactics, when will they be delivered, and what resources are required?

A strategy is the approach, not the activity. Strategy is a ‘how’; “Stay ahead of the narrative with regular national media commentary” is a strategy. “Provide a press release to the Australian Financial Review” is a tactic. The distinction matters because strategies survive changing circumstances; tactics are adjusted as opportunities arise.

Every plan requires three resources: budget, people, and time.

Budget is the most visible, but people and time are where most plans fail. Most organisations lose motivation, unless the CEO or board pushes for the long-term plan. What takes over is the pressure of day-to-day activities.

Be honest about resourcing at the outset. An under-resourced plan does more damage, because it creates expectations it cannot meet.

A communications plan is a few pages of text. Credibility is rebuilt through demonstrated action, not through statements.

• Aim: the reputation the organisation wants to hold, with a defined timeframe
• The Context: the background, environment, and pressures now that make this plan necessary
• Guiding Principles: the values and standards that, from now on, will govern all communications decisions
• Stakeholder Objectives: what each audience must think, feel, or do differently, with priority actions
• Implementation: strategies, tactics, timeline, and resourcing, typically phased over the programme term