Change Communications

The following are extracts from an email bulletin board discussion that I am following. I couldn’t agree more! We all, myself included, tend to get distracted by modern shiny technology… but are we not forgeting something important??!

The problem: how we can we as communicators help change organizational behaviours

A couple of replies:

Since I’ve been in similar situations, I’ll tell you what I’ve done in the past. I’ve identified folks who don’t participate and I’ve taken one, two or three out to lunch (always one on one) or out to coffee (by ‘out’ I mean outside of the building, if possible) and I’ve talked with them very honestly about my concerns. And they’ve been flattered that I cared about what they thought and told me things I’d never even considered and had no idea were going on! It gave me real insight into employees’ needs and how staff reacted to what was being said and - guess what- all kinds of issues came up that no one understood or appreciated. As a result, I adjusted my communications strategy, which ended up in being better and more effective.

So my advice is: Take people out to eat.

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I sometimes think the best communications tool available to internal comms practitioners is the $2 cup of coffee.

I know it sounds “corny” and certainly it lacks the glamour of a podcast, blog or intranet. However what could make for more meaningful communications than buying someone a cup of coffee, getting their undivided attention for 10 minutes and finding how they feel about the issues?

The strategic trick of course is to have coffee with the right people: those that others in the workplace look to advice, support, opinion or guidance. Get “key influencers” onside and chances are you will win over others in their network.

“Key influencers” can do three things for the internal communicator. Over coffee they can:

1. Tell you what’s on people’s minds and the type of information they really hunger for.
2. Help you convert company corporate speak in to the language of their “workplace tribe”.
3. Identify the informal opportunities (ones that will never make it into your comms planning) to get the message out.

Perhaps the lack of enthusiasm for change could come right back to the boss talking about change and forgetting to mention the end result. Mangers must paint he big picture and show people when they should stand in the group portrait. What’s the point in struggling up the summit of the mountain if we have no idea what we will see when we get there. Our experience suggests that people react best when managers talk in terns of the “challenge” rather than just change.

Source: Melcum Comms Network