There's no simple textbook method to planning, announcing, implementing and communicating a change initiative. Change is uncomfortable and adapting to change is commonly messy: your full color flow-chart with timestamps and action items does not make the change experience painless for the impersonally-labeled “Remaining FTE Synergies.” Of course, objective tasks are important to list and assign, but subjective behavior and long-held manners are not easy to change.
To place this into today’s marketing parlance, when communicating material, holistic change (upheaval) at your company, you need to “Map the Employee’s Buyer’s Journey. I just made that a thing.
- First, ask yourself what precisely is changing and why. Too many communications are weighty towards “motivational jargon” rather than the material matters of what the jargon means in the day-to-day work reality of the employees. You must connect that dot for your company, i.e. what does it mean when the CEO says the company needs to be more responsive? What activities characterize a so-called client-centric organization? Get to the communications core of what you're trying to achieve from an organizational or behavioral change. Be specific to your company.
- Define the outcome you need from the change initiatives and the communication program and tactics. What's the call to action for the communication program? What operational or process changes are under way that deliver the framework for the preferred results and behaviors?
- Invite in the communication strategists from the very beginning of the considerations regarding the change. Don’t just engage the communications team after any bad repercussion are in full force with the leaks and rumor mills running amuck. Corporate counsel or a MBA who has PowerPoint is not qualified to understand how the people of the organization will respond to change and what information they'll need. Their expertise is best suited for legal and liability perspectives as well as cost cutting, not communication.
- Share the information with employees as soon as possible. This is a real quandary in public companies, where shareholder communication (and RegFD) is a priority and employees hear about a merger or reorganization in Twitter on their way to work. Once fear and insecurity are fueled, you’ll burn a lot of time getting back to a place of order, understanding and productivity. Meanwhile, many employees will be heading for their desks to update resumes and to call employment recruiters.
- Keep in mind that quantity is fine, but quality and consistency are crucial. You can't communicate too much, but you can communicate too much insignificant or insensitive information. You can't communicate too much significant, substantial information.
- Think long-term. Remember, change often starts with the announcement of a merger or other enterprise level change initiative. Many CEOs and managers undervalue the length of time required by a change cycle – unfortunately demonstrated by reports of poor performance following many mergers, acquisitions, IPOs and other change initiatives. People and organizations cannot change in a week or even a year. You’re communicating to affect some very deep-rooted habits.
- What are the persona of your employees? Use a variety of communications with employees, as you are “marketing” to them. One email from the CEO, regardless of its sincerity, will not sell anything. Just like with your products and service to prospects, redundancy and repetition are needed in creating an effective “Employee’s Buyer’s Journey” communication program.
- Give employees various opportunities to share concerns, ask questions and offer ideas. Make following up with answers and updates a top C-suite priority. The more people are engaged in the process, the fewer you'll have walking out the door or worse, staying and becoming internal saboteurs.
- Don't consider the change processes (visioning, chartering change teams, planning, bullet-pointed PowerPoint presentations) with communication. While those meetings and processes can be mindful communication tools in the context of a broader program, they aren't adequate to meet the rigor of change communication.