Selling any government initiative – local or national – requires some careful corporate training. You will need your communications experts, but all the staff involved in any initiative will also require training, especially in dealing with the public. You do not want staff to be uncomfortable about interfacing with the public, or feel they have to hide from answering queries and giving out information.
Almost every government initiative will come with its critics, so your corporate training needs to be specific about messages: what is good about it; who will benefit; why it’s necessary; how it will be put in place and when. The what, where, when and how should be clearly explained and well rehearsed in the training so that all staff are confidently on message. A ‘hymn sheet’ for them isn’t a bad idea – a leaflet for distribution to interested parties will also help staff convey information consistently. It’s helpful all round if part of their corporate training can be involvement in the production of any information in print or on the web. The media promotion can be left to the professional communicators, but everyone involved in a government initiative is likely to be meeting members of the public and so they should be confident about what they can – and should not – say.
If the initiative proves to be controversial in any way, the corporate training should include get-out strategies, and staff should be aware that they can always say something like “we can’t tell you that right now, but we’ll get back to you”. This simple approach is essential to success because any controversies can then be handed over to the communications professionals. A little bit of corporate training of this kind will serve to convey some useful skills to staff that will be relevant to other and future initiatives, so the effort is well worth while.
