Excellence in Change Communications

CMOs and CCOs are striving to bring audience understanding and insights into their change communication plans before they communicate them. Understanding how change will impact employees' perceptions, engagement, and performance is key to ensuring communications are targeted, relevant, and enabled before they are shared.

The key components of change communication include listening to employees and understanding their perceptions and current behaviors (and the reasons behind them). This insight helps inform the development of effective change communications. Ensuring that messages are clear and targeted is crucial. Additionally, to drive behavior change and boost capability, leaders should focus on incorporating capability-boosting techniques in their messages.

The most effective channels for communicating change to employees include managers, who continue to be ranked as the number one preferred channel by employees. Managers can contextualize information for employees, helping them understand what’s relevant and addressing key questions and concerns. However, for managers to be effective in change communication, leaders must first prepare them by providing context and visibility and encouraging dialogue throughout the organization. This preparation ensures that change communications are effective.

To help leaders and managers communicate change more effectively, provide them with a safe space to discuss the proposed changes with their peers. This enables them to address concerns, focus on the benefits of the planned change, and consider key questions that employees might raise. These sessions give leaders and managers greater confidence and credibility, allowing them to plan their change communications more effectively with their teams.