Build a shared understanding at the kick-off meeting of how the team will communicate moving forward. Gather expectations from team members and other state and local stakeholders about how they want to be informed of events and updates in the weeks ahead.
Lesson Learned: Identify multiple ways to communicate progress and gather ongoing feedback.
The work in Virginia confirmed the importance of communicating with all those concerned how the planning process was progressing. Frequent communications sent to stakeholder groups made it easier to recruit focus group participants and local strategic plan champions.
Here are some ways by which the project team can communicate with sponsoring communities:
-
Weekly status reports prior to commencing the focus group interviews,
-
Weekly conference calls, and
-
Quarterly face-to-face meetings.
Please see Appendix J for an example weekly status report.
Lesson Learned: Communicate progress to encourage participation from local practitioners supporting the statewide effort.
The focus group interviews in Virginia led to a continual increase in the network of individuals who wanted to remain involved and informed of the strategic planning process. The State Interoperability Office sponsored a Website to keep participants updated about the following:
-
Research results,
-
Federal resources, and
-
Focus session reports.
Lesson Learned: Identify critical junctures in the project plan where communication will be a key contributor to success, and schedule meetings to help the project team stay on track.
Virginia’s project team identified the meetings required to maintain alignment between the project sponsor and project team and resolve issues once the process was underway. When defining alignment meetings on the project timeline, include who should be involved, the purpose, and outcomes.
At this point, you have identified your project team, clarified each member’s responsibilities for the rest of the process, and have begun to create your project plan. You have also laid out the format for your focus group interviews, with only the logistics left to be finalized.