Loud and clear
How good are you at communicating change? In change programmes it would be unusual not to have a communications plan but I wonder how often the transmitters of the change messages check that the receivers have heard, understood and bought-in to what you have communicated.
Are any of these ‘water-cooler’ conversations familiar to you?
Team manager:
“My team doesn’t have a clue when the new system goes live - nobody has told us anything!”
Change lead/project manager:
“How can ‘they’ not know - we sent an email round 3 months ago and also briefed the managers last week”
Team member:
“I know the new system is going in soon but I’m not sure what I’m meant to do differently?”
Change lead/project manager:
“We told the managers to make sure their team members did the online training so they would know what’s changing for them “
What’s going on?
The project team think they have communicated everything fine, but the recipients of the change are uncertain.
I used to love the TV programme ‘Back To The Floor’ - when big bosses actually went and spoke to the people at the front line. They were usually horrified at the level of disconnect between the perspective of the workers and the senior management or head office view. Company communications seemed distant and/or irrelevant.
When I hear the kind of water-cooler conversations I illustrated above, it’s nearly always the case that there has been very little time and effort invested in checking in with the teams who will be expected to work differently and adopt new ways of working. I would say that as a rule of thumb, as much time and effort needs to be spent talking to the people who are going to be impacted by the change AFTER any communication has been sent round as time spent preparing the actual message.
With the current remote working, it’s not feasible to walk the floor, but it’s really easy to phone a few people and ask them:
“Have you received any project communications recently?”
“What did you understand from the communications?” (by the way here’s a great tip: - don’t ask if they understand the message as a closed question - really check their understanding)
“Is there anything else that would help you feel more confident about the change?”
You will be amazed how pleased people are to be asked ‘how was it for you?’. Effective two-way communication will help with adoption of change as the recipients (or survivors) of the change feel that they are being listened to and not just communicated at.
My 3 top tips to make project communication better:
Before you send any communication, get a few of your target audience to read it first. You’d never go live with untested software - think of this as testing your message
In your comms plan include tasks which will help you understand if the messages are getting across and if not, what you need to do. It could be that you drop an email to a few people or set up a quick zoom to get feedback or use a tool like Slack
Find ways to get your communication messages into regular forums like daily huddles or team meetings
Don’t assume that because you’ve sent an email to a group of people, that it will be read, understood or considered relevant. Communication is a two-way activity. Make sure that what you are communicating is heard loud and clear by your audience.
If you want help with your change agenda please do contact me: [email protected]
