Balance. It’s a word that’s come up in so many of my conversations lately. Many superintendents and communications directors seem to be striving to find balance – everything from trying to find the time to do the important things while also responding to the urgency of the moment to balancing perspectives, views and opinions among staff, board members and the community.
It’s a lot.
Sometimes our work feels a lot like Jenga. Imagine your work as a tower of blocks, each block a different task. In our field, our days hardly ever go as planned, and inevitably you have to remove a block and move to another part of your tower.
Maybe one day you skip social media – that block doesn’t disappear, it moves to the top of the tower. The next day, perhaps you delay your print deadline on your district newsletter – again, the block doesn’t disappear, it just goes back to the top of the tower.
Soon, your tower is filled with holes. How do you catch up? How do you fill them up? Or as Jenga says, “How do you stack up?”
The answer is, you can’t do it alone! The bigger your team, the better you’ll be able to fill the weak spots in your tower. Together you can make sure you don’t lose any blocks and each block has the biggest impact to build a strong and reliable tower of communications in your district.
Here are some quick tips of how we partner with districts as part of their team to build stable communications:
- Write and regularly update your strategic communication calendar.
Strategic and consistent communication doesn’t happen by accident. You need a plan and it’s ok if that plan changes! Make adjustments along the way to make sure your biggest impact blocks stay at the forefront and don’t get lost in the shuffle.
- Seemingly small things can make a big impact.
Take social media for example – multiple posts per day of students learning and engaging in the classroom may feel like an easy thing to skip when your day is crashing down but over time, it can start to bolster positivity in your community for your schools!
- Take a breath and talk it out.
Sometimes the most important thing you can do in communications Jenga is pausing to take stock of your situation before you act. Having someone in-the-know but outside of the situation can help you determine what your next best step is and how to keep your tower intact.
Interested in learning more about how the Allerton Hill Communications team can help your school? Contact us today.
