- What are the aims?
- How much information will be supplied, messages?
- What mechanisms will likely be employed
The vital MENTAL questions that your communication strategy have to address
When it comes to the mental resonance feature of the communications, John Kotter makes the point that change leaders that are great are great at telling visual narratives with high mental impact. Kotter exemplifies this the Internal communications best practice anecdote of Martin Luther King who didn't stand up facing the Lincoln Memorial and say: "I have an excellent strategy" and illustrate it with 10 good reasons why it turned out to be a good strategy. Kotter said those immortal words: "I have a dream," and then he continued to reveal the folks what his dream was - he exemplified his image of the future and did so in a way that had high psychological impact.
William Bridges focuses on feature of the change and the psychological and emotional impact - and poses these 3 easy questions:
to the motorists which make it necessary
(1) what's changing? Bridges offers the following guidance - the change leader's communication statement must:- Clearly express aim and the change leader's understanding
- "Sell the issue before you try and market the solution."
- Be under 60 seconds
(2) what'll actually be distinct due to the change? Bridges says: "I go into organizations where a change initiative is well underway, and I inquire what's going to be different when the change is done-and no one can answer the question... a change might appear really significant and incredibly real to the leader, but to the people that have to make it work it appears fairly abstract and vague until actual differences it will make begin to eventually become clear... the drive to get those differences clear should be an essential precedence in the planners' list of activities to do."
(3) Who's going to lose what? Bridges maintains the situational changes are as easy for businesses to make as the people affected by the change's psychological transitions. Transition management is really all about seeing the specific situation through the other guy's opinion. It's a view depending on empathy. It's management and communicating process and works with them to bring them through the transition. Failure to do this, on the part of change leaders, plus a denial of the losses and "lettings go" that people are faced with, sows the seeds of mistrust.
5 guiding principles of a change management communication strategy that is good
So, in summary the 5 directing principles of a good change management communication strategy are as follows:
- Resonance of message - delivery and the mental tone of the message
- Precise targeting - to get to the right people with all the appropriate message
- Timing program - to attain timely targeting of messages
- Feedback procedure - to ensure genuine two way communication
Failure reasons varied and in change management are many. But one thing is painfully clear.
The cause of all this failure is a deficiency of communication along with dearth of clarity. This is exactly what a Programme Management based method of change is really all about and why it so significant.
