Is Strategic Communication Planning VUCA-Proof? Rethinking Practice through Design Thinking and Agile Project Management

According to the 2023 UN Sustainable Development Goals Report, we are living in an “age of polycrisis,” where interconnected challenges, such as political unrest, climate change, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, threaten global stability. The concept of VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) aptly describes the turbulent environment in which contemporary organizations operate. VUCA is a key factor behind rising corporate mortality rates: in 1958, the average lifespan of companies on the S&P 500 was 61 years; today, it is well under 20.

In response to these conditions, scholars and practitioners are calling for new approaches at all organizational levels to foster adaptability, innovation, and responsiveness. Traditional strategic planning frameworks, long and still currently used to guide decision-making and long-term success, are increasingly being questioned, particularly in strategic management and related fields such as strategic communication. Drafting effective communication plans remains a core competency in strategic communication, as highlighted by a 2019 survey by Sveriges Kommunikatörer, which identified “planning and executing content and channel strategy” as a top professional development need. However, many established planning models, such as the RACE model, are rooted in linear paradigms from the 1960s and may no longer be fit for purpose in today’s VUCA world.

In the first part of my presentation, I will outline the theoretical foundation of the SCoPE (Strategic Communication Planning Excellence) framework, grounded in both Design Thinking and Agile Project Management (Girardelli, 2025) to dynamically integrate strategy formulation, implementation, and control. These approaches are increasingly seen as better suited to VUCA environments and to supporting organizations in managing complexity. Design Thinking, originating in design studies, aims to solve wicked problems and foster innovation by emphasizing empathy to identify creative, human-centered solutions, and by using techniques such as rapid prototyping to test ideas iteratively. Agile project management, originally developed for software development, emphasizes flexibility, continuous monitoring, iterative sprints, enabling dynamic and adaptive implementation.

The second part of the presentation will focus on the methodological application of the SCoPE framework to systematically map actual strategic communication planning practices. Following recent calls to observe the social practice of the “doing of strategy” in strategic communication, SCoPE aims to contribute to the strategy-as-practice approach by examining how communicative strategic intent is articulated and translated into strategic plans.

Reference

Girardelli, D. (2025). Reaching the SCoPE: A framework for strategic communication planning excellence. ECREA OSC 2025 Conference, Cagliari (Italy).