All change and how to manage it

The pace of business change today is fast and organisations need to be on the front foot if they want to come out the other side successfully. In this blog, we'll look at some of the influences that are driving change and how communication can help smooth the transformation process.

Why the need to change?

Threats to corporate survival come from many directions: disruptive competitors; reputational crisis; regulatory change. If a business wants to survive, it cannot afford to stand still. It needs to be flexible and ready to transform how it operates. It needs to be constantly reinventing itself.

To do this, a business must understand where it is now (current state), where it wants to be (future state) and have a plan for how it’s going to get there (transition state). And it should revisit this process often throughout its lifecycle.

The need for communications

Companies routinely spend millions of pounds engaging consultants and project management teams to plan the fine detail of their change programmes. Undoubtedly these highly trained individuals bring much to the table but their project management methodologies, which help steer a program to a successful conclusion, do not address the human side of business change. An understanding of the goals of the change program, and a commitment to the new vision by those the change will affect, is just as important as pages of spreadsheets showing the progress of program milestones. A carefully planned and co-ordinated set of communications is the glue that binds the business and human sides of change together.

Carefully planning and co-ordinating communications will bind the business and human sides of change together.

Formally adding communications as a line item for the transformation program team ensures everyone is pointing in the right direction and working towards the same goal. Communicating clearly and regularly about the road ahead makes a real difference to the transformation journey. It helps everyone in the business— particularly those who are not part of the transformation team—understand what is going to happen, by when and what that means for them and the business. It plugs information gaps which would otherwise be filled by speculation and rumour. It also provides an opportunity for everyone to ask questions and seek answers about the new world and how they fit in.

Make communications a cornerstone of your transformation program, sell a clear vision that brings your people along with you and your transformation program should have a bright future.