Author: Kate Dunstan
Published: 1 November 2024
Most change happens for business reasons, but it often fails for human reasons. So, whether your firm uses formal change programs or more organic methods, how you communicate to inspire that change can determine its success or failure.
Change can be confronting, in the material change proposed, or sometimes just because change makes people feel uncomfortable and insecure.
Like most communications, it boils down to who, what, when, how, and why. The who part is simple. Everyone affected by the change needs to be part of the communication. Often change programs are kept secret and then information is doled out on a ‘need to know’ basis. But secrets lead to suspicion, which isn’t a good start to getting people on board for a new way of working. It erodes trust in the people they work for.
Senior people need to be a pivotal part of the communication strategy. They are powerful during change – for good and not-so-good. Sometimes senior people are most resistant to change because they like the way things are already and how their seniority sits in that structure. Sometimes they fear losing power or seniority, sometimes they simply don’t want to take on new ways of doing things. They are just one example of why one size does not fit all in change communications. It is critical to understand how each stakeholder group is affected, is feeling about it, and then to tailor communications accordingly.
What you communicate and when you communicate it depends on the nature of the change, of course. Technical change will require instructions. Structural change will require information. Whatever the change, it is important that those affected are given the information they need to feel involved and secure. No need to bombard people with meaningless emails, just keep them in the loop. Don’t have the information yet? Tell them that. Decisions aren’t made? Tell them that, too. Just keep communicating, often and briefly.
Sometimes these things take time to work out and leadership feels they need to have all the answers before they communicate. Trouble is, while they’re fine tuning, their people are speculating. In the absence of real information, people will make it up. And what they make up is invariably worse than reality and it spreads like wildfire throughout the organisation.
All that discussion time in the boardroom is also time for the board to become used to the new regime. If the information has been held back, staff don’t have the same luxury and may not react as positively as if they had been given time to think about the change and how they might adapt.
As with all communications, it’s all about the WIIFM – what’s in it for me. This may be different for each stakeholder group and therefore messaging may need to be different for each group.
Which is an important part of how the change is communicated. One size does not fit all. People need to know how they personally will be affected, and this may be different for each stakeholder group. They also may prefer to receive information in different ways, through different channels – town hall meetings, team WIP meetings, emails, the intranet, lunchroom posters, and any other regular communications methods you have in your organisation.
Tone is important here, too. You won’t want instructions to be perceived as directives and you will want information to be seen as inspiring. It’s all in the tone.
Perhaps the most important, though, is devising a way for communication to become two-way, so people can express concerns, fears, dissatisfaction, and make suggestions anonymously. This is how leadership learns how their people really feel and can adjust the program to show they listened, if possible. If you can’t, tell them why.
They will also be more likely to accept the change if they understand the why. Often organisation leaders think that people who don’t work in strategic roles aren’t interested in strategy. Staff are heavily invested in the success of the organisation they work for and feel greater loyalty when entrusted with important information. This doesn’t have to be commercially sensitive, simply the answer to ‘why we’re doing this’, which is often interesting, motivating, and inspirational. Most importantly, it leads to a feeling of inclusion and inclusion leads to loyalty.
In change, people talk about gaining access to ‘hearts and minds’, as well as ‘taking people on the journey’. Both of these happen when your communications resonate with people and elicit the right emotional response.
Great change communications fall into the category of simple, but not easy. This requires people with the right skills and the experience of having done it many times before. If it’s done badly, you run the risk of creating more problems than you had before, as people ignore the change, becoming disenfranchised, unproductive, and resentful. If you’re getting it right, your program has a far greater chance of moving smoothly. It will help you overcome the natural resistance and bring success as a well-informed, motivated workforce takes on the change and remains productive.
Author: Kate Dunstan
Published: 1 November 2024
Most change happens for business reasons, but it often fails for human reasons. So, whether your firm uses formal change programs or more organic methods, how you communicate to inspire that change can determine its success or failure.
Change can be confronting, in the material change proposed, or sometimes just because change makes people feel uncomfortable and insecure.
Like most communications, it boils down to who, what, when, how, and why. The who part is simple. Everyone affected by the change needs to be part of the communication. Often change programs are kept secret and then information is doled out on a ‘need to know’ basis. But secrets lead to suspicion, which isn’t a good start to getting people on board for a new way of working. It erodes trust in the people they work for.
Senior people need to be a pivotal part of the communication strategy. They are powerful during change – for good and not-so-good. Sometimes senior people are most resistant to change because they like the way things are already and how their seniority sits in that structure. Sometimes they fear losing power or seniority, sometimes they simply don’t want to take on new ways of doing things. They are just one example of why one size does not fit all in change communications. It is critical to understand how each stakeholder group is affected, is feeling about it, and then to tailor communications accordingly.
What you communicate and when you communicate it depends on the nature of the change, of course. Technical change will require instructions. Structural change will require information. Whatever the change, it is important that those affected are given the information they need to feel involved and secure. No need to bombard people with meaningless emails, just keep them in the loop. Don’t have the information yet? Tell them that. Decisions aren’t made? Tell them that, too. Just keep communicating, often and briefly.
Sometimes these things take time to work out and leadership feels they need to have all the answers before they communicate. Trouble is, while they’re fine tuning, their people are speculating. In the absence of real information, people will make it up. And what they make up is invariably worse than reality and it spreads like wildfire throughout the organisation.
All that discussion time in the boardroom is also time for the board to become used to the new regime. If the information has been held back, staff don’t have the same luxury and may not react as positively as if they had been given time to think about the change and how they might adapt.
As with all communications, it’s all about the WIIFM – what’s in it for me. This may be different for each stakeholder group and therefore messaging may need to be different for each group.
Which is an important part of how the change is communicated. One size does not fit all. People need to know how they personally will be affected, and this may be different for each stakeholder group. They also may prefer to receive information in different ways, through different channels – town hall meetings, team WIP meetings, emails, the intranet, lunchroom posters, and any other regular communications methods you have in your organisation.
Tone is important here, too. You won’t want instructions to be perceived as directives and you will want information to be seen as inspiring. It’s all in the tone.
Perhaps the most important, though, is devising a way for communication to become two-way, so people can express concerns, fears, dissatisfaction, and make suggestions anonymously. This is how leadership learns how their people really feel and can adjust the program to show they listened, if possible. If you can’t, tell them why.
They will also be more likely to accept the change if they understand the why. Often organisation leaders think that people who don’t work in strategic roles aren’t interested in strategy. Staff are heavily invested in the success of the organisation they work for and feel greater loyalty when entrusted with important information. This doesn’t have to be commercially sensitive, simply the answer to ‘why we’re doing this’, which is often interesting, motivating, and inspirational. Most importantly, it leads to a feeling of inclusion and inclusion leads to loyalty.
In change, people talk about gaining access to ‘hearts and minds’, as well as ‘taking people on the journey’. Both of these happen when your communications resonate with people and elicit the right emotional response.
Great change communications fall into the category of simple, but not easy. This requires people with the right skills and the experience of having done it many times before. If it’s done badly, you run the risk of creating more problems than you had before, as people ignore the change, becoming disenfranchised, unproductive, and resentful. If you’re getting it right, your program has a far greater chance of moving smoothly. It will help you overcome the natural resistance and bring success as a well-informed, motivated workforce takes on the change and remains productive.
