Changes go wrong when staff hear about them late, from the wrong person or in a channel they never read. This template sets out an internal communications plan for a project or a year: objectives, audiences, a communication matrix, a calendar of key dates and the measures that show whether people understood. It runs to seven pages, with each message owned and each channel scheduled.

The sample is for Fallowfield Partners, a fictional firm with 1,120 survey respondents and a change to shift patterns from May 3. Its figures are sample data, including a target of 80 percent staff awareness and a two-day reply standard. Replace the audiences, messages and dates with your own, then name an approver and a backup for each message type.