Have you been in the situation, where you said to yourself: “So, who will be interested to know outcomes of my initiative?” It can be change you work on, it can be personal goal, or team project to improve any process.

This article covers

• Communication plan project
• Communication types
• Standard communication in the project
• Crisis communication
• Communication plan Excel template

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Communication plan – project

After reading of this article you will be able to decide

• Who to communicate to
• How often to communicate
• Which channel to use
• What message to deliver

Prior you jump into planning your communication, make sure, you have well defined your project goal with his opportunities and scope.

People have tendency to overcomplicate communication plan. Make it simple and use common sense.

There are many people involved in six sigma projects. Or any projects. Project sponsor, team, stakeholders, customers, process owner. See, there are many ways of communication project lead must face. One of the most key project manager skills thus, is – effective communication. To be effective, it is great to know which message you need to deliver to whom.

Check out my article about Project Charter

Project selection – calculator

I recommend you testing project idea on project calculator, I have developed based on my training experiences. It will help you to determine, how demanding leading project will be for you.

Selection tool downolad

You can download selection tool on the link below:

Communication types

There are two different types of communication:

• Standard, normal communication when project is going according expectations. There is a space to use leading principles. People are having free hands to do their job as they are used to. If there is goal to meet at the corner, people can choose their way to get there.

• Second is a Crisis communication. Is directive. There is one person giving orders to the rest. Is used in a case of emergency. You would not start explaining in a case of fire, that it is very important to leave the house. You would just yell orders, right?

How to use Pareto Rule examples (+ template) – read here

Standard communication in the project:

In this section we will focus on communication plan development.

To make communication planning easier, keep project goal always visible.

List down all roles and names, you need to communicate to. Here are the most typical ones. All these roles are identified during project charter creation.

Then take in consideration what message in the project lifecycle will each role require, how often and what channel you expect to use to deliver information. Project sponsor is key person supporting project progress who helps to overcome road blockers – problems project team is facing. I suggest weekly one to one 15 minutes updates.

There might be also some actions you will require from each role. List it here too.

This is my standard communication plan for each role with important message, frequency and channel used.

Non-value added acitivities in the office?- read here

Crisis communication

Crisis communication helps to be prepared for nonstandard and critical situations. Like a fire. It can be emergency situations, like what to do if somebody gets injured. It can be financial crisis, too. These situations are very sudden. It is crucial to have identified responsible owner for particular situation, with detailed reaction description on each situation. Regular training of all team members or employees helps in quick and adequate reactions.

There are very little or non like sudden situation in lean six sigma projects. If project plan, finances, resources are planned and reviewed carefully you will not face any of them. If you have some suspicion, like a due date will not be met, share it with your sponsor. Try to propose, or find solutions together.

Advice for beginners

Advise for beginners in project leading: be more careful in preparing communication plan.

Create it by following mentioned recommendations. As you become more and more experienced, you will spend less time preparing and will be enough to think about it only. However, I strongly recommend reviewing this point in every project you run. Create your standard communication plan and use it accordingly.

Communication plan Excel template

This is what you gonna download. THere is template and example incoluded

And here is promised link:

I do videos, blog posts, and all templates for free, in my free time. I will appreciate if you can donate me a cup of cofee, for more energy in my creation. (1 dollar counts, too 😉 Click on this link: I would like to support Erik in his effort

Do not forget to visit and subscribe my YouTube channel. There are short explanatory videos to Six Sigma topics and tools uploaded regurarly.

Do not hesitate to post your comments, questions, or themes you are interested in.

Yours sincerely Erik