Throughout the last three months, I have had the honor to learn a great amount of material regarding communication in sport, something I have not been too familiar with in the past. My current career is in athletic facilities and event management, so I do not see or work that side of sports too often. Although this might be the case, I believe there are a few core values I have been taught throughout the semester that could benefit my future career.
A major module I believe will help me in my future career in sports is Module 5, Sport Organization Communication. Overall, this full module gives great insight on communication within sport organizations, but more importantly I found lecture 2 to be the most interesting and informative. In any sport organization, creating and implementing plans for communication is imperative. No matter what department of the program, there will be times that an issue can arise and strategic communication needs to be pushed out to inform others or help resolve it. There are times that a promotion or an event needs to pan out, which also includes this planning.
Within this lecture, I was able to learn about the strategic communication plan RPIE: research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. We must take the time to research ahead of time on the topic to be able to provide correct statements and recognize what will pull the audience in the best way. Planning is the next important step, as we have to use this research we have gathered and purposefully place it into a plan to follow out. Once a plan is set, then the implementation stage of the plan will take place, activating this strategic plan we have put together to discuss the topic. Lastly, evaluation is key in any process we might face and it will start before research even begins. The proper metrics to evaluate this plan have to be set in place ahead of time, allowing the organization an opportunity to reflect on their overall plan through the process and after.
As I work in event planning, I see this material assisting me greatly. I got two great pieces of advice from this lecture: expect the unexpected and have a plan. I also really enjoyed the PenPal assignments and believe this was a good stepping stone to establishing more relationships with sport professionals in the future. With the help of this course, I now know all of the steps for strategic communication and recognize how this easily works into my career.