Communicating_a_Sustainability_Plan

COMMUNICATION PLAN FOR THE TAFE QUEENSLAND REGIONAL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY This Communication Plan has been developed to support the implementation of the TAFE Queensland Regional (TQR )Sustainability Strategy 2009-2014. The TQR Sustainability Strategy 2009-2014 links directly with the Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE Strategic Plan 2010-2014 which is a subgroup of the TAFE Queensland Regional (TQR) Strategic Plan 2010-2013 TAFE QLD Regional (TQR) is made up of 6 regional TAFE institutes from across Queensland who have come together to create a single Statutory Authority in 2011. A requirement of becoming a Statutory Authority is the development or redevelopment of all policies and practices associated with the joining organisations. The development and implementation of a Sustainability Strategy is new for all 6 regional TAFE institutes and therefore a communication plan is essential to ensure all participants are fully informed. The participants will include all staff employed at • Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE • Mt Isa Institute of TAFE • Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE • Central Queensland Institute of TAFE • Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE and • Wide Bay Institute of TAFE Location Map of Campuses Figure1 [pic] Of particular importance to the communication plan is the members of the TAFE Queensland Regional Sustainability Network. The participants of this network are from each of the 6 regional TAFE institutes and are the key communicators to their institutes on all aspects relating to sustainability. This group meets monthly and is chaired from TNQIT. There are a number of key documents that have been utilised to inform the TQR Sustainability Strategy. These documents are identified in the below flow chart (Figure2) [pic] Key Acronyms |TNQIT |Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE | |MIIT |Mt Isa Institute of TAFE | |BRIT |Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE | |CQIT |Central Queensland Institute of TAFE | |SQIT |Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE and | |WBIT |Wide Bay Institute of TAFE | |TQR |TAFE Queensland Regional | |VET |Vocational Education and Training | |NCS |National Centre for Sustainability Network | |CEO |Chief executive officer | |AQF |Australian Qualifications Framework | |my.TAFE |TAFE on-line student learning platform | |TAFE |Technical and Further Education | Current situation The TQR Sustainability Strategy has been in draft format for the past 7 months, this was due to the previous Sustainability Manager departing and a significant lag in time before this position was replaced. Over this time the institute’s sustainability focus has been significantly reduced. In the past 2 weeks the new Sustainability Manager has been active to recommence the TQR Sustainability Network. This network is critical to the implementation of the communication plan as it includes representatives from each regional institute who are in a position to communicate upwards to their Manager/ Director and downwards to the institute staff. The network meets monthly through videoconference. The chair of the network is the TNQT Sustainability Officer who has the added responsibility to communicate outcomes to TQR Directors who also meet on a monthly basis. Stakeholders Figure 3 [pic] |Students and industry associated with all TQR Institutes | Current Resources Our greatest resource is our Institute Director, who actively promotes sustainability initiatives not only at our institute level but also at the Regional level. Through the Directors support there is the ongoing appointment of the Sustainability Manager position which holds an integral role in the implementation of the Sustainability Strategy across the region. Other resources include: • The people associated with each institute. As stated in the above diagram the stakeholders are widely spread across all levels and all regional institutes and include staff at all levels students and industry associated with each institute • Our involvement with Swinburne University of Technology who are the lead organisation in the NCS is an invaluable link to assist us to maintain and grow our currency in sustainability. “The National Centre for Sustainability (NCS) is a collaboration of several educational institutions. We provide educational leadership and work in partnership with industry, government and the community to undertake program delivery, resource development, project work and applied resource, to support the development of sustainable practices.” (Swinburn Univercity of Technology) • Sustainability policies and Agreements that promote the implementation of sustainability training, for example Green Skills Agreement “The Agreement commits the Australian and state and territory governments to working with training organisations and business to ensure skills for sustainability are an integral part of all vocational education and training (VET) and are relevant to the needs of industry. This commitment will be achieved by: • embedding skills for sustainability practice and teaching in vocational education and training, within the requirements of the national regulatory framework • the upskilling of VET instructors and teachers to deliver skills for sustainability • the strategic review of Training Packages to embed sustainability knowledge, skills and principles • implementing a transition strategy to re-skill vulnerable workers”. (Council of Australian Governments, 2009) • 10 million dollar 5 green star energy rating facility currently being built at TNQT that includes the latest in sustainability building design and monitoring systems for the education of all students in sustainability associated with their course.( Due for completion in November 2010) “The Green Star rating system has been developed and is administered by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA). Green Star has officially released rating tools which focus on office accommodation, education and healthcare facilities” (Queensland Government, 2008) • The Diploma of Sustainability (which is only delivered from the TNQT Institute) assists us to introduce the concepts of sustainability through professional development to all TQR Staff as well as individuals and groups from other organisations and upholds the principles of the Green Skills Agreement (Council of Australian Governments, 2009) • Sustainability Reference group who are directly involved in moderation and validation of sustainability education and initiatives. • Well equipped IT department who will work with the staff to drive and support the uptake of online learning • Staff Communication Corridor –involves all TQR institute staff 2 hours per week • Captured student audience at each Regional TAFE PLANNING PROCESS [pic] Developed from Lectures 10 and 11 Developing a Communications Plan (Byrony Barnett, 2009) Implementation of this communication plan will result in the following objectives Objective 1 • Staff to develop and awareness of the TQR Strategic plan and begin to identify ways of embedding sustainability into the core aspects of TQR business Objective 2 • Students and industry groups will begin to develop knowledge and skills pertaining to sustainability And will begin to lead our staff to our vision TQR Sustainability Vision “One regional institute, skilling regional communities with sustainability at its core” (Jenkins-Jones, 2010) |Staff | |Objective 1 : Staff to develop and awareness of the TQR Strategic plan and begin to identify ways of embedding sustainability into the core | |aspects of TQR business | |KPI’s |Who, when and how will this be communicated to stakeholders | |All TQR Staff will be introduced to the Sustainability Strategy |Carol Webb (CEO) TQR will introduce at the Communication Corridor August 2010 via| | |video conference | | | | |Sustainability will be an agenda item in all team meetings |Managers / line managers will ensure this is a standing item on agendas | | | | |All TQR Staff will identify the professional development |Managers / line managers will include in Annual Performance Planning discussion | |required regarding sustainability practices in their annual |( times vary in each institute) | |performance plans | | | | | |Every institute will offer a minimum of 2 sustainability | | |workshops for teaching staff per annum |Institute Human Resources Managers will include on Institute Professional | |Sustainability training for staff will be available at each TQR |development calendar | |annual professional development day | | |Sustainability to be embedded into all role descriptions |Institute Human Resources Managers will include on annual schedules | | | | | | | | |TAFE Queensland Regional Human Resources department to address when reviewing | | |role descriptions | |Students / Industry groups | |Objective 2 : Students and industry groups will begin to develop knowledge and skills pertaining to sustainability | |KPI’s |Who when and how will this be communicated to stakeholders | |Every institute within TQR will offer a sustainability |Faculty Educational Managers will work with teams in the faculties on course | |competency at all AQF levels |planning | |A minimum of 4 sustainability resources will be developed for | | |my.TAFE by 2012. |TQR Sustainability Network will develop a shared suite of sustainability | |30% of TQR students will have participated in specific |resources and products | |sustainability training by 2012 |TQR teachers will deliver sustainability skills or specific sustainability | | |training within qualifications and courses | | | | |New delivery opportunities for sustainability programs will be | | |reported to TQR Directors bi- monthly |Sustainability Manager TNQT will communicate from TQR Sustainability Network on a| |All TQR Institutes will organise a sustainability Industry |bi monthly basis | |liaison group that meet a minimum of twice a year | | |Official opening of the TNQT 5 star Sustainability Educational |Sustainability Manager and conjunction with a member of leadership team to | |Precinct to occur in November 2010 |participate in the Sustainability Reference Group | | | | | |TNQT Sustainability Manager in conjunction with TNQT Marketing team to initiate | | |public launch of precinct | Figure 3, page 7 identifies the stakeholders which are predominantly staff from TQR Institutes. The TQR Sustainability Strategy also refers to students and Industry groups hence the inclusion of these two groups as stakeholders McKenzie -Mohr (1987) points out that when we are identifying a target audience it is very important to know the attitudes beliefs and behaviour of your intended audience (page 41) In this communication plan the audience is very broad it is multicultural and spans the spectrum from cleaners to senior managers; to students and to industry Prior to commencement of the Communication Plan I conducted a basic survey across a number of specific areas within TNQT TAFE the aim of my survey was to find out the “Attitudes beliefs and behaviours” (Mckenzie-Mohr, 1987) of my stakeholder group (pg 41) Responses : • Cleaners 8/20 • Facility staff 3/8 • Administrators 10/20 • Teachers 20/70 • Managers 5/7 The persons that responded appeared to be people who either had an interest in sustainability or were actively sustainable in their everyday life. There was no negativity towards sustainability practices in fact there were some who volunteered to be on an internal working group regarding sustainable practices. The problem as always with a survey is the question of “is it a true representation of the institute staff '”. On this occasion it is my belief that only those that were truly interested responded the others who were against sustainability practices or who didn’t care either way probably did not respond. On this occasion students were not surveyed. Given the above responses and assumptions the desired outcomes / statement of strategic intent needs to be realistic and the way that we get the messages to the people must be vivid. (Mckenzie-Mohr, 1987) “Vivid information increases the likelihood that a message will be attended to initially, a process called encoding, as well as recalled later. “ Another important aspect is that of “Community Engagement” (Department of Sustainability and Environment, 2001) “Community engagement' is therefore a planned process with the specific purpose of working with identified groups of people, whether they are connected by geographic location, special interest, or affiliation or identify to address issues affecting their well-being. The linking of the term 'community' to 'engagement' serves to broaden the scope, shifting the focus from the individual to the collective, with the associated implications for inclusiveness to ensure consideration is made of the diversity that exists within any community.” In this scenario the community is the TAFE staff, students and industry The activities that this community will be involved in are : • Communication Corridor • Performance Planning • Team meetings • Institute professional development • On selling dual Diplomas • TQR Sustainability Network • Official opening of the TNQT 5 star Sustainability Educational Precinct The communication strategies that will be utilised include: |Communication media |Communicating to |Focus |Forum | |Video conference |Staff of TQR |Communicate knowledge of |-TQR Sustainability Network | | | |sustainability |-Communication Corridor | |Email |Staff of TQR |Communicate knowledge of |- Staff development days | | | |sustainability |- Staff education | |Face to face |Staff of TQR |Communicate knowledge of |- Performance planning | | | |sustainability |- Staff education | | | | |- Staff development days | |Staff Bulletin |Staff of TNQT |Communicate knowledge of |-Performance planning | | | |sustainability |- Staff education | | | | |- Staff development days | | Student web / blog |Students/ industry across |Sustainability courses and|- Educational opportunities | | |TNQ network |Diploma in Sustainability | | |Brochures and pamphlets |Students / industry across |Sustainability courses and|-Educational opportunities | | |TNQ network |Diploma in Sustainability |- Promotion of Courses | |Television and newspaper |General public |Sustainability Educational|-Launch of new facility | | | |facility |-Promotion of courses | EVALUATION AND REFLECTION The evaluation of the Communication Plan is based on an evaluation of the KPI’s and discussions with the key people who were responsible for the implementation of the KPI’s. As well as this I observed education sessions with staff and students and questioned them following their sessions. The biggest resource in the implementation of the Communication Plan was “me!” this is because as is often the case the staff are already fully engaged in their own roles and work requirements. The most difficult aspect of the communication plan related to the large number of stakeholders. While the group was broad the biggest challenge was a geographical one as while we are coming together a Statutory Authority we still all work very independently of each other Controlling the implementation of the plan within our own institute was realistic all be it time consuming but it was not realistic to implement the communication plan in the other institutes. For this reason the only institute that I have evaluated is that of TNQT. On reflection I am critically aware that the communication plan should have had a TNQT centric focus as this was the only area that I could guarantee agreement and uptake of the plan. I am also aware that the life of the plan was too short in order to achieve the objectives it is necessary for this Communication Plan to be in place for a minimum of one year. Referring back to the Strategic Intent and the objectives identified below • Staff to develop and awareness of the TQR Strategic plan and begin to identify ways of embedding sustainability into the core aspects of TQR business • Students and industry groups will begin to develop knowledge and skills pertaining to sustainability I am able to confirm that staff at TNQT have developed an awareness of the TQR Strategic Plan and a small percentage of staff have begun to identify ways of embedding sustainability into the core aspects of TQR business At this stage of the review the students and Industry groups are just beginning to develop knowledge and skills pertaining to sustainability This Communication strategy needs to continue until Sustainability is just a part of what we do. In order to make this happen the Director at TNQT has agreed to add the Sustainability Communication Strategy to all managers Performance Plans, this level of commitment should allow us to realise our vision of “skilling regional communities with sustainability at its core” (Jenkins-Jones, 2010) |KPI’s associated with staff |TNQT Evaluation to date (30 October 2010) | |All TQR Staff will be introduced to the Sustainability |Carol Webb (CEO) TQR introduced the Sustainability Strategy at the Communication corridor | |Strategy |August 12th 2010. This was done as a very funny role play that grabbed the audience’s | | |attention | | |Sustainability has been added to Faculty and Management agendas however not identified as a | |Sustainability will be an agenda item in all team meetings|priority by some other teams, further staff education required | | | | | |Faculty performance plans completed at TNQT, sustainability education added to 20 % of the | | |staff plans. Other teams are yet to commence process | |All TQR Staff will identify the professional development | | |required regarding sustainability practices in their | | |annual performance plans | | | | | |Every institute will offer a minimum of 2 sustainability |One workshop was completed September 7th and 8th 23 participants further workshop planned for| |workshops for teaching staff per annum |March 2011, ongoing plan is for one per semester | |Sustainability training for staff will be available at | | |each TQR annual professional development day |17th September TNQT annual professional development day Sustainability introduction ( 6 hour | | |session) attended by 15 staff | |Sustainability to be embedded into all role descriptions | | | | | | | | | | | | |Not yet commenced | |KPI’s associated with students and Industry Groups |TNQT Evaluation to date (30 October 2010) | |Every institute within TQR will offer a sustainability |Sustainability units at AQF level 2 and 3 offered in Business, Hospitality, Tourism further | |competency at all AQF levels |implementation across the institute required | | | | |A minimum of 4 sustainability resources will be developed | | |for my.TAFE by 2012. |Not commenced as yet | | | | |30% of TQR students will have participated in specific | | |sustainability training by 2012 | | | | | |New delivery opportunities for sustainability programs |Ongoing | |will be reported to TQR Directors bi- monthly | | | | | |All TQR Institutes will organise a sustainability Industry| | |liaison group that meet a minimum of twice a year |Ongoing | | | | |Official opening of the TNQT 5 star Sustainability | | |Educational Precinct to occur in November 2010 |Industry liaison group met at TNQT October 19th focus of this meeting was to introduce the | | |Sustainability Strategy and to identify ways of working together to “ sell “ to staff students| | |and industry further to the communication plan | | | | | | | | |Under development | | | | While the overall objectives that focused on TQR were not able to be achieved to implement this communication plan across TNQT has been very satisfying. The role that I intended to take in this process was one of mentor and supportive leadership however the role that I ended up with demanded a lot more of me and my time as I became what Mckenzie-Mohr, (1987) refer to as a Community Block Leader that is to say I was modeling the behaviours that I wanted others to demonstrate.( page 46) For example I undertook the training in the Diploma of Sustainabilitty, in doing so my work load increased significantly Overall I liked the focus of the Communication plan as I like to plan and evaluate but in the future I will ensure that I remember the words “ Delegate , mentor, and support” References Australian Government Department of, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. (2009). Department of Environment Water Heritage and the Arts. Retrieved August 8, 2010, from National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability: http://www.environment.gov.au/education/publications/pubs/national-action-plan.pdf Byrony Barnett, T. C. (2009). Developing a Communications Plan. ED5913 Communicating Sustainability , 1-9. Council of Australian Governments. (2009, December 7). Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Retrieved August 7, 2010, from Climate Change and Skills for Sustainability: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Skills/Programs/WorkDevelop/ClimateChangeSustainability/Pages/GreenSkillsAgreement.aspx Department of Education Training and the Arts. (2008). Earth Smart Environmental Sustainability. Retrieved AUGUST 10, 2010, from DETA: http://deta.qld.gov.au/strategic/plan/environment/ Department of Sustainability and Environment. (2001). Department of Sustainability and Environment. Retrieved October 3, 2010, from Effective Engagement : http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/DSE/wcmn203.nsf/childdocs/-0B996EB412EAB883CA2570360014F01A-6BC40C338B25036ECA257036001555F2'open Jenkins-Jones. (2010, July). Tafe Queensland Regional Sustainability Strategy2009-2014. Cairns, Australia: Tropical North Queensland TAFE . Mckenzie-Mohr, D. (1987). Fostering Sustainable Behavior. Retrieved september 15, 2010, from Fostering Sustainable Behavir Community Based Social Marketing: http://www.cbsm.com/public/images/FosteringSustainableBehavior.pdf National VET Sector Sustainability Policy and Action Plan 2009-2012. (2009). Retrieved August 10, 2010, from DETA : http://www.training.qld.gov.au/resources/information/pdf/vet-sustainability.pdf Queensland Government Department of Education and Training . (2008). Retrieved August 30, 2010, from National VET Sector Sustainability Policy and Action Plan (2009-2012): http://www.training.qld.gov.au/resources/information/pdf/vet-sustainability.pdf Queensland Government. (2008, January ). Department of Public works . Retrieved August 29, 2010, from Environmnetal Rating Sustems and Government buildings: http://www.works.qld.gov.au/downloads/bpu/bapf_enviroratingsystems.pdf Swinburn Univercity of Technology. (n.d.). Swinburn Univercity of Technology. Retrieved August 20, 2010, from National Centre For Sustainability: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/ncs/About/noscript/Collaborations.html ----------------------- STATEMENT OF STRATEGIC INTENT Where do we want to be at the end of the communication process' COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES /KPIs Clear, concise measurable objectives associated with how the communication will take place to whom, when and whose responsibility is it to communicate TARGET AUDIENCE / STAKEHOLDERS Stakeholder Analysis /Internal External COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES, ACTIONS AND RESOURCES What, how, by whom and when EVALUATION How effective was the Communication Plan, what worked well and what needs to be changed Swinburne Sustainability Policy