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Change is hard. For those experiencing it and for those trying to drive it. Effective messaging is key to success for both parties. Compelling change messaging is more than just outlining the change. To empower your team to get and stay onboard you need to cover 4 bases; this article outlines how.
‘That’s the way we’ve always done it’ has always been dangerous. But now, more than ever, ‘this is the way it will always be’ just doesn’t hold true.
I cringe at this overused phase.
But, I don’t know any business leader that isn’t implementing some form of change with their teams right now. Suddenly ever leader, manager and employee needs to be great at change management.
Researching for this article, I find statistics vary about the percentage of change programs that fail. Some citing up to 70%. Employee resistance is consistently noted in the research as a failure cause. When people are truly invested in change it is 30 percent more likely to stick.
Numbers don't matter; all that matters to you is that your implemented change sticks.
Messaging is a critical components to stickiness, in my experience.
Messaging is the content in any communication around the change; the emails, the meetings, the one on ones, the water cooler chat, the memos, the instructions, the DMs etc. What is said, how it's said, when it's said and how it's perceived when it's delivered.
Getting messaging right is hard too.
When implementing change; people don’t fear change, they fear uncertainty. Uncertainty around failure, around expectations, around belonging. For your intended changes, it’s important to prepare and address these uncertainties head on.
Change is more likely to be accepted if people are less afraid. If they can understand why it’s happening, when, how. If they can see themselves in the future post change environment, they will walk the path. Take time to understand what your team’s fears are and alleviate them as best as possible.
When I work with business leaders, we are inevitably implementing change. I developed the Messaging Map to help ensure we gather all the information we need and capture it in the communication plans. The Messaging Map is a culmination of years of experience, researching and reading books on the subject.
The Messaging Map outlines 4 core areas you need to first understand and then cover with your communications.
At a base level your team needs to believe the change will work. We all have a rational and logical side to our brain. Your team needs to understand that it will be good for the business. That there is a point to spending energy on change; a valid point.
What is the goal? We need to explain the goal, what is your objective with the changes you are implementing? Paint a picture of the future state, what does ‘there’ look like? Why is that goal important, why have we decided that’s where we need to go?
How will the changes contribute to that goal? What is the ‘cause and effect’ connection between the new ‘thing’ you are asking your team to do and the desired outcome? How does what they are being asked to do have an impact? If we do ‘this’, we will achieve ‘that’.
Leadership has spent a long time figuring out the new direction, what the new goals are and how they are going to make it happen. You analyse the environment, interpret how the world has changed and decide what needs to be done to keep the business healthy. You know why inside out.
When messaging, leadership explains the ‘how we are going to make it happen’ bit but can sometimes forget to explain the ‘where the destination is and what it looks like when we get there’ bit.
You have a clear picture. Let your team see and understand it.
As humans we are emotional. Sense of belonging, pride, enjoyment, acceptance; all emotions we want to feel. We are uncertain when we fear these feelings might be in jeopardy.
Think about when you have been facing change, change you are not in direct control of, have you worried more about the future of the business or your future?
We care our jobs, our status, our perceived value, about doing a good job. We care about our families and being able to provide for them, about paying the mortgage, about maintaining our lifestyle. We ultimately want to fit into the space we feel we ought to fit into.
As much as we are all rational, we can be irrational too. We can future catastrophise, imagine the worse and without direction potentially convince ourselves it will happen.
The messaging needs to address all these feelings. What do the people on your team care about? How will the changes make them feel better? What’s in it for them? How will it make deeper connections? Why will it represent a happy ending for me?
Your goal is likely to be something that means ‘a better business’. A better business will mean positive knock-on effects for the team, more resource, happier clients, more promotion opportunities, new hires to spread the load, more money in the bonus pot, more money for team outings. What are the things that mean something to them?
How can you connect what you are asking them to do with something they want to receive, achieve or avoid?
How will you celebrate when you get there?
Even with 100% buy-in if I don’t know what to do, I can’t or won’t do it. Make sure the steps are clear. Have you planned out what is going to happen? When it’s going to happen? What are the actions and behaviours that you are expecting from your team? Ensure you have provided instructions and training, so they know what to do.
How will progress and success be measured? Do the team understand how they can ensure any metrics attributed to them go up not down?
For complicated change, I like to use stepping stones. Particularly effective when changes require both behavioural shift and action shift.
By behavioural shift, I mean for example expecting people to communicate in a different way, perhaps to notify someone when something happens. You are asking them to behave in a different way. For action shift, I mean what they physically have to do is different. Upload a message to the new communication app for example.
Asking people to change behaviour and action at the same time is a big mental ask. In this scenario, I would consider shifting to the desired behaviours first, then implementing the app for the action change. This case study outlines successful use of stepping stones to change behaviours.
As I noted above, people don’t fear change they fear uncertainty. Take time to listen to your team’s fear. Fear is a difficult subject to talk about and depending on your relationships people might not want to open up, at least not all the way.
I find the third person method helpful. Ask your team why someone would be concerned about these changes. What concerns could these changes cause for people on the team? If we looked back on this project in a year’s time, what problems do you think we will have faced? It feels safer to talk about hypotheticals that admit our real fears.
Some of the fears will be unfounded, but absolutely need to be addressed. Some risks you may not have thought about. Some aspects you may need to form acceptance around.
Having these fears on the table, so you know what you are dealing with, will avoid resistance that you don’t understand and didn't see coming.
Messaging once won’t cut it. You will need to constantly revisit these elements as you go through your change program.
People are wonderfully complicated, wonderfully unique and wonderfully different in their perspectives. People change their minds. This means you’re unlikely to get it 100% right first time. You’ll need to listen to feedback.
Be as open to change as you are expecting your team to be.
Best of luck with your changes!
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