Change Management Chapters 10 & 11 Communicating change

Communication Strategies The way change is communicated is important to the success of the change program What the change manager thinks is possible in communicating change (e.g. ability to control rather than shape information about it) will depend on their image of managing change There are many problems can disturb the process of communication:  message overload  message distortion and  message ambiguity (see Nelson & Coxhead, 1997) Use of language, power, gender and emotion also impact on how information about a change will be received.

Approaches to Communicating It is possible to overload employees with too much information on change  especially where the communication is one way and does not allow input by the recipient. Communication strategies will vary depending on whether the focus on “getting the word out” versus “getting buy-in” A communication strategy continuum includes five approaches:  Spray and pray  Tell and sell  Underscore and explore  Identify and reply  Withhold and uphold (Clampitt et al., 2000) These approaches vary in effectiveness of communication and the amount of information transmitted

Contingency Approaches Contingency approaches to communicating strategy vary depending:  on the type of change e.g. Developmental or incremental Task-focused Charismatic Turnaround (Stace & Dunphy, 2001)  on the stage of change e.g. Planning – logical,inspirational Enabling – logical, inspirational, supportive Launching – logical, commanding Catalyzing – inspirational, supportive Maintaining – inspirational, supportive (Reardon & Reardon, 1999)

Communication media Varies in “richness” depending on how personal its ability to communicate change For example, an or memo is less personal (and less “rich”) than a face to face meeting

Communication processes How change gets communicated needs to take into account issues such as:  Message  Timing  Channel The communication of change in large organizations will vary and draw upon a range of processes  Tag teams, supervisor briefings, value propositions, checklists (10.6)

Exercise What works best for you? Consider transformational & incremental  What information would you like  From whom would you prefer to get it?  In what format would you prefer? Individual, group, other?  What would be the best media source?  How do these answers shape your view of communicating change?

Communication Skills These skills are aimed at involving people and encouraging commitment to the change process It may not be possible to overcome some change issues through communication – at times the differences between intended outcomes and internal and external pressures can be too deeply embedded

Key Communication Skills Four key skills for communicating include:  Listening: There are four types of listening skills – suspending judgement, identifying assumptions, listening for learning, and reflecting. (Gerard & Teurfs, 1997)  Telling stories: This is an effective way of helping employees learn from past changes & painting pictures of the future.  Selling change upward: Issue selling is a way of gaining senior management attention to changes initiated from below. Message, timing, channel – elevator speech anyone?  Toxic handling: Some people in organizations take on a role of handling the ill-effects of change processes and absorbing these as a way of shielding others from their negative impact. (Frost & Robinson, 1999)

Change Conversations Different change conversations should be used at different stages of a change process. There are four types of conversations:  Initiative conversations: these draw attention to the need for change.  Conversation for understanding: this communicates the type of changes needed and allows for a greater appreciation of why this type of change.  Conversations for performance: this focuses on the actual change that is intended and how progress will be monitored.  Conversation for closure: this signals the end of the change (Ford & Ford, 1995)

Linguistic Modes & Imagery Need for a balance of linguistic modes.  Ideals, appeals, rules, deals The use of metaphors influences the images of change. These change images include:  Machine: this is based on the “fix and maintain” view  Developmental: this is based on the “build and develop” view  Transitional: this is based on the “move and relocate” view  Transformational: this is based on the “liberate and re-create” view (Marshak, 1993)

Communication with external stakeholders Communicating with external stakeholders is an important (albeit often neglected) aspect of communicating change. Research on communication of change with stakeholders has focused on:  crisis management  impression management  corporate reputation

Some tactics Impression management  Excuses, justifications, disclaimers, concealment Crisis management  Competing accounts, statement of regret, dissociation (scapegoating)  Mortification, corrective action, bolstering image, denial, shifting the blame

Agilent Case How would you describe their communication process?  Were they ‘getting the word out’ or ‘getting buy in’?  Apply a contingency analysis to the case – what emerges? What assessments would you make of the media used by the company? What are the limitations of their communication strategy in the face of continued downsizing?  What else might they do to retain staff motivation?  What other strategies might they try?