Communication: a key ingredient in change management

A critical success factor to managing change is the manner in which the organisation and leaders communicate. Human centric leaders are honest, empathetic, authentic and consistent with their communication. Here is a ten point checklist for communication, that in my experience, can make your approach and and effort in managing change more effective:

1. Communicate clearly
   • Sync seamlessly with teams/ employees. Why is change needed and why it’s needed at this point of time?
2. Leave little ambiguity in what you hope to achieve.
   • What is the change the company or a part of the company will go through.
   • What the other end of change looks like for the company and its employees.
3. Un-hesitatingly fall back on alignment of purpose
   • String the emotional connection around an aligned purpose consistently and honestly
4. Be clear about the “how”.
   • How will you get there?
   • Provide context to what needs to be done.
5. Don’t be afraid to speak about continuity.
   • Have honest conversation around why this strategy links to existing strategy. Or for that matter, why not.
6. Make the conversation two way,
   • Customised if not personalise for those who are ahead of the curve (the change champions) and at the end of the curve (reluctant or lagging).
7. Be positive and forward looking.
8. Get non-verbal messaging in order
   • Your verbal communication must be matched by non-verbal messages. If your company seeks to become customer-centric but the leader is you rarely refer to customers, that’s poor signalling inconsistent.
9. Decision making also reflects non-verbal messaging. Just as an example, if there is adequate resourcing and budgets for the intended change, a strong message goes across the organisation that the leadership is committed.
10. Finally, always close the loop with clearly articulated expectations, actions and continuous check-ins.

The best change and learning cultures have management, communications professionals and Human Resource or People leaders in lock step on communication.

If you’d like to know more, I have put together a blue print for approaching change, from a human centric lens. You can read it here

If you have any thoughts or reactions, do leave them in the comments. I’d be delighted if you wrote to me here or connected with me. At The Core Questin, we believe in the human centric approach and change is an oft recurring theme in our work. Do connect with us if we can help you through your unique leadership journey.

If you have any points to add to this list, I would love to hear from you. Happy to chat more about your own challenge, the role of coaching or how we can help. Do reach out.