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Communicating About Change
“As you know …”
How often have you heard those words when someone is talking about change? “As you know, we are outsourcing …” “As you know, our implementation will go live …” “As you know, we will be relocating operations …” “As you know, we are changing …”
Perhaps you’ve said those words yourself as you updated employees about a change initiative that was happening in your organization. I’ve certainly said “As you know” many times when I’ve talked with people about change. That’s a mistake. We need to change our mindset around communicating about change.
In fact, Caroline Langer, director of corporate communications at a global manufacturing company, and a leader with more than 30 years of experience communicating about change, has banned “as you know” from all change-related communications at her company. “I never assume I know what someone else has heard or understands about a change that’s forthcoming,” Langer explains. “Even if we’ve said something a hundred times, it might be the first time someone has finally tuned in to what’s going on.” Langer elaborates further, “We can’t climb inside someone’s head, and it would be really presumptuous of me to pretend to know what someone else is thinking. People can feel really offended when they hear ‘As you know.’ It can sound belittling and dismissive. Instead, we keep reiterating the messages in a variety of ways and through various forms of communications—memos, stories, videos, meetings, even posters—as we seek to have employees understand and accept what we’re trying to convey.”
That’s wise advice, a pitfall to avoid as we communicate about changes that are happening in our organizations. We certainly don’t want to insult anyone.
It’s funny how many traps we can fall into as we attempt to communicate about change. Just about everyone recognizes how important it is to focus on communication for our change initiatives to succeed. And yet so many organizations struggle to communicate effectively. Maybe it’s easy to see why. If three little words, like “As you know,” can offend, what other dangers lurk out there?
In this chapter, we’ll look at steps you can take to avoid the most common mistakes organizations make when they communicate about change. We’ll look at who should communicate, so stakeholders feel involved and pay attention. We’ll look at what to communicate, so employees understand what’s changing and why it matters for them. And we’ll look at how to communicate, so the messages you send have an impact and are remembered.
You’ll see that communicating effectively requires a real commitment to addressing the soft side of change. You need to communicate honestly to build trust. You need to provide lots of opportunities for employees to share their ideas and concerns so they feel like they are full participants in the change. And you’ll see that to communicate effectively, you also need to focus on the hard side of change. You need to make sure employees are clear about how their jobs are changing and what they specifically need to do to keep the project moving forward. You need to really listen to the ideas and concerns employees share so you and your project team can make better, more informed decisions.
Although the change management team oversees communications during a change initiative, many other people need to get involved to ensure that employees understand what’s happening, why, and how they’re affected. There are lots of people and moving parts you need to keep track of and coordinate. We’ll cover the steps you and your colleagues can take to create a communications plan that helps you plot out and organize the who, what, when, and how related to all that activity. Depending on where you work and your role, you might be the person who creates and executes the communications plan, or someone in your organization’s internal communications function might hold that responsibility, with oversight from the change management leader. Whether you create the plan, provide input for it, or just review it, you’ll see that communicating effectively about change requires many, many interrelated actions. It can be challenging, but you and your organization can communicate about change effectively. You may need to avoid three little words, but you still have many others at your disposal.
Who Should Communicate?
Let’s review who should communicate during a change, from leaders to managers to the project team. But first, let’s think more broadly.
Everyone
When you’re in the midst of change, who in your organization communicates? The answer is simple: everyone. A project team meets to discuss next steps. A senior leader shares impressions with a peer about how things are going. Employees gather at the coffee station and whisper about what they’ve been told and what it “really” means. A group of managers lingers after a video status-update meeting concludes to compare notes about what they should do next. When there’s change, just about everyone will talk with someone about it. There will be buzz. You can count on it.
And yet, far too often, when organizations plan communications related to change, they act like that buzz doesn’t exist. They focus efforts on crafting formal announcements and deciding when announcements should be made. They plan for “the tell” and ignore the buzz. They spend far too much time focused on what they will say, and far too little time listening.
Listening to the buzz can really matter. Organizations experience greater success with their change initiatives when they provide opportunities for two-way communication. Set up ways for employees to formally share what they’re thinking and feeling about a change initiative—whether it’s through one-on-one discussions, town hall meetings, surveys, or some other means—and you’ll find out how people are interpreting the messages you’ve sent, or misinterpreting them. You’ll learn about how things currently work, so your project team can make more informed decisions about how to change things for the future. You’ll hear concerns that, if addressed, might help generate employee support for the initiative. And you’ll help employees feel more involved with the change—as if they are active contributors to the change, rather than passive recipients—and that will help generate buy-in and support too.
Remember that, in its most basic form, all communication involves someone sending a message, the message itself, and the receiver. When thinking about who communicates change, recognize that sometimes you—and project leaders and organizational leaders—need to be the senders of a message, and sometimes you and your fellow leaders need to be the receivers.
Leaders
When an organizational consultant I know describes the worst project she ever worked on, she shudders. “The company was restructuring,” my friend explains. “Some locations were shutting down, and employees at these sites would be terminated. Other locations would absorb the work from plants and offices that had closed.” She was brought in as an external consultant to help the company’s leaders figure out how to share this news with all the affected employees. It was a tough job, no doubt. “So I met with the CEO and we scripted everything he needed to say as he met with employees at each site,” my friend says. “This is what is changing at the company. This is why. And the bottom line. So this is what will happen at this location, and this is what it means for you. The CEO practiced the script and I gave him pointers. And then the night before he was supposed to leave for his first meeting, the CEO called me and said he couldn’t do it. You have to do it.” She explains, “So there I was, flying from location to location, introducing myself to people, saying you don’t know me but here’s what’s going to happen to you. It was awful. People kept looking at me, stunned, asking, ‘And who are you?’ I never should have agreed to do it.”
My friend is right. If she could have found a way to convince the CEO, or some other senior leader within the organization, to deliver the news themselves, she should have done so. She understood that, without any personal connection to the company making the changes or to its employees, she lacked credibility. Why would people believe and accept the news she shared? Why should they do anything differently based on what they’d just heard? My friend was a stranger who just arrived on a plane and then would be gone. And yet, so often when organizations communicate about change, they make the same mistake this CEO—and my friend—did. Rather than talking about the change themselves, some senior leaders “outsource” delivery of the message. They ask the project leader to take the lead in communications. After all, they’re the expert on what’s happening each step of the way, aren’t they? Or they ask the head of human resources or the change management leader to deliver the news. People really connect with them, right? Sometimes a leader just doesn’t want to be the bearer of bad news. They don’t want people to associate the downside of a change with them. Or a leader may feel ambivalent about the initiative’s chances of success. They don’t want to risk being connected with a failure.
But for employees to actually do anything differently after a change is announced, they have to believe that their organization’s leaders support the change. For employees to alter their behavior—to attend the training, try the new procedure, commit to their new job responsibilities—they need to see and hear that message from their leaders. They can’t just be told that the company’s executives support the change. Employees need to witness it personally. They need to see that leaders have skin in the game. Employees need to see their organization’s leaders out front, willing to take the blame and hear the criticism, rather than hiding behind someone who takes the darts for them. If leaders want employees to commit to a change, they need to demonstrate commitment themselves.
Your change management role may be to coach your organization’s leaders on how they can communicate most effectively about a change. Help them plan messages, and figure out whom they need to speak with and when. Help them anticipate objections, and prepare appropriate responses. Help them “manage the crowd” during Q&A sessions. Debrief with them after town hall events. But don’t fall into the trap that my consultant friend stepped into. Let the leaders lead.
In the PCo business transformation case you read in chapter 11, Sharon, PCo’s head of learning and organizational development, recognized the role she could play in helping PCo leaders communicate effectively about change. Sharon knew she needed to help Petrina, PCo’s CEO, structure the town hall meetings that Petrina wanted to conduct so that the events provided employees with ample opportunity to ask questions and share ideas. Sharon recognized that Petrina tended to dominate discussions. She saw that she’d need to coach Petrina to speak less and listen more as she shared her messages about PCo’s business transformation. And Sharon saw that she’d need to encourage other leaders at PCo to get involved too. Petrina wasn’t the only leader who should be out there speaking about the changes that needed to happen. Sharon recognized that she’d need to coach the rest of PCo’s leadership team, too, so they’d understand the crucial role they needed to play to help employees understand and hopefully support what was changing.
Frontline Supervisors and Managers
For employees to truly understand how a change will affect them, they also need to hear about it from the person they report directly to. Frontline supervisors and managers should be deeply involved in any change-related communication. They convey day-to-day expectations to employees. They provide rewards when employees comply and mete out consequences when they do not. They’re the ones whom employees typically trust most to share news about how a change will affect them. And through their support or opposition, they signal to employees the extent to which they need—or don’t need—to get on board themselves. Frontline supervisors and managers can be a powerful force to leverage during any change initiative. And yet, far too often, organizations fail to equip them for the crucially important role they need to play.
What is that role? What does your organization need frontline supervisors and managers to do to support a change? For most change initiatives, frontline supervisors and managers need to:
• Provide details to the core project team about how work is currently performed and about needed changes, so the project team can make informed decisions as they flesh out project plans. They need to share ideas, concerns, and expected hiccups that the project team can address in advance.
• Explain changes to their direct reports, so employees understand how a change will affect them personally. Often the broad goals and purpose associated with a change are announced first by a senior leader. The frontline supervisor or manager needs to “translate” these more general plans into specifics. Supervisors need to explain what this means for the department: “Here’s why this will help. Here’s what the challenges will be for us. Here’s when this will happen. Here are the decisions we need to make as a department about how to implement the change. Here’s how you can help. Here’s how I will help you.” For example, in the PCo business transformation case, we saw that PCo wanted to completely overhaul the way its sales staff interacted with prospective customers. To make that happen, supervisors and managers in PCo’s sales organization would need to translate the broad goal of “consultative selling” into specific behaviors they expected sales staff to engage in. Sales supervisors would need to convey, “Here’s what I expect you to do to generate prospective sales,” and “Here’s how I expect you to interact with prospective customers.” And PCo supervisors also needed to ask their employees, “What do you need so you can successfully engage in these new behaviors?” and “How can I help you succeed here, given these new expectations?”
• Respond to questions from direct reports about why the change is occurring, and how and when it will affect them. Supervisors and managers need to listen with empathy as employees express concerns about the change. And they need to encourage direct reports to share ideas for making the change work most effectively in their department.
• Establish expectations and consequences as they relate to the change. Frontline supervisors need to ensure that employees participate in training, follow new procedures, or pack their desks in preparation for the company’s move to an all-virtual environment. They need to make sure that employees understand what they’re supposed to do, and they need to check in with employees to ensure that these expectations are met.
• Share information with the core project team about what’s working and what isn’t related to the change. Supervisors and managers need to collaborate with the team to help diagnose and address the inevitable problems that will occur.
• Model the change themselves. Frontline supervisors and managers need to demonstrate their support for the change by ensuring that their own speech and actions conform with what’s expected. They need to show employees that the change applies to everyone in the department, including themselves. Supervisors and managers need to demonstrate that they are willing to try out new behaviors and to learn—just like they need their employees to try things out and learn.
Everything a frontline supervisor says and does related to a change communicates volumes to their employees. So what can you do to help prepare supervisors and managers for the role your organization needs them to play?
First of all, make sure supervisors and managers are in the know. Don’t let them get blindsided by announcements that they hear at the same time as their employees. Nothing can undercut a supervisor’s support more than putting them in a position where they have to admit to employees that they don’t know what’s going on. Communicate changes to them first, before news is shared with their employees, even if it’s just 24 hours in advance. This requires trust. Your organization needs to trust that supervisors won’t share news about the change until the appropriate time. And supervisors need to trust that their organization is preparing them adequately to carry out their supervisory responsibilities. You may not be able to share with supervisors all the details about the change. You may need to let them know that things will be ambiguous for some period. You may even need to provide coaching or training to help frontline supervisors and managers lead during this time of ambiguity. But try to share as much information with them as you can.
Provide supervisors and managers with details, if known, about how the change is expected to affect the area they lead. Let them know when and how the employees who report to them will be informed about the change. Ask for feedback on that plan. Give them plenty of opportunities to ask questions and to map out, at a more granular level, how to implement the change in the department they oversee.
Clearly convey to supervisors and managers what you need them to do. Make sure they understand the role your organization needs them to play as leader of an area. And provide supervisors and managers with resources to meet these expectations. Prepare scripts they can use to communicate details about the change to employees. Create Q&A sheets, specifically tailored to help supervisors respond to questions employees are likely to pose. Coach supervisors on their communications role, and if appropriate, offer to join them during discussions they lead with employees about the change. Meet with supervisors and managers frequently to hear from them about what’s working and what’s presenting a challenge.
For example, in the PCo case, Sharon may have recognized the opportunity to involve supervisors and managers in the company’s efforts to build employee accountability. After all, PCo’s frontline supervisors were responsible for conveying to employees the results they were expected to produce. And supervisors were the ones who needed to hold employees accountable for generating those results. Perhaps Sharon could meet with frontline supervisors to hear their ideas for building greater accountability across the company. She could provide supervisors with discussion guides and other resources to use during their regularly scheduled department meetings to help them talk about accountability with their employees.
Support from frontline supervisors and managers can be key to the success of your organization’s change initiative. Help them lead. Share information with them early and often. Be clear about what you need them to communicate to their employees. Provide them with resources to help them perform their communication role effectively.
Peers
Who else do employees trust to be honest and candid with them? Their peers. Organizations often forget about the power that peer-to-peer communication can play in building awareness and support for a change initiative. Smart companies recognize that employees typically communicate most throughout the day with their immediate co-workers. They harness that power by establishing mechanisms that rely on peer-to-peer communication to send and receive messages about a change.
Possibly the best way to do that is by establishing a transition-monitoring team. From chapter 7, you’ll recall that it’s a group of employees, chosen from across the organization, who meet periodically with the project team for updates about an impending change. Back on the job, transition-monitoring-team members convey to their peers the information that was shared with them, listen for concerns, and respond to questions posed by their co-workers. Transition-monitoring-team members help correct misinformation and dispel rumors that may be floating about. They share with the project team concerns they’re hearing from their peers, to ensure these issues are addressed.
The transition-monitoring team is designed to supplement formal communications like emails and supervisor presentations. The approach helps enhance the speed and accuracy of communication about a change, and provides another vehicle to support upward communication. But even if you don’t establish a transition-monitoring team, think about the steps you and your organization can take to leverage the communication that occurs naturally among co-workers. Consider asking employees who are strong advocates for the change to talk it up with their peers. If an employee shares with you misinformation she’s heard about the change, ask her to let others know the real facts. During formal and informal meetings, ask employees about their own concerns about the change, and ask what the word is “on the street” too. Co-workers are going to talk about your organization’s change initiative anyway. Use that communication to benefit your project.
The Change Management Team
Over the course of a typical change initiative, you and your fellow change management teammates will probably find that you’re communicating with just about everyone involved with the project. You’ll meet with stakeholders to hear their needs and concerns, and you’ll convey this information to members of the core project team to ensure they consider this feedback as project plans develop. You’ll coach senior executives, managers, and frontline supervisors so they understand and successfully execute the role that they, as leaders, play to help employees comprehend what’s changing, why, and how. You’ll interact frequently with members of the transition-monitoring team. You’ll plan and facilitate meetings with transition-monitoring-team members, to help them stay up-to-date about project-related activities and to gather their input and feedback. You’ll participate in meetings with the red team to hear their ideas and concerns. You’ll communicate continually with the project leader and other colleagues on the core project team, sharing information regarding the status of project plans and plans related to communications, training, and stakeholder engagement. As you fulfill your change management responsibilities, you may feel like you’re communicating nonstop!
But as you do your job, make sure you don’t assume communications responsibilities that really belong to someone else. Resist falling into the trap that my consultant friend found herself in when she agreed to deliver presentations that rightfully should have been delivered by the company’s CEO. Use your communications plan and the RACI matrix (see chapter 10) to clarify responsibilities related to communications. Although the change management team is responsible for overseeing the creation and execution of the communications plan, you’re not responsible for delivering every message and presentation described in it. Your role is to plan, coach, prepare, provide support, and advise. Help leaders, managers, and supervisors to perform their communications responsibilities, but don’t do their job for them.
The Core Project Team
Of course, on any change initiative, core project team members will do a lot of communicating too. As they work on project deliverables, members of the core project team may feel like they’re constantly meeting with one another. They need to. But project teams need to avoid the trap of too much togetherness. They need to avoid becoming insular, and instead need to focus their communications outward. To ensure leadership buy-in, core project team members need to meet frequently with senior leaders to provide updates and receive authorization on decisions needed to keep the project moving forward. To make informed decisions and build stakeholder support, they need to meet regularly with project stakeholders—sometimes one-on-one and sometimes in group settings—to gather input and share information about what’s happening. They need to meet early and often with supervisors and managers, to ensure they’re leveraging the power these frontline leaders can sway. And to harness peer-to-peer communications, they need to share information with transition-monitoring-team members and other organizational “influencers,” and they need to make sure they’re listening to them too.
What to Communicate
Years ago, I worked with a company that—like most other organizations—struggled to find ways to control skyrocketing health-plan costs. To limit expenses, the company implemented a new policy that required employees to receive preauthorization from the company’s insurance carrier for many routine medical visits and procedures. If an employee received care without preauthorization, the insurance carrier could refuse to pay the claim. The company informed employees about the change during a series of town hall meetings. “We know that it can be stressful when you need to make decisions about medical care,” the company’s vice president of human resources explained. “So we have implemented a new approach to help you relieve your stress. You no longer need to make that decision alone. You can talk things over with the insurance company before deciding if you need care.”
Upon hearing the news, the audience erupted. “I’ll manage my own stress!” one employee yelled. “Who do you think you are to think you should do this for me?” Employees raised objection after objection about the reason the company provided for the change, often shouting down the vice president of HR as she attempted to respond. And finally, one employee raised his hand and calmly summarized what he sensed everyone in the room was really thinking. “We know that healthcare costs are rising,” the employee stated. “We understand you need to do something. Why don’t you just tell us the truth? Just let us know you’re making the change to control costs. We can accept that.” The room quieted and the vice president of HR paused to assess her next move. “Benefit costs are skyrocketing,” she affirmed. “We’re making this change to control benefit costs.” Employees in the room nodded. They asked a few clarifying questions. And the meeting ended.
Reflecting on the meeting, the VP of HR acknowledged that she had underestimated employees’ willingness to hear and accept the truth. She hadn’t intended to lie to employees. After all, it was possible some employees would welcome the chance to discuss medical care options with their insurance provider. It’s conceivable the new requirement would help reduce stress for some employees. But that was only a possible side benefit. It wasn’t the real reason the company was changing its health insurance plan. The VP of HR assumed employees wouldn’t understand or accept the real reason. But by circumventing the truth, she undermined her credibility. She misjudged, and the company’s employees called her on it.
Here’s what needs to be communicated for any change to succeed.
The Truth
We can start with the obvious. People want to know that they can trust what they are hearing. They want to know that the information they are being told is the truth. And yet, when organizations think about what to communicate—when they decide what to tell employees about changes that are happening and the reasons for these changes—they sometimes find themselves veering away from the truth. They make the same misstep the VP of HR did in the story I just shared.
Why does this happen? Often it’s because organizations think their employees can’t understand or won’t accept the truth. They think they need to come up with another reason for why they’re making the change, because the actual reason is too difficult to comprehend or is objectionable on some level. If a company is making changes to cut costs, they may assume employees won’t grasp the business fundamentals driving the change. Or they may fear that employees will argue for cuts to the executive ranks in place of the cuts the leaders had planned.
The problem, of course, is that at least some employees will see through what is being said. They will understand, or think they understand, the real rationale, and they will share that with their peers. Leadership credibility will be damaged, and employees will resist getting on board with the change. Employees will conclude that leaders cannot be trusted to be honest with them. They won’t believe what is being said about the current change. And they won’t believe what is being said about changes that will come in the future.
But what do you do if what is happening, or the rationale for the change, really is complex? One approach is to explain it three times whenever you talk about the change. Once, very briefly, provide the so-called technical explanation, or provide resources employees can review if they want to see the technical side for themselves. Acknowledge that it’s complex, but don’t be surprised if the technical explanation resonates with some people in your audience. Next, elaborate by explaining, in plain terms, what’s happening and why. Some people call this the “grandmother test”: Ask yourself if your grandmother would understand the explanation as you’ve described it. If not, perhaps you haven’t really gotten down to the fundamentals yet. Keep working at it. And finally, provide an example or two specifically tailored to the audience who is hearing the message. By hearing the complex version, the basic version, and some examples, employees will appreciate that you’re making the effort to share the truth with them.
If what’s happening is truly objectionable, you might want to take a step back and consider if your organization really should be doing it in the first place. Perhaps this is one of those situations where you need to ask your organization’s leaders for guidance about how the change fits with your company’s stated values. Of course, it’s possible your organization is in a situation where it’s forced to choose from multiple bad options. If that’s the case, say it. Let employees know that there weren’t any good alternatives available, and so leaders chose the option that seemed the least bad. Employees may object to the alternative that was selected, but they’ll probably appreciate the predicament company leaders faced. They likely have been there before too.
If you can’t share the truth about what’s happening or the reason behind it, let employees know that too. Organizations sometimes face this situation when a major restructuring is about to occur, or senior leadership changes are planned, or an acquisition or a divestiture is in the wings. This is when your organization’s leaders will need to rely on the trust they hopefully have established with employees. Let employees know that you can’t share everything with them, that they need to trust the company to do the right thing, and that the company will let employees know what’s happening, why, and how it affects them as soon as it can. Sometimes that’s the best and the most that can be done—and that’s the truth.
The Whole Truth
Sometimes organizations make the mistake of sharing only a part of the truth with employees. During a major change, they inform employees about what’s happening in the short term, but they withhold longer-term plans. They announce that a restructure is occurring within one part of the company, but fail to let employees know that it’s only the first action to occur in what is in reality a multistep plan. They deny that more change is coming, perhaps because they perceive that employees won’t be able to absorb, or will reject, the magnitude of what’s planned. The problem with this approach is that as soon as the company proceeds with the next step, trust is undermined. Employees will view each announcement coming from their leaders with well-founded skepticism. Employee commitment to the organization will falter as they keep waiting for “the other shoe to drop.”
Don’t downplay the extent of a change that is planned. Share as much of it as you can. If the next step isn’t known, it’s OK to say that. Let employees know that the organization is making the current change, will evaluate how it goes, and then decide how to proceed next. For example, you might say, “Right now, we’re restructuring the finance department to implement a service center model. We can’t say for sure whether we’ll implement that model in any other departments after the finance restructure is complete. Right now, we’re focusing on finance and will see how well the model works there. We don’t want to make any false promises about what might happen next.”
If the next step is known, it’s usually better to announce it and take steps to address the consequences. This may mean offering “stay bonuses” to high-value employees your organization doesn’t want to lose. This may mean letting employees know that the next few years will be particularly challenging. Or this may mean informing employees that the organization is entering a period of change, and that leaders will let them know what’s happening and why whenever they are able. Don’t let employees get blindsided by the magnitude of a change that is about to occur. Let them know what’s happening so they can prepare themselves adequately.
The Good and the Bad
It’s good to keep things positive, but sometimes organizations make the mistake of focusing their change-related communications only on the upside. They think they need to “sell the benefits” associated with a change, so they emphasize “the spin” and downplay the reality. The problem with this approach is that when employees encounter the inevitable downside, they’ll feel like they’ve been deceived. They’ll feel like you have manipulated them so they would get on board, and realize now that they have been duped.
Yes, be clear about the benefits associated with a change. Hopefully there will be many, and you can explain that that’s why your organization is pursuing the change in the first place. Where possible, describe the benefits the overall organization will receive, as well as the benefits the change will bring to the specific audience the message is targeted to.
But be honest about the challenges too. If it’s a software implementation, say things like, “This means you’ll now be able to do…” and then list the benefits. And “It also means that we have new procedures for doing …” and then explain the functionality that was lost. Or you can just list out the changes the new software will bring, and let employees decide for themselves what’s a benefit and what’s not. If it’s a relocation, say something like, “In our new facility, we’ll be able to … We recognize this will mean a longer commute for some people. We hope you’ll find things you enjoy at our new location that will make up for that, at least in part.”
Make sure the message is balanced. Any change has a cost associated with it. Acknowledge it. Say, “When these changes are fully implemented, you’ll be able to. … And yes, that means there’s going to be a lot of late nights and extra work over the next six months.” Avoid “happy talk” that employees can see right through. And if there’s more downside than upside for a particular group, acknowledge that too. Be frank about what’s changing, the benefits the organization will accrue, and the impact that will have on the specific audience the message addresses. Let employees know that as organizational members, sometimes they have to absorb a change that provides little benefit to them. If it’s the truth, let employees know that other changes may occur in the future where the scales will tip more in their favor.
What You Need People to Do and Achieve
Sometimes organizations communicate messages about a change that are so vague and grandiose that employees fail to understand that they play a role in bringing the change about. Leaders expound on their strategic vision for the future and the broad goals and outcomes they want their organization to pursue, without letting employees know specifically what the change entails for them. But when employees don’t understand what they’re personally expected to do or achieve to support the change, they keep doing things exactly the same old way.
Smart organizations recognize that they need to tailor specific messages to each group of employees affected by a change. They need to be clear about the “WIIFM,” or describing “What’s in it for me” so employees understand:
• Here’s what’s happening and why. In other words, here are the outcomes your organization is shooting for and the actions the organization is taking to get there.
• Here’s what you will experience and when you will experience it. The message needs to describe what the employee who is receiving the message will see, hear, use, or otherwise experience that’s different because of the change.
• Here are the benefits and challenges the change will bring for your area. Describe what is “in it” for them.
• Here’s what you need to do and when you need to do it. Describe the concrete steps and actions you need employees to take to bring the change about. If possible, describe the specific outcomes, and associated measures, employees are expected to produce.
Where possible, provide employees with choices so they don’t feel controlled. If it’s feasible, let employees know the results they need to achieve, and the expected timeframe, and ask them to plot out the specific steps they’ll take to get there. Whether you can provide options or not, be sure employees understand what they specifically are accountable for doing and achieving to support the change. Or as consultant Dawn Cocco explains, make sure each change-related message answers the questions “Why this?” “Why now?” and, perhaps most important, “Why you?” Make sure each message your organization sends clearly explains the role that members of the target audience need to play in bringing the change about.
Something for the Heart, the Head, and the Hands
What leaders say when they talk about a change reveals much about how they think. Some leaders share a lot about how a change supports the organization’s values. They emphasize benefits and how good it will feel to work at the company when the change goes into effect. Or they focus on the losses employees may suffer as a result of the change, expressing care and compassion. They describe the change in terms of emotion. Other leaders lean more toward strategy and analytics. They present charts and figures and trend lines. They discuss options the organization weighed before deciding how to proceed with the change. They emphasize the reasoning behind the change, and focus on the rational. And finally, some leaders clearly prefer to talk about action. Their messages crisply delineate what’s happening and when. They make sure employees know precisely what they’re expected to do. They describe change in terms of the tasks to be completed.
The challenge with each of these approaches is that they paint an incomplete picture about change, and by doing so they fail to address the diverse needs employees might have as they hear the message. Some employees might be focused on processing the emotions they’re experiencing related to the change, while others might want to hear about the organization’s strategy and decision making. And some might just want to get on with things. They’re ready for action. When a message focuses on a single aspect of the change—the emotional, the rational, or the tactical—it’s going to miss the mark for someone. The leader will speak, and someone will say, “I don’t know. It’s just not resonating for me.”
To avoid this trap, make sure each message you send addresses the change from both a soft, emotional perspective, and a hard, rational, and tactical perspective. Or as some professional communicators say, make sure each message includes something for the heart, the head, and the hands. Talk about how exciting the change is, or how employees may be frustrated by it. Convey care and compassion. Remind employees about the rationale for the change, and why the organization is pursuing it. Let employees know why it’s smart for the organization to make the change now. And include a call to action. Describe what employees need to do, by when, to achieve what result.
By addressing the heart, the head, and the hands in each and every message, you’re more likely to connect with the needs your audience members are facing at the moment. Those needs may change, moment to moment, for any given employee. They likely will change. But by including something for everyone, chances are you’ll hit the mark and address at least some of their needs.
Stories
Often times, people need to see and hear a change explained in concrete, tangible terms before they’ll buy into it. They need help envisioning what the change will really look and feel like before they’re willing to offer their support. This is especially true for changes that relate to abstract concepts, such as organizational values, such as “accountability for results,” or decision-making models, such as “centralized versus decentralized.” But it holds true for simpler kinds of changes too, like “We’re streamlining how to order supplies.” When organizations communicate about things that are abstract, without providing any clarifying examples, the message often falls flat for people. Smart organizations recognize they need to provide employees with a concrete picture of what is changing and why so employees can visualize how they themselves can get involved. And one of the best ways they do this is through storytelling.
Think about the last movie you saw. If it told a good story, you paid attention. The movie grabbed you emotionally. You may have left feeling inspired to do something, even if it was just telling someone else about what you saw. You remembered the characters and plot. Wouldn’t it be great if your change-related communications could do the same thing? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if employees listened with attention as they heard about your change initiative, and felt motivated to really do something to make the change a reality?
Perhaps that goal isn’t so far-fetched. In his 2020 book Instructional Story Design: Developing Stories That Train, Rance Greene describes how each of us can create compelling stories, in a business setting, that can help employees learn. Greene explains how a persuasive story presents a relatable character who takes action to address some issue, challenge, or conflict. Can you apply those same basic concepts and construct a story about some aspect of your change initiative? For example, perhaps your organization is implementing new software. Create a scenario that describes how a typical user wrestled with a business challenge and then used one of the software features to resolve the problem. Or perhaps your organization wants employees to demonstrate more initiative and risk taking to better address customer needs. Prepare a story that describes how an employee struggled with various options before choosing, perhaps wisely and perhaps not, which steps to take to satisfy a customer’s demands. Find ways to incorporate the examples you prepare into your change communications.
Of course, true stories are often more compelling than made-up ones. As your change initiative progresses, ask employees for examples about how they are experiencing the change. With their permission, share the stories you’re hearing in formal and informal communications. These stories will help employees see that the change is real. A company I worked with took this idea even further. They asked employees to submit stories about how they, or their co-workers, were demonstrating the company’s values. Each month, a selection of these stories was published in the company’s online employee newsletter. The organization wanted to help employees understand how abstract concepts like “continuous learning” and “environmental stewardship” applied in the day-to-day work they performed. They used examples that employees submitted to provide that explanation.
In the PCo case, Sharon seemed to appreciate the power of storytelling. She recognized that the company’s CEO, Petrina, was an engaging storyteller. She saw that she had an opportunity to encourage Petrina to use those skills to help employees understand, in concrete ways, what was changing and why, and what they could do to support the change. And Sharon had an opportunity to extend the power of storytelling even further. Perhaps she could ask employees to share brief examples of what the transformation looked like in their day-to-day work life. Then, with the employees’ permission, Sharon could publish these stories in the company’s newsletter.
Successes
As your change initiative proceeds, you’ll face many challenges, but you’ll have successes along the way too. Your project will reach a milestone. Some early results will look promising. Someone on your team will solve a truly nagging issue. Don’t forget to announce and celebrate these successes along the way. Leaders need to hear that they’ve made a smart choice in advocating for your project. Employees want to know that their hard work and sacrifices are paying off. Organizations sometimes hold back because they don’t want to appear overconfident. They say they’ll celebrate when the change initiative is finally complete. But when employees don’t hear anything for a while about a change initiative, they start to wonder if the change is working. Don’t fall into that trap. People need to hear that the change is in fact working, even if it’s not yet complete. Something is going well. Be sure to acknowledge it.
How to Communicate
So far we’ve discussed who should communicate about a change (everyone!) and what we should communicate (the truth!). Now let’s look at how we should communicate when our organizations embark on a change. Let’s explore the different communication vehicles that are available to us and when we should use them.
Change guru John Kotter (1996) explains it simply: However well we think we’ve communicated about a change, we’ve probably under communicated by a factor of 10 or 100 or 1,000. If you think the email your team sent was sufficient, it’s probably not. For some portion of your target audience, that email was lost among a sea of other memos. Is the town hall meeting your project sponsor led enough? Don’t count on it. Despite being physically present, not everyone really tuned in to what the project sponsor said. And even if they did pay attention, not every employee fully grasped the nuances of the sponsor’s message. Did department meetings do the trick? Probably not. Someone missed them and someone else was preoccupied by other items on the agenda.
Even if you’ve delivered a message multiple times, recognize that employees have been bombarded with lots of other communications that compete for their attention. You don’t know when, amid all this noise, employees will finally tune in to the message about your change initiative. So the message needs to be repeated often, using every communication vehicle that’s available. Here are some options to consider.
Formal Meetings
Face-to-face and virtual meetings are a great way to share information about a change, gather input that’s needed to make project-related decisions, hear feedback, and respond to questions. When they’re used effectively, formal meetings support two-way communications. Information is shared—ideally briefly—and then sufficient time is allocated for discussion.
Senior leaders often expect to receive updates via one-on-one meetings with the project sponsor, project leader, or change management leader. One-on-one and small group meetings are also an effective way to communicate with highly influential stakeholders and with stakeholders who are significantly affected by the change. Look back at your stakeholder analysis from chapter 9 and your RACI matrix from chapter 10. Who are your high-influence and high-impact stakeholders? Whom are you required to receive input or authorization from before proceeding with a decision? You want to provide these stakeholders with plenty of opportunities to share input, ask questions, and voice concerns. Arrange for announcements and status-update meetings to be conducted with them one-on-one, or with only a few other stakeholders, so robust discussion can occur.
One-on-one meetings also are usually the best way to address stakeholders who have voiced significant objections about the change, or who have expressed resistance in some other way. Chapter 14 features a structure you can follow to conduct one-on-one meetings with resisters to ensure you hear and address their concerns.
Department meetings can be used to provide announcements and updates, discuss how best to tailor the change to department needs, and address questions. As we mentioned earlier, employees often trust communications they receive from their frontline supervisor more than messages received from leaders further up the reporting chain. In the best circumstances, employees view their supervisor as a person who understands and appreciates how the change directly affects them. They believe that their supervisor recognizes the challenges department employees face as they try to implement the change. And they trust that their supervisor will represent their interests and needs during discussions with project leaders.
Here’s what you can do: Brief supervisors in advance about changes that are forthcoming. If possible, provide them with resources, such as scripts and FAQs, to announce the change to their direct reports themselves. Arrange for a core project team member to attend the department meeting with the supervisor to address more detailed questions employees may ask about the initiative. Even if employees will be hearing about the change through other sources, prepare supervisors in advance so they can meet with their direct reports immediately following the announcement to discuss implications. As the change initiative proceeds, use department meetings to provide status updates and to hear feedback about what’s working and where problems are arising. Continue to brief supervisors and equip them with resources to communicate with their teams about the change.
In-person and virtual town hall meetings send a consistent message quickly to many employees, though their impact can vary depending on the credibility and skill of the presenter. An announcement to a crowd may be well received when it’s delivered by a highly trusted senior leader who speaks to the head, the heart, and the hands. Or the message can fall flat and meet with stony silence when it comes from a leader whose credibility is questioned and whose message is packed with technical jargon and double-speak. Choose your presenters wisely. Of course, with even the most trusted and skillful presenter, it can be difficult to make these types of meetings interactive due to the size of the audience. Arrange for the formal presentation to be brief, with more time allocated for comments from participants and for Q&A. Depending on the size of audience, use a moderator to manage the flow of comments and questions.
Whether you’re meeting in person or virtually, consider using interactive polling software that allows participants to respond to inquiries and provide feedback in real time. Or arrange for in-person or virtual breakout rooms where employees can discuss in small groups different aspects of the change before reconvening and sharing their feedback with the larger group. Plan for ways to follow up on these large-scale events with more personalized and interactive forms of communication, such as department meetings, informal conversations with transition-monitoring-team members, and feedback surveys.
Informal Conversations
Most of the communicating that happens throughout each workday is conducted through informal conversations. A supervisor checks in with her direct report to see how things are going. A senior leader and a junior analyst chat during a shared elevator ride. Peers make small talk when they meet up at a coffee station. Teammates chat on a videoconference before the call officially begins. Take advantage of the frequency with which these conversations occur and use them to communicate about your change initiative. Ask supervisors and senior leaders to mention the change initiative during any and all discussions they hold with employees.
I used to work with a CEO who amazed me with his skill at working some mention of the company’s transformation efforts into just about every conversation he had with employees, whether they occurred in a formal meeting or during chance encounters in the hallway. He really personified the counsel John Kotter (1996) provides: “A sentence here, a paragraph there, two minutes in the middle of a meeting, five minutes at the end of a conversation, three quick references in a speech.” I clearly understood that the change initiative was important to the CEO because he talked and asked about it all the time. How often do the leaders in your organization mention the change initiative you’re working on? The frequency of their comments and questions communicates volumes. Ask leaders to weave references about the change initiative into all of their conversations.
If you’ve set up a transition-monitoring team, ask them to use their informal conversations to check in with co-workers too. Suggest that they use chance meetings with peers to remind them about actions they need to take or to gather feedback about how the change initiative is working for them. Let transition-monitoring-team members know they don’t need to plan formal meetings with co-workers to provide updates. While waiting for a videoconference to begin, they can check in with their co-workers to see if they’ve signed up yet for training or to ask what they thought about the training they recently completed.
Core project team members can follow this advice too. Let them know that part of their responsibilities is to communicate about the project. Sure, they’re having formal meetings with stakeholders and conducting official status-update sessions. But remind them to briefly reference the change initiative or ask for feedback as they interact with co-workers throughout each day.
Emails
Emails are an effective vehicle for reaching a large number of employees quickly with a consistent message. But they can be fraught with issues. They don’t allow for two-way communication, unless senders of the message are prepared to respond to each reply they receive. It can be challenging to convey the right tone in an email. Email messages can easily be misunderstood. People read them and can get offended. Or they don’t read them, because the email gets lost in a sea of other messages. Employees complain they weren’t told about a change, and then bristle when they hear a curt reply, “You were told. There was an email.”
But email can summarize and document messages delivered through other vehicles, like in-person meetings. You can embed links in them that direct employees to other resources, such as websites and shared collaboration spaces including Google Docs, Google Drive, or Microsoft One Drive, where project-related documents are stored. Emails can be used to send out reminders and quick one-on-one follow-ups. And emails can be used to inform employees about a change that only tangentially affects them, such as an organizational restructure occurring in a department that the email recipients rarely interact with.
If you’ve established a transition-monitoring team, ask them to review email drafts and provide feedback so you’re sure your message is clear and hits the right tone. If you haven’t set up a transition-monitoring team, review email drafts with a few stakeholders anyway to ensure that your email is understandable and inoffensive.
Consider using email as a supplemental form of communication, paired with other vehicles that support two-way communication. If you need to announce a change via email, let the recipients know when and how they will have the opportunity to discuss it further. For example, arrange for informational meetings between supervisors and their direct reports, to be held immediately after the email is sent. Just be sure to prepare supervisors for these discussions, by updating them in advance and providing them with resources, such as a discussion guide or an FAQ document.
Shared Collaboration Spaces
Cloud-based spaces designed to support collaboration, like Google Drive, Google Docs, and Microsoft One Drive, are terrific tools you and the project team can use to store and maintain documents related to the change initiative. When you save project plans, meeting notes, and presentations on these sites, you and your fellow teammates can feel confident you’re always accessing the most up-to-date version of these resources. You can also use these sites to collaborate as you prepare, review, and revise document drafts.
Some organizations use these sites to support communication beyond the core project team and change management team. They post documents, in read-only mode, that all employees affected by the change can access, such as the project charter, project plans, training plans, and presentations. Providing all affected employees with easy access to these documents lets employees know your organization’s leaders have nothing to hide—they’re happy to disclose details about the project. Just be sure to scrub confidential or sensitive information from the documents you share more broadly. You don’t want employees stumbling upon a resistance management plan or a section of the shareholder analysis where they see that they, or their co-workers, have been labeled as resisters.
Note, however, that organizations typically don’t use these sites as the primary way they’re communicating with employees. The sites just serve as an extra resource employees can access if they want to see more details or review a presentation they might have missed.
Websites and Social Media
You can use internal websites to share details about a change initiative. If your organization is migrating to a “work from anywhere” environment, set up a site that employees can access to learn more about policies governing the change, tips for staying in touch with co-workers and supervisors, facts about the technology they need to use to conduct meetings, and best practices for managing a virtual workforce. If you’re implementing new software, create a website that shares tips and tricks, links to online learning, and instructions for transitioning from the old software to the new. Refresh the website with new content frequently so the site doesn’t become stale. Most websites are set up to support only one-way communication, so use them in combination with other approaches, such as in-person or virtual meetings, that allow for more interactivity.
If appropriate for your organization, consider communicating with employees on whatever forms of social media they use most, such as Twitter, Facebook, Slack, Instagram, or blogs. These tools can be useful for sending out reminders, celebrating successes, and sharing news about the change initiative. Some employees disconnect periodically from social media, and some never connect at all. So consider social media as a supplement to other forms of communication, like face-to-face and virtual meetings. And before using any form of social media, be sure the tool fits with your organization’s culture. Some people find social media to be frivolous or intrusive, while other people live by it. Consider what fits best for your organization.
Visual Reminders
Use posters, video screens, and online banners to remind employees about the change and the action they need to take, whether it’s to purge outdated files before the company installs new document management software, enroll in a training program, or complete a survey. Place visual reminders in locations where employees congregate and linger, such as in lobbies, at coffee stations and break areas, outside elevators, and inside elevator cabs. I know of some organizations that post simple fliers inside bathroom stalls. They refer to these fliers as “potty lines” and change them up frequently so employees will check them out to see what’s new. Another organization writes short reminders in chalk on sidewalks between its buildings. “People look down when they walk, and they assume anything written in chalk must be new,” the organization’s change management leader advises. “We don’t know why it works, but it does.” Some organizations use banners on login screens and home screens to send reminders to employees.
Just think about any physical or virtual place that employees visit on a regular basis. How can you use it to remind employees about the change? Refresh what they’re seeing frequently so the message doesn’t become stale or fade into the background. Change visual displays often so employees keep checking in to see what’s new.
T-shirts, coffee mugs, and other forms of marketing swag have their place. They’re static, visual reminders that can be used to promote the change to employees and create a feeling of camaraderie. Who doesn’t like getting something for free? But spend wisely. You don’t want employees to think you’re wasting money on frivolous giveaways that should have been directed to securing resources the organization really needs.
Videos
Prerecorded videos can reach a large number of people quickly, and they help ensure you’re presenting a consistent message too. But they only allow for one-way communication. With video alone, you won’t know how people are receiving your message. You won’t know what they understand, object to, or have questions about. When you announce a change using a prerecorded video, employees may conclude that leaders aren’t open to hearing questions or feedback. They may perceive that leaders are “hiding.”
If you need to reach a large number of employees quickly, consider if other mechanisms that support two-way communication, such as in-person or virtual town hall meetings, will work. If you do use a prerecorded video, see if you can pair it with another mechanism that supports two-way communication. For example, perhaps employees can watch a video followed immediately by a discussion that’s scheduled with their frontline supervisor or another leader. Just be sure to prepare supervisors for this discussion by updating them in advance and providing them with resources, such as a discussion guide or an FAQ document. Or pair a prerecorded video with a short survey, where employees can react to what they’ve seen, rate the extent to which they understand it, and submit questions and feedback.
Avoid investing in prerecorded videos that appear expensive and over-produced. Well-crafted videos can help reinforce messages you send via other channels. But you don’t want employees questioning how you’re spending what everyone knows is a limited budget.
Surveys
Surveys and polling software provide employees with formal opportunities to give feedback. If you design the survey or poll to allow employees to respond anonymously, employees may feel more comfortable sharing their honest opinion. As your change initiative proceeds, consider embedding links to short pulse surveys in emails and websites. A two- or three-question survey can help you get a read from employees about how things are going. Surveys also can help you gather input when your team is weighing multiple options and you need to find out which choice employees prefer. Polling software provides the same benefits, and can be used during large-scale meetings (in-person or virtual) to capture employee feedback in real time.
If your team conducts a survey or poll, be sure to actually use the information you collect. Share a summary of the feedback with survey participants so they know that you have reviewed their input. And let employees know what you have decided to do—and why—now that you know what they think. Employees become cynical when they believe they’ve taken the time to share their opinion but it appears their feedback has been ignored. Before you ask employees for their feedback, be sure you’re prepared to hear and use it!
Actions
Of course, what you do communicates far more than what you say. Does a leader need employees to try the new software? Has he demonstrated that he’s trying it himself? Are employees supposed to attend training on a new procedure? Their supervisor needs to ensure they have the time to participate, and she needs to make sure she attends the training too. Did the project sponsor assert in a public gathering that the change initiative is one of the top priorities for the company this year? If so, the company needs to commit appropriate resources, in terms of personnel, time, and funding to the project, to ensure that progress is made.
When employees see actions that conflict with what they’ve been told about a change initiative, especially when they sense that their company leaders are engaging in behavior that’s incompatible with the change, they become cynical. They question why they need to get on board and make any changes themselves. After all, how real can the change be if what they’re seeing and experiencing doesn’t jibe with what they’ve been told? Perhaps they should just hunker down for a while and let it pass.
Coach leaders so they appreciate the power of their own behavior. Explain that employees won’t commit if they suspect that their leaders aren’t committed themselves. Let leaders know that employees are watching them to see how much weight to give to what they’ve been hearing. Help leaders see that their actions communicate far more than their words.
Are you trying to decide which of these approaches to use for your change initiative? Maybe you don’t need to choose. Perhaps you should use all of them, in combination, as you address each communication challenge. Consider your options in Table 12-1.
Table 12-1. Communication Tools for Any Purpose
| When You Want To … | Communication Vehicle to Consider |
Inform or update senior leaders or high-influence, highly affected stakeholders, and hear their ideas and concerns |
One-on-one and small group meetings that allow plenty of two-way discussion |
Hear and address concerns from someone who has voiced objections or is otherwise resisting the change initiative |
One-on-one meetings following the structure provided in chapter 14 |
Ensure that employees who are affected by the change trust what they are hearing and can provide input to how the change is implemented in their area |
Department meetings led by their supervisor |
Send a message quickly to a large group of people |
In-person or virtual town hall meetings or emails, paired with forms of communication that support two-way communication, such as department meetings, polling, and surveys |
Inform or update employees who aren’t significantly affected by the change |
In-person or virtual town hall meetings or emails |
Provide access to shared documents related to the change initiative, such as project plans, training plans, and presentations |
Emails with embedded links, websites with embedded links, and shared collaboration spaces such as Google Docs, Google Drive, and Microsoft One Drive |
Remind employees about actions they need to take related to the change initiative |
Informal meetings, emails, websites, social media, videos, and visual reminders |
Provide employees with an opportunity to give anonymous feedback or share their opinion about an option your team should pursue |
Anonymous survey or poll |
Provide opportunities for two-way communication |
One-on-one meetings, department meetings, town hall meetings with ample time for comments and Q&A, informal conversations, and surveys/polls |
Build employee trust and communicate that the change is really happening |
Actions that are consistent with messages sent via other vehicles |
Look again at the communication vehicles you’re thinking about using. Will they help support two-way communication? Will employees tune in and pay attention to them? Will they remind employees about actions they need to take related to the change? No single communication vehicle addresses every need. Perhaps you really do need to use them all!
Pulling It All Together: The Communications Plan
As you and your project team make decisions about who will communicate, what messages will be communicated, and how messages will be shared, organize what you’ve discussed in a communications plan. A communications plan will help you keep track of the many ways in which communications will occur over the course of your change initiative and will help you monitor progress and make adjustments as your initiative unfolds. Your communications plan can help clarify who needs to hear what, by when, and from whom. The plan also can help ensure that everyone associated with your project understands their responsibilities and commitments as they relate to change communications.
If your organization uses project-planning software, check to see if the tool can be used to create a communications plan. Some software packages include templates for building these plans. But it’s also easy to create a communications plan using Microsoft Word or Excel. That’s what Sharon did in the PCo case you read about in chapter 11. Table 12-2 shows the plan she started to sketch out.
Table 12-2. PCo Communications Plan (cont)
Here are the basic elements to include in your plan.
Communications event. What is the communication action that will occur? For example, is this a town hall event where the change initiative will be announced to a group of affected employees? Is this a regularly occurring status-update meeting with key stakeholders? Is this a pulse survey to gather feedback from affected employees? Is this a quick and informal check-in between transition-monitoring-team members and their peers? Identify the action that’s planned.
Key message. What are the specific messages that will be sent during the communication event? For example, the message may be “Our office is relocating on March 3, 2022, to Ypsilanti, Michigan, because …” or “Here are instructions for packing in preparation for the move” or “We want your input about which date works best for the move” or “Convey concern for employees whose commute will be longer because of the move.” Make sure the message is tailored to the specific audience the communications event is targeted to reach. Remember to be clear about the WIIFM. In your communications plan, you don’t need to lay out a detailed script. Just summarize the key points that need to be conveyed, tailored to the specific audience who will be hearing the message.
Audience. Which specific stakeholder group will receive the message? Who will attend the town hall event? Whom will the email be sent to? Who will have access to the website?
Sender/messenger. Who will deliver the message? If it’s an email, who is the sender of the email? If it’s a presentation, who is delivering the presentation? If it’s a department meeting, will frontline supervisors deliver the message, or will you arrange for a senior leader or member of the core project team to attend and speak?
Start/end date. When will the specific communication event begin and end? If it’s an announcement email, when will the email be sent? If you plan to send updates via a monthly newsletter, when will employees begin seeing stories in the newsletter? When will these stories end? What else is your organization communicating that may compete with this message for employees’ attention? When should you send this communication so employees focus on it?
Frequency. How often will this specific communication event occur for this audience? For example, is this a one-time-only town hall event, or will town hall meetings occur for this stakeholder group once each quarter? If this is a status-update meeting with project sponsors, will this occur monthly? Weekly?
Owner/creator. Who is responsible for preparing the communication? For example, who will create the presentation, arrange the town hall meeting, or draft the email that’s planned?
Be sure to identify each communications activity you have planned. List out separately each action that addresses a specific audience with a specific message. That way you can plan and monitor it most effectively. For example, perhaps you’re planning a town hall meeting to announce an organizational restructure, and intend to follow up with department meetings conducted in each of the three affected departments. That’s four separate communications events to plan and monitor: one town hall meeting attended by all of the affected employees, and three separate department meetings, each led by a different department supervisor and attended by the supervisor’s direct reports (Table 12-3).
Table 12-3. Communications Plan Example A
You can list a recurring action as a single event. For example, if you plan to conduct biweekly update sessions with the transition-monitoring-team members, you can list that as a single event in your Communications Plan (Table 12-4).
Table 12-4. Communications Plan Example B
After you’ve prepared an initial draft of your communications plan, use this checklist to step back and ask:
Does the plan appropriately address who needs to communicate?
• Does your plan reach each stakeholder adequately and appropriately? Take a look at the stakeholder analysis and RACI matrix and then check out the details you have outlined in the communications plan. Are there stakeholders identified in the stakeholder analysis that you don’t have any communications events targeted to? Which stakeholders have you indicated in the RACI matrix need to be kept informed, and is that reflected in your communications plan? What needs to be done to address any gaps?
• For each communication event that’s planned, have you selected the right sender? Does the target audience view the messenger as credible and trustworthy? If not, is there someone else who is better positioned to send the message?
• How are you involving each person who needs to communicate about the change?
○ Leaders
○ Frontline supervisors and managers
○ Peers
○ The core project team
○ Everyone affected by the change
Does the plan appropriately address what to communicate?
• Do messages convey:
○ The truth
○ The whole truth
○ The good and the bad
○ What you need people to do and achieve
○ Something for the heart, the head, and the hands
○ Stories
○ Successes
Does the plan appropriately address how to communicate?
• Take a look at the stakeholder analysis. Did you capture the forms of communication each stakeholder group prefers, and does your communications plan reflect those preferences?
• How are you leveraging informal communication? Should you ask senior leaders, project team members, and transition-monitoring-team members to mention the change initiative in their day-to-day conversations?
• Does your plan include sufficient actions and enough repetition of key messages for each stakeholder group? Remember, employees won’t tune in to each message you send. Be sure to use multiple communication vehicles to send each message. If you’ve sent a message via email, do you need to follow it up with a mention during a department meeting? Do you need transition-monitoring-team members to check in with co-workers to make sure they’ve read and understood the email? Are you providing enough reminders?
• Have you provided enough opportunities for two-way communication? Do you need to build in additional small group discussions? Do you need to plan for multiple pulse surveys throughout the course of your project?
• How are you using the different communication vehicles we reviewed?
○ Formal meetings
○ Informal conversations
○ Emails
○ Shared collaboration spaces
○ Websites and social media
○ Visual reminders
○ Videos
○ Surveys and polling software
○ Behavior
With your draft communications plan, check in with stakeholders and members of the transition-monitoring team, if you’ve established one, for their feedback. And as your change initiative unfolds, keep checking back with them to see which communications are working and which parts of your plan need to be adjusted. Keep adding to your plan as additional communication needs arise and additional actions are identified. Think of your communications plan as an evolving document that will need to be adjusted throughout the course of your project.
About to Begin?
Are you about to begin preparing communications for a change initiative that’s happening in your organization? As you develop your plan, ask yourself:
• Have you thought about everyone who is affected by the change? Check your stakeholder analysis and RACI matrix to make sure you’ve assembled a comprehensive list.
• How will you communicate with each of these stakeholders to ensure you balance telling with listening?
• How will you convey the WIIFM to each stakeholder group, so they clearly understand what’s happening, why, and what they’re expected to do to bring it about?
• How will you leverage all the communication vehicles available to you?
• Whom will you check with, and how, to make sure your communications plan is working as the change initiative unfolds?
Of course, employees not only need to know what they are expected to do to support a change; they need to know how to do it too. Effective communication is crucially important for your change initiative to succeed, but it’s typically not sufficient. Often employees are aware of a change, and really want to actively participate, but they lack the ability to translate their good intentions into action. In chapter 13, we’ll address that gap. We’ll look at steps you can take to help employees build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to support a change. You’ll see that, just like with communications, the actions you plan need to extend far beyond a single training “event.” You’ll need to provide many training activities that work in combination to help employees build the right knowledge, skills, and attitudes. You’ll also see that the impact of what you plan can extend far beyond the current change initiative. The decisions you make about training can influence how employees experience change today and their willingness to embrace changes in the future.
Learn more. Check out:
Greene, R. 2020. Instructional Story Design: Developing Stories That Train. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.
Johnson, E. 2017. “How to Communicate Clearly During Organizational Change.” Harvard Business Review, June 13.