Don’t Let Communication be the Missing Link 

Government programs don’t fail because of bad intentions. They fail because of misalignment. 

Experienced business-to-government (B2G) firms know this. They see contract after contract deliver less-than-optimal results because of misunderstood objectives, operating silos, and shifting priorities. 

In the words of the Captain from Cool Hand Luke, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” Communication—the solve for each of these issues—is too often not given the prominence it deserves in program plans or proposals. 

Managers may assume that everyone involved in a large, multi-year government contract is clear on project goals and their own roles. When misalignment finally becomes obvious, it may be too late to keep the project on the rails. 

Alignment = Clearly Articulated Goals + Audience Insights + Omnichannel Strategies + Constant Optimization. 

Good communication doesn’t just happen. In a large government project, complexity increases with every added connection—meaning opportunities for misalignment grow exponentially. 

And all this is true even if nothing changes. But rare is the project untouched by outside forces. 

The antidote is intentional, consistent, and frequent communication. It should be built into every project from the RFP stage. 

1. Clearly Articulated Goals 

The goals of a project may seem obvious to those who conceived it—but imprecise language, assumptions, or last-minute add-ons often work against a shared understanding. Over time, goals can be “watered down” or interpreted differently by different teams. 

Every team member should be able to answer the question, “How will we know when we’re done?” 

This process cannot be left to chance. A team of communications professionals should be charged with articulating project goals in simple, direct, and measurable language—and given the time and resources to revisit and refine them throughout the project. 

2. Audience Insights 

Each team or stakeholder group in a large government project has its own perspective, and its own answer to the question, What’s in it for me? Alignment is impossible unless these differences are acknowledged and addressed. 

Audiences may include the program office, the front office, other divisions, regions, partner agencies, legislators, private-sector partners, NGOs, media, and the general public. Each comes with a different agenda that must be monitored and built into a consistent set of messages. 

3. Omnichannel Strategies 

Today’s communications environment offers users countless ways to receive information. Yet internal communication for government projects too often relies on memos—or their email or PowerPoint equivalents. When these fall into the TL;DR trap, misalignment is the inevitable result. 

Intentional communication demands a strategy that delivers the right information through the channels each audience actually uses and prefers. 

4. Constant Optimization 

Government projects seldom stay static. Alignment is always a work in progress. 

Frequent, in-depth assessments can identify where too little communication—or too much—is creating confusion or erecting barriers. Messaging can be refined, and distribution adjusted, to bring teams back into alignment. 

Measurement is essential: How well do stakeholders understand their role, and how much progress is being made against the shared goals? 

At Yes& we recommend that primes build project-alignment communications into their strategies and proposals from the start. 

We have helped maximize the success of large-scale initiatives by using our experience in communication strategy and organizational dynamics to bring teams into alignment—and keep them aligned over time. 

If you want to strengthen this critical component of mission success, please consider adding Yes& to your team, or meeting with us to discuss our ideas and capabilities. 

Because if alignment isn’t engineered from day one, chaos will be more than happy to do the engineering for you.