Everyone knows Chicken Little for his famous pronouncement of a catastrophic expectation – “the sky is falling!!!” People experiencing change often voice catastrophic expectations. They go like this –
- “Our jobs are all being outsourced to…”
- “We’ll have to learn an entirely new computer system that I’ve heard is impossible.”
- “They’re getting rid of everyone with 10 years or more service so they don’t have to pay high salaries.”
And so on.
A catastrophic expectation once voiced becomes a rumor and everyone knows that rumors travel at the speed of sound. Rumors also have a funny quality to them. The more they are voiced, the more they sound like truth. More than once, rumors and other misinformation have killed a change effort or at least sent it back to the drawing board.
Effective communication is an indispensable component of change management. However, it should not be the singular focus. It is but one ingredient of the change management approach.
That said, how you communicate matters, especially when catastrophic expectations and rumors abound. Experience indicates that people prefer face-to-face communication over indirect forms such as email, messaging apps, electronic newsletters, and other passive approaches. Direct, face-to-face communications are superior for:
- Describing the need for change
- Describing the future state
- Answering people's burning questions
Additionally, the delivery of messages should be:
- Honest, even if bad news is part of the message
- Frequent and continuous throughout the effort
- Open and transparent - no sense that anything is being held back