Introduction
The East African Community has experienced so many terrorist attacks in the past few years. The approach used by the East African Counterterrorism Unit has not been successful in eliminating the terror threats and dealing appropriately with the terror groups in the region. According to the current situation, there is an urgent need to come up with a way in which terrorism can have countering in the East African region. The East African Counterterrorism Unit can be used in the implementation of change in a bid to fight terrorism in the area. Communication in the implementation of the anticipated change will play a crucial part in the way that the change will be accepted (Kotter, 2012).
Initiative Overview
The initiative that will have adopted in the fight against terrorism is the use of intelligence by the East African counterterrorism Unit. East African region uses the army to counter-terrorism in the region, but there has been no success in effectively dealing with terrorism. This initiative will involve creating a state of urgency in the region, as well as having a credible vision that will guide the adoption of the intelligence unit (Kotter, 2012). Creating awareness of the need to use intelligence in the fight against terrorism and ensuring consistent progress will facilitate the effective implementation of the initiative. It will involve a systematic implementation of the change to make the East African states more receptive to the change (Black, & Gregersen, 2008).
Vision
The vision for the East African Counterterrorism Unit will be adopting intelligence with the view of becoming the most significant counterterrorism unit in Africa by 2020.
The Importance of a State Of Urgency
A state of urgency helps in showing the need to use the intelligence in the East African Community Counterterrorism unit to all the states that form the EAC. The leaders can analyze the threats, risks, and potential opportunities that are likely to be encountered in the implementation of the initiative (Kotter, 2012). The state of urgency shows the importance of the initiative that seeks to improve the security of the citizens as well as ensure that the terrorist groups face countermeasures accordingly.
The state of urgency will show the east African leaders that the outcomes of the initiative are worth the change. Therefore, they will be more willing to implement the change and to ensure progress (Kotter, 2012). Some crucial things such as the embarrassment of technology will be addressed. Moreover, the terrorist groups have embraced technology, hence it is also paramount to consider it’s in the East African Counterterrorism Unit (Kotter, 2012).
Challenges that will pose an experience while establishing the state of urgency include resistance by some leaders, lack of cooperation, and lack of motivation (Black, & Gregersen, 2008). It seeks to create a need to implement the change in the form of the initiative. However, it is clear that change is not readily acceptable since the states will be required to use the intelligence in dealing with terrorism as opposed to the utilization of the army as it is currently (Holbeche, 2006). Some of the reasons that will contribute to the resistance include the unclear outcomes of the initiative, the costs, restructuring the anti-terrorism systems among others. Some leaders also aren’t giving the necessary cooperation. For the vision to be realized, cooperation and motivation are crucial since they encourage people to keep working towards the set goals and objectives (French, Bell, & Zawacki, 2005).
Communication plan: this will help describe the objectives, how the objectives can be communicated, and the tools for communication (French, Bell, & Zawacki, 2005).
Stakeholder 1: the presidents of the EAC countries
Objective: the objective, in this case, is to gain the support of the presidents of the East African community in the implementation of the intelligent use of the East African Counterterrorism Unit. The presidents are the senior leaders in the different countries, and they are capable of providing support and motivation in the implementation of the initiative (Thorson, & Moore, 2013). Message: seeking support for the use of the intelligence of the East African Community Counterterrorism Unit. The message will also involve communicating the initiative, vision to the presidents of the EAC so that they can facilitate its achievement. It will convey using a positive tone and English Language that represents the formal language used in the EAC (Thorson, & Moore, 2013).
- Media: presentation
- Frequency: the use of the intelligence in the East African Community Counterterrorism Unit should have been communicated at the EAC meetings that bring together the presidents of these countries.
Stakeholder 2: the citizens of all the EAC countries
- Objective: To make the citizens comfortable with the use of intelligence and the creation of the East African Community Counterterrorism Unit, and to make them cooperative in realizing the vision of the initiative.
- Message: the message is the change from the military force approach in countering terrorism to the use of intelligence by the East African Community Counterterrorism Unit. The message tone should be positive (Hanson, & Narula, 2013).
- Media: television ads, social media, and Public Service Announcements (PSAs).
- Frequency: Weekly
Delegation Plan
- Delegated responsibility 1: the leaders need to motivate the employees in the counterterrorism unit to take charge of their responsibilities. This responsibility will facilitate the understanding of progress and failure can have easy identification for each is accountable for a specific part of the process (Hanson, & Narula, 2013).
- Expectation: employee responsibility and accountability
- Success criteria: work appraisals
- Delegated responsibility 2: the citizens are supposed to be part of the counterterrorism unit by working in cooperation with the unit employees. In this way, everybody becomes part of the intelligence.
- Expectation: provide information to the intelligence.
- Success criteria: it is possible to tell whether the citizens are accomplishing their responsibility from the information availed to the intelligence (Bunning, Heath, & Minnion, 2009). The fight against terrorism becomes every person’s responsibility, and the citizens can trust the intelligence personnel. Citizens have so much information about terrorism that they are afraid of giving. Cooperation and involving them makes them feel safe when giving this information (Bunning, Heath, & Minnion, 2009).
Follow Up Plan
The follow-up plan will involve monitoring and evaluation that happen from time to time (Elving, 2005). The follow-up plan will include the use of various tools to measure the results and determine whether the set objectives have been met by the various teams, individuals, and departments. Some of the tools will include monthly reports to show progress, periodic briefings of the chief staff, executives, and the heads of departments, and annual reports (Elving, 2005).
Conclusion
Communication is an important tool, and it determines whether people will accept change or not. The state of urgency, however, provides an excellent beginning point where effective communication has an impact on the acceptability of an initiative. In addition, having a clear vision and delegating responsibilities effectively to the stakeholders can help in making changes effective.
References
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Bunning, K., Heath, B., & Minnion, A. (2009). Communication and empowerment: a place for rich and multiple media?. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 22(4), 370-379.
Elving, W. J. (2005). The role of communication in organizational change. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 10(2), 129-138.
French, W., Bell, C., & Zawacki, R. (2005). Organization development and transformation: Managing effective change. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Hanson, J., & Narula, U. (2013). New communication technologies in developing countries. Routledge.
Holbeche, L. (2006). Understanding change. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Kotter, J. (2012). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press
Thorson, E., & Moore, J. (Eds.). (2013). Integrated communication: Synergy of persuasive voices. Psychology Press.