Abstract
The Danish Special Operations Force, The Frogman Corps, is initiating a one-year long project to develop a human performance optimization program inspired by international collaborators and I, the author of this thesis, will become the project manager. However, communication can be a difficult task in project management. Studies and practical experiences have shown that several projects do not succeed due to miscommunication. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to identify important focus points for the presentation of the project to the parties concerned to improve the chance of success for the project.
A communication plan was developed by applying the "Management Communications tool box" (Lundholt og Uldall 2018) as framework and using general communication theory and empirical data from interviews of the parties concerned and my own experience as a Frogman. The communication plan can optimize communication for the project by targeting messages to reduce communication noise and prepare the communicating parties, so that they appear credible in the communication situations, and so that they are prepared to handle counter reactions to the messages appropriately.
From the communication plan, six important focus point for the presentation of the project were identified as important to improve the chance of success for the project:
1) Use of the involvement paradigm, so that the parties involved more likely will attain commitment and ownership for the project.
2) Ensure an open communicational environment which is a prerequisite for the involvement paradigm.
3) Use the non-commissioned officers as ambassadors for the project as they have strong etos.
4) Ensure the development of the project for non-operators as they are likely to focus on their function and not on their own individual gain from the project.
5) Be aware that the content of the project can appear intimidating to some and use the identity circle of transformation to identify individuals who need to be addressed to have their concerns removed.
6) Include the identified external target groups in the communication as they potentially can strengthen the project.
Importantly, the communication plan and the attention point are not static and must be followed up and possibly adjusted on an ongoing basis which will be the responsibility of the project manager. Both communication plan and the attention points for the presentation of the project can also be used during the actual development of the project.