MISTAKES TO
AVOID WHEN COMMUNICATING CHANGE
By Henry DeVries
Gulp. Suppose the time has come to communicate
a major change for your organization. Maybe it is a downsizing,
a restructuring, or a switch to total quality management.
The change is so important the future of the company depends
on it.
Employees are mustered to the cafeteria
where the CEO makes an impassioned speech worthy of a field
marshal. Following the call to arms, the communications campaign
launches an offensive on several fronts. All locations are
bombarded with videos. Special editions of the employee newsletter
sound the battle cry. Platoons of senior executives fan out
to deliver the message on a more personalized basis to the
troops.
But the war is already lost. Why? Because
this approach is wrong, wrong, wrong. Not only will it fall
flat, it is positively harmful.
Ask employees what information source
they prefer. According to a study by the International Association
of Business Communications, 92 percent said they wanted to
hear it directly from their supervisor. The mistake that
dooms most campaigns seeking to win support for new business
goals is the failure to let supervisors explain the change
to front-line employees.
To achieve optimal results, campaigns
to communicate potentially unpopular changes to employees
should be viewed as an applied science. Unfortunately, this
does not happen at most large companies. Case studies, surveys
and research clearly show that the best practices for a major
change are to communicate directly to supervisors and to
use face-to-face communication.
The rate of major change is accelerating
rapidly in business today, and many executives will be called
upon to make major change communications decisions as part
of a senior executive team. Knowing the three biggest mistakes
of change communication will increase their chances of success.
Mistake 1—Many
well-meaning CEO’s attempt to improve change communications
by going directly to the front-line employees, usually supported
by the advice of senior human resources executives and consultants.
Unfortunately, it is a mistake that is wrong for two reasons,
according to the book Communicating Change (McGraw Hill,
1994) by international consultants T.J. and Sandra Larkin.
First, it can be viewed as a mere symbolic
move, and today’s disillusioned worker has little love
for the empty gesture. Second, and more damaging, these campaigns
can weaken the relationship between front-line workers and
supervisors.
Studies by Professor Donald Pelz at the
University of Michigan and others clearly show that workers
want to work for someone who is connected and has a degree
of power within the organization.
Mistake 2—Other
well-intentioned senior executives push for equality in the
workplace. They believe supervisors should sit shoulder-to-shoulder
with front-line employees to hear the big news.
Again, a mistaken strategy because it
is evidence of senior management’s failure to recognize
the supervisor’s superior status. This reduces the supervisor’s
perceived power and weakens his or her effectiveness as a
force of change. What many senior executives fail to realize
is that the only communications with the power to change
behavior is the kind between a supervisor and a direct report.
Mistake 3—Applying
the strategy that more must be better, executives in charge
of change campaigns use ink by the barrel: employee reports,
posters, news bulletins, video scripts, team briefing outlines,
brochures and guidebooks. This too is the wrong approach,
because the critical communication is the type that happens
face-to-face between a supervisor and front-line employees.
Energy and resources should be directed
toward producing supervisor briefing cards which will arm
them to answer the key questions that are in the minds of
their staff.
While other forms of communications should
not be abolished, the emphasis should be on making supervisors
privileged receivers of information. When the future of the
firm is on the line, ultimately it s the CEO’s job to
communicate the change.
The wise CEOs will use their supervisors
to ensure success.
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Copyright© New Client Marketing Institute
2000 – 2003. You may reprint this article in any publication
or Web site as long as you credit Henry DeVries as the author
and include his Web site address, www.henrydevries.com.
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