Planning and organising an environmental dialogue
6 How to prepare a plan for the dialogue
| 6.1 | Allocate time for preparation |
| 6.2 | Match the plan to your resources |
| 6.3 | Distribute the work |
A plan for the environmental dialogue will help you in your daily work. The purpose of the
plan is to systematise the dialogue in such a way that:
 | the environmental dialogue is not forgotten in the hurly-burly of the business day |
| it is the purpose of the dialogue that determines which means you use and not vice versa |
| the different means do not counteract each other |
| you gain a clear picture of activities and resources. |
The plan must cover a limited period – usually one financial year at a time – and the activities you intend to carry out in that period. The plan should be integrated into the company's sales and marketing plans and its environmental action plans.
As shown in the example, you transfer the stakeholders, dialogue objectives and communication means from the previous schedules to the first columns. Hints 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 describe how to fill in the last columns, which deal with preparation, budgeting and the distribution of responsibilities.
Stake- holders |
Dialogue objective |
Means |
Prepara- tion |
Hours |
Outlay in DKK |
Respon- sible person |
Selected custo- mers |
We must inform these customers between March 1 and July 1 about the advan- tages of a return scheme for our packa- ging and about a trial period and the price. |
Direct mail |
February 1- March 1 February 1- March 1 |
16 |
2,000 |
SM |
Suppliers of key products |
We must inform these suppliers before November 1 about our meetings with the customers. |
Telephone call |
None |
|
|
PM |
All suppliers that meet our environ- mental require- ments |
We must inform these suppliers before September 1 about our environ- mental policy and invite them to a meeting to discuss how they can live up to it. |
Direct mail Environ- mental report |
May 15- June 1 January 1– June 1 August 1- September 1 June 1- September 1 |
8
300 |
150,000 |
PM
EM |
Neigh- bours |
We must inform our neighbours before March 1 that we are changing our transport system, but that this may take up to six months. |
Article in local newspaper Folder |
February 1 February 15 January 1- February 15 |
8 |
|
EM |
Total |
|
|
|
428 |
183,000 |
|
Abbreviations:
o.b. = other budget
SM = sales manager
EM = environmental manager
PM = purchasing manager
6.1 Allocate time for preparation
Almost all the means you can use in the dialogue require some form of preparation. If you plan to make a folder or an environmental report, you must allow time for collecting data, preparing copy, layout, approvals and printing. That is a process that can easily take from four to six months.
The same amount of time is needed to build up and update environmental information for the Internet. Press mention also implies preparation, although it does not take as long. You have to find the necessary information, identify the right journalists, agree a meeting and read the article thoroughly. Personal dialogue also requires preparation in the form of internal meetings and training of the employees who are going to meet the stakeholders.
Your dialogue objectives tell you when the tool is to be used for the first time and the time it will take. If you add the preparation time to the start-up time, you will know when the work must begin. You enter the time when preparation must start and the time when the tool is to be used for the first time in your plan.
6.2 Match the plan to your resources
Use the budget correctly and prioritise the work from the start so that you do not waste money on the wrong stakeholders.
It is important to budget when preparing your dialogue plan. Basically, you have a number of dialogue objectives spread over the different stakeholders. It will probably take more resources in the form of time and money than you have available to achieve the objectives. You should therefore start by preparing a budget for each of the means. By adding the sub-budgets together you can see whether you are exceeding the total budget or not.
If the means you plan to use in the dialogue cost more than you have available for them, it is time to stop and think. Either you must reduce the level of ambition for the various means or you must discuss with the management whether it is realistic to fulfil all dialogue objectives for the given budget. The conclusion can be either to reduce the dialogue objectives for the period or to increase the budget. It is better to spend time and money on some few dialogue objectives than on too many if you know in advance that there are insufficient resources to communicate them all properly.
6.3 Distribute the work
The last piece of information in the plan is who is responsible for the chosen means. It is important to have a person who feels responsible for the means of communication in question. Otherwise you risk not being ready on time, limping quality and budget overrun. The responsibility for the individual means should lie with the person who is most interested in the dialogue objective being achieved.
It is advantageous to have guidelines for the company's work on the plan. The guidelines ensure that you are always working on the basis of an updated and approved dialogue plan. The guidelines must set out:
| who is to take the initiative for revision of the plan |
| who is to help revise the plan |
| how the revision is to be done |
| who, if anyone, is to approve the plan |
| the deadline for completion of the plan. |