Communications Management
Improve performance amid uncertainty, complexity, change, intense competition and limited resources.
For leaders, organizations and businesses
Deliver your purpose and mission | Manage your communication functions | Support improved business results. |
A comprehensive, strategic, systems-based and people-centred approach to strategic communications management.
Manage your communications better. Earn results.
Communication performance may be the single most important driver of organizational and community outcomes today.
So why doesn’t every business and organization communicate well? Why doesn’t every communication function deliver as expected? We certainly have the technology, tools and practices.
There reasons for these challenges. And there are things that leaders and teams can do about them.
Some issues live within communication execution. But many are upstream of that, in situation analysis, strategy, management and mindset. Communication functions operate within internal and external environments that set a ceiling on performance.
This means that in an era of transparency, in order to perform like a good organization you’ve got to be one. And that means you need to go beyond the simplistic basics of strategic communications focused on a single program or campaign. The real strategic approach today is comprehensive, enterprise-wide, integrated, systems-based, and people-centred. It creates a foundation for the strategic management and tactical execution of individual communication programs.
BBrunton offers communication management services, ideas and counsel. BBrunton helps your team plan and act in accordance with your capacity, people, values and objectives.
Integrated communications management allows you to be more than just the sum of your parts.
A program-based communications strategy is the minimum requirement for results. It is a basic logic model taught in first-year college. But it has limits which we are now seeing.
A comprehensive, systems-based approach offers interconnectedness and the emergence of benefits or outcomes from those connections that are not present in the individual programs alone. The keys to enterprise communication success are located within the frameworks and processes of integrated communications management. They can be identified, located and addressed.
You can’t control market conditions, the economy and social change. But you can be entirely in control of your thinking, your strategy and the management of your communications functions including how you support your people. .
Address business issues and pressures. Currently, many of the major business and organizational issues identified by leaders are in fact communication challenges. | |
Achieve more business objectives. Communications functions exist to help the organization achieve its purpose and deliver its mission. The through-line is always business results. Identify KPIs and metrics that matter. | |
Understand your situation better. BBrunton’s situation analyses and reviews look at external and internal factors, opportunities and challenges. | |
Strengthen and simplify your strategy. Align business strategy and brand strategy with your strategic communication plans. Integrate your communication functions and programs through strategic frameworks. | |
Build trust and connection with audiences and communities. Apply the principles of audience-centricity, ethical engagement and social impact. | |
Be who you are. Express authentic, clear and compelling messages and narratives. Validate that through points of contact. | |
Build a great team. People first. Trust, empower and develop your communication professionals. Build internal capacity. Attract the generalists, specialists and experts you need. | |
Improve performance and execution. Everyone uses the same technology and applies the common methods and practices of digital marketing, content marketing and social media engagement. So how will your tactical execution separate you? | |
Benefit from ripple effects. The ripple effects of strong communication functions and programs are profound. They affect the team, the organization, and its leaders, but also its audiences, stakeholders and community. | |
Own the results. A collaborative and consultative process delivers ideas, support, and guidance as well as empowerment and accountability. |
Communication Functions
Bill has managed a wide range of communication functions:
- branding to achieve authentic relevance and differentiation
- strategy development to align communications with business objectives
- digital marketing to connect with the audiences that matter
- fundraising that effectively supports your purpose, people and viability
- government relations that engages with policy and decision-makers
- organizational communications to engage teams and internal stakeholders
- media relations to inform and engage external audiences
- community engagement to build legitimacy and trust
- crisis communications to manage risk and sustain key relationships
How BBrunton Contributes
BBrunton can work either as an external consultant using a standard consulting approach, or as part of your team. BBrunton offers:
- confidential counsel
- discovery through interviews, audits, document and data reviews, online research, workflow and process reviews, competitive reviews, audience perceptions, etc.
- situation analysis, looking at both external and internal business and communication factors
- strategic planning activities and processes including team engagement and meeting facilitation, strategy summarization and communication, and presentation
- writing and editing, in particular challenging or difficult texts
- management of projects, functions, groups or teams
Value is provided first by being an experienced professional who knows how to harness standard frameworks and processes, and work with people. Bill offers a quick learning curve and hands=–on experience addressing challenges, solving problems, taking action while building strategy.
Value is also provided be introducing and integrating new ideas and approaches. Communications is facing a range of challenges, which are being addressed by leading thinkers in a variety of ways. BBrunton offers these for consideration as appropriate.
Confidentiality and ethics are fundamental elements of BBrunton’s approach.
Bill Brunton at your service
Competence, insight and effective management
Bill Brunton has been successfully managing communications functions for more than 30 years. Bill is driven by the satisfaction he gets from an effective communication strategy or a strategic insight that pays off with tactical results.
Bill has become good at this work from aptitude and long experience. He is an experienced business and communication professional with a reputation for strategy, insight, innovative thinking, effective management, and results.
In his career, Bill has led virtually every communication function. From marketing and business development to community engagement and advocacy. From fundraising to internal communications and crisis communications. Bill understands how these functions work and how they work together.
Bill draws on a range of successful consulting and leadership experiences in a diverse set of industries and sectors. Bill has been a business owner, an agency executive in marketing and PR, a non-profit executive and a manager in government. Bill has worked with elected officials and their staff, boards and board leaders, senior executives and managers, owners and partners.
Groups and sectors BBrunton has served
Client experience
- executives and managers addressing strategic issues, challenges and choices
- business owners seeking to improve performance
- communicators, marketers, fundraisers striving for better results to support their organizations
- boards providing effective counsel and support to their C-suite
- elected officials and their staff responding to constituency and policy issues
- stakeholders concerned about policy directions and impacts
Sector experience
- non-profits seeking impact and viability (health, social, environment, arts)
- government organizations serving communities (municipal, provincial depts and agencies, economic development)
- professional services firms seeking to generate opportunities (accounting, engineering, executive search)
- associations and chambers supporting members and building support for their sector (business, professional, industry)
- education organizations meeting the needs of learners and communities (school districts, colleges)
- businesses meeting the needs of their markets and segments (development, IT, tourism, energy)
Connect with Bill.