Organizational change is a common occurrence in
today’s work environment. In your
career, you will probably have to lead the organization through changes such as
mergers and acquisition, restructuring and layoffs and new management and
strategy implementation.
One of the key ingredients for successful
leadership during periods of organizational change is a well-planned and
executed communication strategy. The
change will not be successful if it is not communicated effectively.
Carefully consider the following six steps when
communicating an organizational change:
1. Consider the audience.
As with any communication, first you have to
consider your audience. Who will be on
the receiving end of this communication?
In most cases, you will have several groups, including the managers,
individual contributors, support staff and others impacted by the change.
Each group has its own needs and you have to
consider how the change affects each group.
You need to be able to make it clear why the change is happening and
answer their questions: “How will my work change? What is expected of me? How
will I be measured?
2. Create a consistent message.
It is crucial to be clear and consistent about
the message you are communicating. Why
is the change happening? The message should be clear and concise – no more than
a few sentences. The core of the message
should be the same and then the impact should be tailored to each audience:
"here is the reason for the change and here is how it impacts you."
Be careful with having an "official"
message that is different from the "real" reason for the change. I once consulted with a utilities company
that was planning to update its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software,
which would have a significant impact on many employees’ daily tasks. The company planned to announce the upgrade
as a response to the employees’ request to have more real-time information in
the field, even though this feature would not be available for several
years. And the real reason for the
change was that the vendor was no longer going to support the current software version,
something the company had known about, and hadn’t dealt with, for a long
time.
I strongly recommended that they tell the
employees the full truth now, because the real reason would trickle out into
the organization anyway and undercut the environment of trust that the
leadership needed to create. Honesty – especially upfront rather than
after the truth is discovered - is the best policy.
3. Consider how the message will be communicated.
You should consider that how you communicate the
message is just as important, if not more so, than what you communicate. There
are many ways that you can communicate the change. You could use a special all-company meeting,
one-on-one meetings with affected individuals, a mass email from the department
head or a small paragraph on the company intranet.
For example, if you hold a special all-company
meeting to announce the change, employees will get the sense that the change is
a big deal. On the other hand, if you
just slip it into the last line of an email that gets sent out on a Friday
afternoon, people may either not see it or think you are trying to hide it.
Weigh the pros and cons of having everyone hear
the announcement at the same time versus using small group or individual
announcements. The method you choose
depends on many factors, including the change you need to communicate, the
people you need to communicate it to and the company culture in which you need
to communicate it.
If you are communicating the message in person,
be aware of your non-verbal communications, such as eye contact, facial
expression and tone of voice. These
non-verbal elements should convey sincerity, confidence and empathy:
"I'm telling the truth, I know what I'm talking about and I care how it
affects you." Also decide in advance how questions will be handled
and by whom.
While it is essential to follow any regulatory
and legal requirements about how and when you announce the change, remember to
be empathetic and speak in plain English rather than in legalese.
4. Follow-up after the communication.
One communication about the change is not
enough. It's important that there be
frequent follow-up to ensure that people receive the message and to address any
questions or concerns. This interaction
will help you determine what/how to communicate next. Informal channels of communication are also
valuable during the follow-up because people may be more open about their perceptions
of the change when they're standing around the water cooler or in the parking
lot than when they're in formal meetings.
You also want to be close enough to your
employees that they share with you their real concerns and any rumors that
might be floating around the organization.
I once worked at a company going through major layoffs. The CEOs sent frequent emails to all
employees, not just giving us updates, but also addressing rumors that had come
to his attention. Some of these rumors were wild, but he was able to quash them
and calm people down. His emails, which
he wrote himself, made people feel like he was connected, in charge and knew
what was going on at every level.
5. Understand the cycle of change.
Change management expert William Bridges has a Human
Cycle of Change model with 3 stages:
· Endings: the initial stage
when experiencing change, during which people may experience shock, denial,
mistrust and paralysis
· The Neutral Zone, the in-between stage
where the old way is gone but the change has not been fully implemented yet,
during which people may express confusion, anger and negativity; and
· New Beginnings, the final stage where
the change has been implemented, during which people are moving towards
acceptance, optimism and increased productivity.
Bridges
emphasizes that even positive and rational change can involves loss and
uncertainty and that people go through transitions at different speeds and in
different ways.
It’s important to note that you as the leader
and the organization have to pass through these three stages. Your job as a
leader is to provide not just the information about the change, but also the leadership
and emotional support to help your employees through the transition so they can
become familiar and comfortable with the new reality. Listen to your employees’ concerns and
empathize with their emotions – and remember that listening and empathizing does
not have to mean that you agree with them.
6. Be visible and committed to the change.
The worst actions you can take after announcing
a change is to go on vacation or hide in your office. Your employees need to see you going about
your work, with optimism and energy. Reinforce
the change and manage by walking around.
Your goal is to hear their questions and make it easy for them to
approach you with concerns.
Be alert to people backsliding in their
commitment to the change and address any resistance immediately. If they don’t understand what the change is
or why it is happening, you need to communicate the why and what. If they don’t know how to do the new work,
provide training. If they don’t believe
in the change, you have to provide leadership to convince them. And if they just don’t want to change, then
you have to move them out of the organization.
In your enthusiasm for the new beginnings, be
careful not to demonize everything that happened in the past. Past organizational structures or managers
may have been effective, even partially, and blaming them for all current
issues is simplistic and risks alienating people who have a connection to the
way things used to be done. Yes, the
change should make work more efficient and productive, but that doesn’t have to
mean that the old way was completely devoid of value (and remember that today’s
“wonderful new way” will too often become tomorrow’s “horrible, unproductive
old way”).
Change happens.
Carefully and confidently communicating the change will help you
implement it more successfully and make it easier for your employees to become
comfortable with it.