by bswift Insights

Your organization has been working hard on a new initiative, and you are the expert communicator who will help employees understand the change and what to do differently. Lucky you! Not everyone works in an organization that recognizes the value of a strong change communication plan, but you do.

This is the perfect time to think about your role. Sure, you’ll develop an amazing communication plan and draft compelling content. But how can you elevate your role, so you’re recognized as a strategic advisor? Be ready to wear these five hats—skills that will help you and your organization’s change efforts break through.

The Investigative Reporter: Uncover Insights to Power Change Communication

Just like a journalist seeking a scoop, you need to learn as much as you can about the change.

Start by reading the details of the initiative. Then, attend meetings and fire off questions like a pro: Why is this change happening? What is the timing? What are key milestones? What exactly is changing? How will employees experience the change? How will success be measured?

Pro tip: You may need to schedule some one-on-one meetings to get all your questions answered.

All the information you gather will support the development of your change communication plan and ensure your organization’s communication efforts meet the needs of employees.

For example, once you understand how this change impacts employees, you can segment audiences based on the ways they’ll be impacted and what each group will need to do differently. This vital information will help you set clear communication objectives for each audience.

The Storyteller: Craft Change Communication That Connects and Inspires

The human brain finds stories compelling. They are one of the key ways we learn. It’s why you’ll find stories everywhere: in books, television, movies, art, advertising, pop culture, and business.

And just like the outside world, employees crave stories, too, especially during times of change. Uncertainty triggers worry, and employees instinctively want answers. They want to know what is happening, when it’s happening— and most importantly — what it all means for them.

Storytelling makes the unknown feel familiar. To help employees, create an emotional connection to the change: a story. You, the communicator, are the modern-day storyteller.

The best way to bring emotion? Think of the most well-known story arc:

• Boy meets girl
• Boy and girl are happy
• Boy and girl face problem and split up
• Boy and girl overcome conflict and get back together
• Boy and girl are happier than before

But how does this look when communicating change? Here’s an example with a new business strategy:

• Our company was founded and built upon an important mission.
• We delivered a solution and helped to solve an unmet need.
• We grew too fast—growth that is not sustainable.
• We have a plan for the future that sets us up for long-term success.
• Our customers win and we win.

Once you have crafted your change story, continue being a storyteller when bringing the change to life. Don’t focus on facts and figures, find employees who are living the change and share their stories. Or create relatable hypothetical scenarios and show what the change means day-to-day.

The Conductor: Orchestrate Stakeholder Buy-In for Change Communication Success

A conductor knows the entire symphony and brings together the strings, brass, percussion, and woodwinds at the right time to create the perfect music. If any single instrument is not doing its part, the whole piece falls apart.

Like musicians learning a symphony, stakeholders need to learn about the change, or they risk becoming barriers to acceptance.

If you’ve worked on a big change project in the past, you likely heard stakeholders say something like:

“This doesn’t apply to us.”

“I don’t agree with the approach.”

“We’re too busy.”

Take the time to build stakeholders’ knowledge and buy-in. A shared experience, like an in-person or virtual workshop, is the ideal way to build agreement. The workshop should be designed to:

• Decide on high-level milestones and metrics
• Identify risks
• Develop parts of the communication plan with stakeholder input—think tactics tailored to their teams
• Test key communication pieces, like the change story
• Answer questions

Playing the conductor and building agreement gives leaders and other stakeholders the opportunity to truly understand and internalize the change and agree on communication principles. This groundwork ensures you won’t hit unexpected roadblocks later.

The Architect: Build a Strategic Change Communication Plan That Works

If your organization’s communication efforts are the building, then the plan is the blueprint. And your job is to lay out the details as clearly as possible.

Just like blueprints help contractors, builders, and engineers deliver great work, the best change communication plans help the change team think proactively, define success, and prioritize the organization’s efforts.

While each change is unique, there are some key components you’ll want to be sure to include in your plan:

• A situation analysis that sets context and gets everyone on the same page.
• Key audiences that outline the various segments and impacts identified during your investigative stage.
• Communication objectives that are specific, actionable, and measurable.
• Key messages, built from your story to provide employees with consistent and helpful information.
• A mix of strategies that demonstrate how you will reach your communication objectives.
• Detailed tactics and timing that show how and when every piece of your communication program comes together, step by step.

The Coach: Empower Leaders to Drive Effective Change Communication

When the time comes to implement your plan, you will rely on leaders, managers, and other stakeholders–much like how a coach relies on the team taking the field. And, like a coach, it’s important to set your team up for success. That means helping them understand their roles and providing tools and training they need to deliver.

Here are some examples of leader and manager communication roles:

• Senior leaders (C-Suite): Share the vision, clarify priorities, and share progress and accomplishments.
• Key leaders (Next level down): Translate the abstract, high-level information of the big picture to convey a concrete and meaningful explanation of “what it means to us.”
• People managers: Define what employees need to do to succeed, answer questions, and address concerns.

On to tools. Start with three core resources: a robust FAQ, a concise key messages document, and presentation materials that summarize the change. Be sure to check in with leaders and managers frequently to understand how their communication efforts are going and what additional support they might need.

Next time you’re invited to join a change team, come prepared with these five roles in your back pocket. Each one equips you to step into the strategic advisor role and ensure your communication efforts succeed, and employees embrace the change.