← ccPlanning Academy · Communication track

Know your audience

Free visual lesson · about 5 minutes · short quiz at the end

ccPlanning academy · communication

Know your audience

The same truth needs three different tellings.

The big idea

One message, reshaped — not one message, repeated.

The forecast that says “we’re 12 FTE short in Q4” means something different to a director, an ops manager and an agent. Same fact, three audiences, three versions. Sending all three the same slide guarantees two of them switch off.

The executive

Cares about outcome, risk and money.

Lead with the “so what”: the impact on service, cost or revenue, and the decision you need. One headline, the options, your recommendation. They have two minutes and they want the bottom line — the detail is for the appendix they won’t open.

The operations manager

Cares about “what does this mean for my floor?”

They live with the consequences daily, so they want the operational specifics: which weeks, which skills, what action, what it costs them to ignore it. Concrete and practical — and they’ll challenge the assumptions, so bring them.

The agent / team leader

Cares about fairness and “how does this affect me?”

For a shift change or a new pattern, the planning rationale matters less than the human impact: why, what changes for them, and that it was done fairly. Lead with the “why” and the respect, not the Erlang.

The dial that changes

Detail, jargon, and the lead.

Across audiences you adjust three things: how much detail, how much jargon (occupancy and shrinkage mean nothing to most), and what you put first. Executives get the conclusion first; analysts can take the build-up. Same content, different order and depth.

The test

“What do they need to decide or do?”

Before any message, name the audience’s decision or action. Everything that serves it stays; everything else is your interest, not theirs. That single question strips a bloated update down to what will actually land.

One fact, three tellings

“We’re 12 FTE short in Q4”

Director: “Service drops to 65% over peak, ~£X at risk — I need sign-off to hire 12 by September.” Ops manager: “Weeks 45–52, mostly Spanish-skill, mornings — here’s the coverage gap and the overtime if we wait.” Team leader: “Patterns shift slightly in November; here’s why, and it’s shared fairly.”

Same 12 FTE. Send all three the director version and you lose the floor; send the ops version upstairs and they tune out. Reshape, don’t repeat.

The takeaway

Start from them, not from your spreadsheet.

Executives want outcome and decision; ops wants floor-level specifics; agents want the why and fairness. Adjust detail, jargon and what comes first — and always anchor on what that audience needs to decide or do.

Now test yourself ↓

1 / 8

Slides done? Here’s the same idea in a bit more depth — the part worth keeping.

In depth: the same truth needs three different tellings

“We’re 12 FTE short in Q4” means something different to a director, an operations manager and an agent — same fact, three audiences, three versions. Send all three the same slide and you guarantee that two of them switch off. Good planning communication isn’t one message repeated; it’s one message reshaped for the person who has to act on it.

Who cares about what

The executive cares about outcome, risk and money: lead with the “so what” — the impact on service, cost or revenue and the decision you need — because they have two minutes and want the bottom line, with detail relegated to an appendix they won’t open. The operations manager cares about “what does this mean for my floor?” — the operational specifics of which weeks, which skills, what action and what inaction costs them — and they’ll challenge your assumptions, so bring them. The agent or team leader cares about fairness and “how does this affect me?” — for a shift change the planning rationale matters less than the human impact, so lead with the why and the respect, not the Erlang.

Three dials, one test

Across audiences you’re really adjusting three things: how much detail, how much jargon (occupancy and shrinkage mean nothing to most people), and what you put first — executives get the conclusion up front, analysts can take the build-up. Same content, different order and depth. And the question that drives all of it is simple: before any message, name the audience’s decision or action. Everything that serves it stays; everything else is your interest, not theirs. That one question strips a bloated update down to what will actually land.

The principle to remember: start from them, not from your spreadsheet. Adjust detail, jargon and what comes first, and always anchor on what that specific audience needs to decide or do.

Quick quiz

Five questions. Pick an answer to each, then check your score.

1. What’s the right approach to one message across audiences?

Same fact, different versions — one message reshaped, not repeated.

2. What does an executive audience most want?

Lead with the ‘so what’ and your recommendation; detail goes in the appendix.

3. What does an operations manager focus on?

They live with the consequences, so they want concrete operational specifics (and will challenge assumptions).

4. When communicating a shift change to agents, you should lead with…

For agents the rationale matters less than why, what changes for them, and fairness.

5. What single question should shape any message?

Anchor on their decision/action — everything else is your interest, not theirs.