Change Communications

People are emotional beings. Such a simple, yet powerful phrase. In my current work environment it is also refreshing and almost revolutionary.

Understand that your co-workers are emotional beings, like you, and you can start being able to connect with them.

I won’t claim to take credit for this, but I recommend you read more on Malcom O Munro’s excellent blog:

• An example of the case in point: Curious About What Motivates Employees? Try Asking Them!
• More about Emotional Intelligence: So How “Smart” Are You?
  

I have completed the move from a hosted Blogger service to my own domain and host at http://www.changecommblog.com. Please update your bookmarks.

My feed, for syndicated content, will remain: http://feeds.feedburner.com/changecommunications

Thanks for your understanding!

I recently had the opportunity to put into practice some crisis communication principles and I thought I’d share my experience with you.

“Crisis” communication is not just limited to big corporations facing a major incident, such as the recent Dell product recall or the Enron bankruptcy. These basic communication principles can be applied to any situation of any scale. Here, they are applied to project management in the IT sector.

Context

Complex fixed-price IT integration project; the timeline is very tight and delivery an imperative. Delay or mis-management of costs will directly impact the project’s profitability.

Half way through a project phase, financial imperatives cause our client to review the overall project timeline and postpone many activities we are currently working on to 2007. The team management and myself learn this news during a conference call.

Situation one hour after client’s announcement

The news has already spread amongst our teams by word of mouth. Many are talking of an immediate halt to all activities.

Communication objectives

• Correct and prevent rumours and false information from spreading.
• Reassure the teams and maintain focus and motivation on activities underway and upcoming delivery priorities.
• Inform of client’s new strategy

Impact analysis for the different populations concerned

Communication needs are not the same across the team. Teams located in the central project offices will be heavily impacted by the changes. An uncertain number will need to leave the project. Those in remote locations are less impacted as they are in the final phase of their work.

Immediate action planned

Meeting with all team members as soon as possible. Conference call for managers not in central locations. Key messages (communication brief) provided to those managers for relaying locally.

Summary of key messages

1. “The facts” Factual elements relating to the client’s change of strategy

• Strategy change for budgetary reasons: Capex / cash flow
• Completion of roll-outs currently underway
• Roll-out of next version (currently status: development finished, tests underway) postponed to July 2007
• Deployment next version +1 postponed to January 2008

Decision taken for budgetary reasons, not unhappy with our services. Read client feedback received by email.

2. “What is going to happen for me?” The impact of this change for the teams.

The team members are looking for some clear information about their personal future. For me, this is the most important part of the communication. It is currently too soon to communicate on what will change as a result of this decision. There is much uncertainty. Announce that the situation is very complex and not yet clear. We have contractual commitments that are still valid and require discussion and modification with client.

Be precise about what the Team management expects from the team members. This can be summarised as: “Do not change anything for the moment. Continue to work on what is underway. We will share more information as soon as the appropriate decisions have been taken.”

• Much uncertainty.
• Any change to planned activities will depend on the modification of our contract.
• Prepare yourself for change but do not pack your bags to go home tomorrow.
• We will keep you informed.

Moving forward

• Associate key team members in workshops taking place (defining the change).
• Accelerate communication: make available decisions as their are taken.
• Make messages very simple and very clear.

(Translated from French.)

Quotation: Crisis Communication

On the same topic as the post above…

Here is one company’s approach to communicating on a major business crisis. Skim-read the post (it’s long!) and form your own opinion and then confront it with the customer feedback at the bottom.

DreamHost blog

What I noted is a considerable amount of admiration, praise and understanding. OK there are disgruntled customers but the balance is broadly positive. Most of us common mortels are incapable of judging the technical aspects of such problems. Accidents happen. No-one is perfect. However, it seems to me that our opinion of the company in question is heavily influenced by our perception of how the crisis is being handled, or not.

By the sound of it, this may even be a factor that distinguishes DreamHost from its competitors.

Ever wondered why opportunities for change seem to fall into the laps of some people and not others? Ever tried really hard to change someone or something and not manage? Well, what if you took that energy to concentrate on being more yourself? Maybe then, change might just come to you….

This story I found might sound a little twee, but it illustrates this point well. After all, don’t clichés contain a grain of truth?

In the Chinese folklore, there is the story of an ambitious young man who, on his twentieth birthday, became consumed with the desire to change the world. He spent the next 20 years trying to do that but couldn’t.

At age 40, he settled for trying to change China. He spent the next 20 years trying to do that but couldn’t.

At age 60, he settled for trying to change his village. For the next 20 years he strived to do that but failed.

At age 80, he decided to focus on changing his family. He spent the next 20 years trying to do that but couldn’t.

At age 100, he decided to focus on changing himself.

But the next day, he died.

The lesson? If you want to change the world, you better start with yourself.

So the question to ask ourselves is: In what ways can I become the change I seek to see happening around me?

(c) 2006 F. Basili, President, HumaNext. From the workshop on change and transformation. All rights reserved.

Another post on this subject…

Ashridge training consultancy

According to an article in the International Herald Tribune on 27 July 2006, the French are now some of the world’s most intensive bloggers.

“Sixty percent of French Internet users visited a blog in May, ahead of Britain with 40 percent and little more than a third in the United States, according to Comscore, an Internet ratings service. Likewise, French bloggers spent more than an hour in June visiting France’s top-rated blog site, far ahead of the 12 minutes spent by Americans doing the same and less than 3 minutes for Germans, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.”

From a cultural point of view it is interesting to note the following comment made by Laurent Florès, chief executive of CRM Metrix, a company that monitors blogs and other online conversations on behalf of companies seeking feedback on their brands: “Bloggers in the United States listen to each other and incorporate rival ideas in the discussion [whereas] French bloggers never compromise their opinions.”

Original article:
France’s mysterious embrace of blogs
By Thomas Crampton International Herald Tribune
Published: July 27, 2006

Below is an extract from an article that I recently came across on communitelligence.com and I couldn’t agree more. This not only applies to media/presentation skills but I would say communications in general.

Extract:“The easiest way to spot an insecure public speaker is to look for someone who is dumping an endless supply of facts and details, but without the context of real examples and stories. Insecure speakers are afraid of looking stupid, so they always overcompensate by larding excessive facts into their presentation.

The insecure speaker uses the sea of facts as a protective covering to mask his or her insecurities. Only it doesn’t work.”

Original article on Communitelligence