Communicating change in the work place is as important as the change itself. It’s not unusual for there to be resistance to change, but, the way you communicate to your team could make all the difference to a successful implementation.
If you’re organisation is undergoing change and you want to learn more about the best processes and practices, join one of my Change Agent or Change Coach courses. Here, you will learn the theory of change and how to lead yourself and others through workplace changes no matter how big or small.
From my time in the industry and working with hundreds of businesses, I have put together some of my top tips for communicating change in the workplace.
1. Have a Plan
Within my Agile Change Agent course, we focus on building your own Agile road map for both you and your stakeholders. This is important when communicating change because it shows your team members the direction you are heading and what you need to do in order to get there.
2. Appoint Change Leaders
You can’t handle organisational change alone. You will need a team to support you. Building a change capability across your organisation is no easy feat. You can find out more about this here.
3. Training and Resources
Many people don’t undersntad that workplace change is something that can be studied for success! I have a huge amount of courses, masterclasses and other resources that you will find useful – you can sign up to my unique platform ChangeabilityPro to gain access to everything you need to become a change expert!
When communicating change, it’s important to appropriately manage the change message. Over the years I have worked with many different groups of people and have answered loads of questions about how to organise the large volume of information we need to communicate during a change. So here are some things to remember as a Change professional within your organisation.
1. Be prepared to repeat yourself many times
Not everyone enjoys change. Rogers Innovation Adoption Model usefully gives us 5 categories of preferences, from Innovators to Laggards. Innovators are more likely to listen out for information about new ways of working and new ideas. At a subliminal level these messages fit with their view of the world. However, Laggards are motivated to maintain current ways of working and will ignore any information about doing things differently for as long as possible. So, whilst the Innovators heard you first time, you will have to repeat information about the change many times before it is accepted by the Laggards.
2. Appeal to different preferences and brain functions
Neuroscience and Change is such an interesting topic and learning about the different ways our brain processes things can really help with communicating change in the workplace. Some people need the details and some need the bigger picture. Some people like facts, statistics and reasons. Others want to know how decisions were made and what their impact will be. Communications must include all types of information, explained in different ways to meet the preferences of everyone.
3. Address the most important needs first
You can use Maslows Hierarchy of Needs to make sure your communications answer the most important questions that are buzzing through people’s heads as soon as change is mentioned. Maslow put physiological needs as the first level of his model. In the context of organisational efficiency, physiological needs includes salary, pension contributions, bonuses and other financial factors.
Put simply, the first thing people want to hear is whether they are going to be a winner or a loser financially. Depressingly this information is often not communicated because there is no change to salary or benefits. This doesn’t matter. An effective change communication will address this head on so there is no room for speculation and stress.
Another key physiological need is place of work. This is because where we work has such an impact on how we live. It determines how early we have to get up in the mornings, how much it costs us to get to work and how we live our lives – based near schools or child-minders or shops or leisure facilities. Even if your location and working hours are not changing, this information needs to be clarified as soon as possible to stop you worrying.
Each of these models adds to our understanding of how to structure change communications.
If you would like more information on communicating workplace change, or if any of this points in the blog have sparked your interest, sign up to my news letter. I share regular updates about the change industry and give you resources to better manage workplace change.
If you’re considering taking a course but aren’t sure which one is right for you, take a look at my course breakdown here. If you complete any of my courses, I give you 7 days access to my ChangeabilityPro platform for free!
Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest news and upcoming training course dates
We're moving over to Capability for Change - join us there to continue your change journey.
