The "C" Word: Communicating for Successful Sustainable Change

by Dawn-Marie Turner, PhD

I think everyone would agree that communication is an essential ingredient for successful, sustainable organizational change. Some might even argue that change management is communication. But while communication is necessary for facilitating transition, it is not sufficient. However, during a change initiative, communication has the potential to either raise readiness and reduce resistance, or raise resistance and reduce readiness; unfortunately all too often it does the latter.  
 

Organizations often make two fundamental mistakes when communicating during a transition. First they give too little information too late believing that they have nothing to say or that communicating before all the plans are completed will raise anxiety. However, not communicating has just the opposite effect. In a study exploring how people communicate during times of uncertainty, Allen (2007) found uncertainty causes people to engage in information seeking behaviours. So if you are not communicating, the likelihood is the affected individual will receive the wrong information, from the wrong person at the wrong time. The result: the potential for resistance is elevated, there is fertile ground for the grapevine and you have lost control of both the message and the messenger.

Why does this matter? Because, while individuals will accept even the most outrageous rumor from an unofficial source, information from management must be stated six times in six different ways before individuals will begin to accept it (Burns 1996).

The second mistake organizations make is giving too much information too soon. This comes from the belief that everything that is important must be communicated. And while that may, at one level be true, it should be remembered that important does not equal helpful. Deciding and communicating helpful and important information is a balance based on the level-of-readiness of the majority of the individuals affected by the change and the significance of the information to the change initiative.

One way to avoid these two common mistakes is to create an information or communication framework. This should be done at the beginning of any change initiative. This type of framework aligns the information and knowledge individuals need to successfully make the transition within the change continuum. It also provides a mechanism for defining both the receiving and giving of information to enable the individuals to move through the change process.

There are three questions to consider when building an information framework: 

1. What is the level-of-readiness of the majority of the individuals affected by the change? 

2. Will the flow of information encourage the conversations needed for people to move through the continuum of change?  

3. Is the information being delivered by the right messenger?

Communicating for successful sustainable change requires a commitment to the affected individuals to provide the right information, at the right time, in the right format, and by the right person.