Planning Grid Tips
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These tips are based upon problems common to student planning grids:
- Goals should express only the desired outcome.
They should not express the strategies and/or tactics used in achieving
them. When you do this, you run the risk of muddying the message.
- Express only one goal and/or stake at a time.
Clarity is the purpose of this exercise. If you attempt to jam in
too many points, you run the risk of muddying the message.
- Be explicit when identifying publics.
Remember, there is no such thing as a general public. For stake and
message, it is recommended that you use complete sentences. Complete
sentences are, by definition, a complete thought.
- Do not target yourself.
You are representing the management of the client organization. While
it is OK to target your client's employees or membership, do not target
its management or board of directors. The assumption here is that you
already have control in these areas.
- When describing each public's stake, describe it in terms of that public's motivation -- not your own needs.
For example: Just because you need volunteers, that doesn't mean that
the public's stake is "a need to volunteer." People volunteer for a
reason. What is it? In other words, the stake needs to address the
motivating force that volunteering would satisfy.
- Use precise, explicit language.
While some goals, stakes, messages and media are self-evident and
require little or no explanation, that is not always the case. If the
meaning or context of your answer is not clear, its will be marked as
being incorrect.
- Use parallel language.
The message must reflect the language used in the goal and the stake.
Remember: You are not writing a tag line to appear in advertising copy.
You are writing a positioning statement.
- Don't confuse tactics with media. Media are the specific channels of communication used to carry out the tactics.
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Updated August 8, 2012
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Copyright 2010 - David Warner Guth