Communication Strategy: A Case-Based Workshop Using the AMEC Framework

Good Communication Starts with Better Strategic Choices

Communication is often treated as an execution problem: What should we say? Which channel should we use? What should we produce?

But those questions come later.

Before communication can be effective, professionals need to determine what they are trying to achieve, whose understanding or behavior matters, what the situation requires, and how communication can contribute to the intended outcome.

That is where communication strategy becomes important.

In complex organizational environments, the challenge is rarely a lack of communication activity. The harder challenge is knowing what to prioritize, what to change, and how to make communication choices that are deliberate and connected to organizational objectives.

And ultimately, how do we know whether those choices are making a difference?

How do you turn an organizational challenge into a communication strategy that can lead to meaningful impact?
How do you determine what communication needs to achieve?
How do you decide which audiences matters most and why?
How do you connect objectives, audiences, context, communication choices, and intended outcomes?
And how do you build a strategy that can guide decisions and provide a basis for evaluating whether communication is actually making an impact?

Communication Strategy: From Objectives to Impact  is a case-based workshop that uses the AMEC Framework to help participants work through these questions.

Rather than simply learning a communication planning template, participants will work through a realistic organizational case, assess the situation, make strategic choices, and develop a communication strategy that connects objectived, audiences, communication activity, and intended impact.

The workshop draws on Kiroyan Partners’ experience advising organizations on strategic communications, public affairs, stakeholder engagement, reputation, and complex organizational challenges.

What Will You Learn?
Rather than treating communication strategy as a fixed template, the workshop focuses on how to think through the choices that shape a strategy and how those choices connect to outcomes.

Participants will learn how to:

• Translate organizational objectives and challenges into clear communication objectives and priorities.

• Assess context and audience considerations before determining an approach.

• Identify the strategic choices that should shape communication.

• Use the AMEC Framework to connect objectives, audiences, communication activity, and intended outcomes.

• Build a coherent communication strategy around a complex organizational situation.

• Consider how communication can be evaluated based on outcomes and impact, rather than activity alone.

• Test and refine a strategic choices through a realistic case exercise.

What Makes This Program Different

• Start with the Objective
  The workshop starts with the organizational challenge and what needs to change, rather than jumping straight into messages, channels, or content.
• Work through a Real Case
  Participants work through realistic organizational scenario, assess the situation, make strategic choices, and develop their own approach.
• Use a Framework, Make the Decisions
  The AMEC Framework provides a structured way to connect objectives, audiences, communication activity, and impact. Participants use the framework to support their thinking, rather than simply learning it as theory.
• Build, Discuss, Refine
  Participants develop their approach, discuss the reasoning behind their choices, and test how those choices hold up against the case and its intended outcomes.

What You’ll Take Away
By the end of the workshop, participants will have:

• A clearer way to approach communication strategy development.
• A structured process for moving from organizational objectives to communication choices and intended impact.
• Practical experience applying the AMEC Framework to a realistic organizational case.
• Greater clarity on how objectives, audiences, context, activities, and outcomes connect within a communication strategy.
• Experience challenging and refining strategic communication decisions.
• A stronger basis for developing communication strategies that can guide action and assess contribution to impact.

Who Should Join?
This workshop is relevant for professionals who are responsible for deciding what communication should achieve and how it should support organizational priorities, including:

• Corporate Communications professionals
• Corporate Affairs professionals
• Public Affairs and Government Relations practitioners
• Brand and Marketing professionals
• Internal and External Communications professionals
• Sustainability and ESG professionals
• Managers and executives with communication responsibilities
• Professionals involved in developing communication plans or strategies
• Anyone interested in learning more about strategic communication

No prior formal training in communication strategy or the AMEC Framework is required.