Strategic Communications
Communicating the value of IT
Cutting through complexity to accelerate results
Appointed government leaders often have less than an election cycle to make their mark. A newly appointed CIO of the Nation’s largest healthcare system needed to quickly communicate her strategic vision to employees, Administration partners, Department leadership, interest groups and oversight bodies.
Leading a team of 40+, we stood up an IT Strategic Communications function to support 35 Senior Executive Service leaders, developed an executive communication strategy, created a single brand identity, and common language to promote the IT strategic roadmap across video, web, in-person meetings, email correspondence, presentations, and digital and social channels.
With a consistent structure, strategy and messaging the CIO was able to drive organizational change to improve employee engagement. As shown in employee viewpoint surveys in the first year, our efforts produced a marked improvement in employees understanding of the IT vision and goals, and how their role contributed to agency success. Our team improved the speaking engagement process via holistic checklists that addressed logistical planning, ethics checks, approved messaging, and centralized reviews to avoid getting out ahead of policy and reduced prep time by weeks. Congressional inquiry processes were streamlined to better collaborate with stakeholders and speed responses for 18 successful Congressional briefings during the CIO’s tenure.
