Future-Proofing a Strategic Communication Team for a Major Australian Government Entity.

This paper reflects on the development and implementation of a program for a new strategic communication and marketing team (SCG) at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), one of the Australian Federal Government's largest departments. The program also had to meet a Federal Government requirement for a vision of a connected and responsive government. The paper details a six month curriculum delivered to a new group of communicators whose function was to assist with the development of an organisation-wide sustainable and strategic communication strategy. The creation of the new group was because the ATO had identified a number of issues that required attention, such as a lack of an overarching communication direction, not having agreed evaluation measures and resources not being well planned to meet a rapidly changing external environment. The group also needed to be concerned with knowledge and reputation management, stakeholder engagement, and project management in a contemporary corporate environment. Three key areas identified were:' Cohesion of the SCG as a group of professionals' Effective strategic planning and programming' Integrated communication and social mediaThe strategic planning and programming component combined in house planning models with communication theory and applied conceptual frameworks. The integrated communication and social media component reviewed conceptual models and case analysis. The program supported research into, and the formation of, communities of practice and learning occurred through residential schools, workshops, guest lectures, individual assessments and real group projects.