Change is Coming, Get Ready!
In the current business environment, change is always around the corner. A business is never that far away from a major shift of some kind either internally, or brought about by external circumstances. As an organizational leader, you will without a doubt need to know how to navigate your people through change. This means not only setting the vision and strategy around a change, but also communicating the change effectively to everyone involved.
There are a lot of moving parts to a big organizational change, and many factors to consider. But for certain, the leadership team will need to devote as much effort into change communications as it puts into the change strategy itself. At its core, change is really a human phenomenon. It’s an organization’s people who determine whether a change succeeds or fails. With the right communications, leaders can build momentum that carries the company through a transformation successfully. In this article, we'll take a look at best practices for communicating change that empower leaders to bring their organizations successfully to the other side of any transformation.
Lay the Groundwork
The most successful change initiatives start long before there is even a change on the horizon. They are built on a foundation of a company’s culture of resilience and strong relationships between leadership and employees. Because the success of any business transformation depends on the people to make it work, it's essential to create an overall supportive environment where trust and collaboration are the norm. This sets the stage for deeper efforts to build a culture that isn’t upended by change, and a leadership approach that inspires confidence in the decisions made.
A Change-Ready Culture
First, creating a change-ready workforce is about the culture. Is adaptability and experimentation embedded in the way your teams do things? If not, it’s time to work on making space for creative problem-solving and flexibility among teams. Prioritize open communication and welcome new ideas. Give employees the leeway to take risks and try new things without fear of failure. As a leader, you can model this by showing willingness to try a new approach, or to adopt a team member’s suggested idea to solve a problem. This demonstrates openness and a commitment to trying new things.
A culture that celebrates experimentation and creative solutions also encourages innovation in the business. Ideally this is the environment you’d like to foster anyway– in times of stability or upheaval. If these practices ingrained the culture then you’ll find employees are already up to the challenge when facing a big organizational change.
Building Faith In Leadership
The groundwork for successful change is built on trust in leadership. The kind of trust you’ll need can not be built overnight or in the face of an overhaul. Leaders earn trust through consistent, reliable actions in day-to-day operations. Demonstrate integrity and transparency in your actions and in your regular communications. Be proactive in showing employees they are valued, and seek to form relationships. Above all, listen to them. Ask questions and be willing to engage in casual conversation that shows concern for them as people, outside of their role as employee.
By fostering two-way communication, following through on your commitments and showing empathy in ordinary interactions, you demonstrate you are a trustworthy leader who values people. It is against this backdrop of trust that leaders establish the kind of culture where their people believe in them enough to follow them, even through big, disruptive challenges.
Develop a Change Communications Strategy
Putting a change into action should start with an overall change communication plan The first step of that is to develop a compelling narrative. This statement connects the change with the company’s mission and values. This narrative will form a foundation for a shared understanding of the change and will answer the bigger questions:
● What’s changing?
● Why now?
● How will this change take place?
Most leaders find that coming together in a collaborative way is helopOnce leaders have nailed down the change narrative, develop tailored messages, to address the specific concerns of different audience segments. Though the core message will be consistent, a one-size-fits-all approach won't be enough when you communicate with different teams and functions. To capture the attention and the support for a change, communications need to be customized to address what matters most to each audience.
Tailoring the message brings in the nuance of what the change will mean to each team, and it assures people that their concerns are important to leadership. It’s critical to get the change narrative and the tailored messages right. These will form the backbone of your communications that you’re counting on to not only inform everyone, but to get people excited and willing to participate.
Empowering Key Stakeholders and Change Champions
Early in the planning process, identify key stakeholders in the change efforts. These are all the different groups of people whose support is needed for the success of the change. Key stakeholders can be leaders, employees, clients, vendors or anyone who has the potential to drive change or be affected by the change. These groups will all need to be addressed differently in the communications.
Along with key stakeholders, don’t overlook the importance of those “unofficial” change sponsors, or “change champions.” These are people in the organization who are naturally influential and have built a network of relationships through the company. Change champions serve as key influencers at the grassroots level. These individuals can bridge the gap between leadership and employees. Their voice and opinions can resonate with their peers, making them invaluable to driving successful change across the business.
Get the Message Right During Change
Reach Employees Where They Are
Effective change communication requires using multiple channels to reach employees where they are, in all corners of the organization. One company-wide announcement or a special town hall is not nearly broad enough to deliver news about a change initiative. If email is the official communication mode, but employees are more often actually talking via Slack or Teams, then those channels need to be included in your communication plan.
Channels like newsletters, town halls, Q&As, webinars, the company intranet or places where people gather routinely, virtually or in-person, all should be considered channels for messaging about the change.
Align the Message With The Sender
Selecting the right person or group to deliver each communication during a major organizational change is an important part of planning change communications. While the CEO would be best to deliver messages about the overall vision, strategy and leadership commitment, they should not be delivering messages directly to individual contributors. Individuals are more receptive to messages that impact them directly coming from their personal managers or team supervisors. Organization leaders can deliver messages to different business units. For operational changes, division heads can address the group that they are most involved with. There is better understanding and buy-in overall when the message is aligned with the appropriate sender.
Repeat The Message, Then Repeat It Again
Your change narrative may be perfect, but if you only communicate it once or twice, no one will remember it. Research from Dr. John Kotter, a renowned authority on change management, tells us effective change communication takes consistent and repeated messaging to cut through the noise and overcome skepticism. And it’s true that if the average employee receives over 100 emails per day, then that is a lot of noise for your change messaging to have to cut through.
According to the PROSCI methodology of change management, if you want a message to be effective, a sender needs to repeat it 5-7 times. Recipients miss a lot of the details the first time they see or hear a message, and since employees are constantly filtering out other messages, meetings and responsibilities, it takes a lot of repetition to be remembered and understood.
Use The “WIIFM” Method
Of course, here’s what many, if not most, employees really care about in a company-wide change: “What’s In It For Me”– known as WIIFM. We can hardly expect anyone to get excited about adopting new ways of working simply because it benefits shareholders, or because it will give your company a competitive edge. Realistically, people care about how the change can potentially make their work lives better. So this needs to be made crystal clear throughout the change process.
Employees will need to be reminded often about the WIIFM, in a way that drives home the ways the changes will impact them personally. Especially when challenges come up, WIIFM gives people a reason to keep trying. And those who have a sense of how the proposed changes can benefit them from the earliest stages of the change are much more apt to be motivated all the way through the change. Since the WIIFM can vary so greatly by individual, this is a message that is best delivered by immediate supervisors or personal managers
Integrate Feedback in the Process
Communicating change is not a one-way conduit: it is a two-way channel. Employees need to know they have a voice in the process. The communication plan should include opportunities for feedback. Provide employees a forum to talk about what’s going well, what’s not working and suggestions for improvement. This can take place company-wide, on smaller teams and one-on-one. Employee buy-in depends on feeling like an important part of the change, so encouraging feedback assures people that they are needed in the plan. And feedback isn’t just for employees, it’s helps leaders “take the temperature” company-wide, and brings to light concerns and opportunities for improving the change process.
Key Points to Remember During Change
Staying Motivated Through Change
We’ve all been a part of corporate initiatives that start off with tons of enthusiasm and ready participants, only to have efforts fizzle out before the quarter ends. Momentum can always be a challenge for any large change initiative, but there are ways to keep teams motivated through a change. Firstly, don’t neglect to connect the change initiatives to the company’s vision and goals. It’s common to get so into the weeds of the tactical parts of a change effort, that people forget the “why.” This is where it helps to have leaders who are truly excited about the visionary goals, and can inspire people so they stay connected to the broader purpose.
Celebrating Successes
Breaking big change initiatives into smaller milestones can make a long-term change initiative feel less overwhelming. And it provides those much-needed quick wins so teams can focus on things that are more easily achievable. Equally important, recognizing and celebrating small wins along the way should be formalized in your change communication process. Communicate and celebrate wins company-wide to give recognition and boost morale.
During a period of transition, there will always be some resistance, reluctance or instances when employees push back against changes. When this happens, addressing concerns openly and proactively is the best way to support people. This gives validity to their concerns, and helps them feel valued during the process.
By setting incremental goals, celebrating small successes and being proactive about addressing concerns as part of your change communication strategy, leaders cultivate a place where change initiatives can succeed.
Leading By Example
In any change initiative, leaders are responsible for modeling the kind of changes they expect of their teams. It’s really important that those directing a transformation effort don’t simply lay down the rules, then walk away. Visibility and accessibility during a time of change is critical. Your people want to see your commitment as a leader, so they feel confident to fully buy in. This is demonstrated through your communication, so it’s important that your people continue to hear from you, not just their direct supervisors, throughout the life of the change.
Preparing For The Next Wave
So, you developed a perfect communication plan for your change initiative. You’ve crafted a compelling narrative, tailored messages for each group, and ensured managers uncovered what really mattered to their teams and effectively conveyed the WIIFM in their messages. Through feedback, you improved processes, celebrated small wins, and kept employees motivated to achieve the change goals. Congratulations!
What’s next? Getting ready for the next change!
It’s now the perfect time to set the stage for the same kind of success in the future. Continue developing change management skills across teams so everyone is ready to handle future challenges. Establish a way to capture lessons learned from this change, so you can build on what worked and adjust what didn’t work. Finally, keep encouraging a proactive mindset within your organization, from the top down. This can allow leaders and teams to see big industry shifts before they reach a critical level at your organization. By doing these things, leaders not only secure your current change’s success, but you keep your organization positioned for ongoing growth and transformation.
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