For something so omnipresent, so talked about and so important, organisational change fails far too often – and most of the time, it’s the way we share information throughout our businesses that lets us down. Here are four golden rules of change communications to make your next transformation project a success.
1. Think communications from the beginning
Bringing in the comms team at the last minute to write key messages and rollout a plan will result in failure. That’s not how you’d approach financial management, so don’t make the mistake of thinking you can retrofit strategic communications. Instead, start your project planning – yes, at the very beginning – with communications expertise at the table. The decision to embrace change, or not, is a personal one, so ask: ‘Who needs to change, and what will they want or need to know in order to make and stick with the decision to change? What’s the most credible, effective way to deliver that information to them, and when does it need to happen?’ If you don’t want to waste time and money trying to sell the unsaleable, or talking to the wrong audience, communications thinking must come first.
2. Tell the truth
Things go wrong inside organisations, as they do in life, and lots of unexpected challenges emerge during change. It is neither scandalous nor unforgivable to make mistakes or to fail, but it is catastrophic to ignore or deny problems once they’ve begun to surface – because someone in your workforce already knows, and word spreads fast. If you fail to transparently report the bad stuff, as well as the wins, your people will quickly become unable to trust you, and unwilling to follow. Consistently sharing all the news, ‘warts and all’, will give staff confidence in the change project, and build lasting credibility for the people managing it.
3. Avoid key message overkill
Key messages that remind us why we’re all here, what our organisation stands for and what we believe in are important during change – but only a little bit. Change is not a vision or an inspiration: It’s a matrix of new processes and systems and workflows, it’s a lot of hard work, and it can get pretty boring at the coalface. So if you want your people to implement your change, you need to tell them exactly what is changing and when, what resources and supports (such as training or new kit) you’ll be providing, and how their individual and collective change performance will be measured and evaluated. As a guide, you should plan on having this hard core of ‘need to know’ information account for about 80 per cent of your change communications output.
4. Celebrate success
Regularly showcasing employees’ commitment, effort and achievement inspires contribution and creates a high-performance (and therefore change-ready) culture. During project planning, and throughout implementation, look out for project milestones that hold meaning for your workforce, or key groups within it. Lavish, alcohol-fuelled events are never a good look in the midst of a change program, but feel-good gatherings with modest catering, attended and addressed by the CEO, yield big returns on investment. These events also provide text and especially image content that can be published on company channels and/or shared by staff, helping to spread and embed a positive change narrative.
Change fails to deliver the sought-after benefits if it is not underpinned by an effective communications program. To get help preparing your organisation for successful change, use the contact page or email enquiries@jaynedullard.com.au.