Mastering Stakeholder Communication for Change Management

So, the explanation, the communication plan, this is the part where you make sure that people are going to get the answers to their questions. This is the part where you don't want to get caught by surprise because people will have questions, and they won't always be benign. These are going to be questions that poke at the reasoning that you have felt certain of before you start bringing it to other people.

So, once again, we go back to those fundamentals that carry you through the entire change, and that is the mission and the vision. We add on the concept of objective, which is really not too far away from mission and vision. What is it that we want to achieve? What do we think is the outcome? And that's similar to the vision.

What are our goals? That's the big picture. What are the steps that we're going to take to get there? And then what are the action steps? Those are the specifics. Here's who is going to do what and by when.

So there are some similarities between the goals and the action steps. As you recall, we're encouraging you to list your strategic goals in SMART format. And so there will be opportunities for you to say, here's how we're going to measure our success.

And here's the timeframe by which we will want to see the success that we've measured. And the steps are similar to that, which is okay. Building a little redundancy into your process is fine.

In addition to those pieces of your communication plan, you want to ensure that you have figured out who your stakeholders are. This is important. I can't understate the importance of stakeholders enough.

Or I should say, I can't understate them. Because they are the folks who are going to carry your message and who are going to back up your message. If you get your buy-in, if you get the stakeholders to agree with you that this is a good idea to change this piece of what you're doing or to undergo fundamental change, if they buy in on the way you're choosing to manage and implement the change, you're in good shape.

So you're identifying anybody who's internal or external to your organization who is going to be affected by the change, all the way from the end user to somebody who may not necessarily have an operational involvement in the change, but will still be interested in it. You're always setting timelines. You're always identifying the resources you need.

Who are the people? What are the resources I'm going to need? What kind of money might I need, training, et cetera? It's a good idea to identify the potential risks ahead of time. Those risks are all of the challenges people will bring up in their questioning of the change. So it's a good idea for you to game that out ahead of time.

Where is it that we might run into some challenges, and where can we say, yes, we can do this if, as opposed to saying, no, we can't do this because. It's always yes if instead of no because. And then finally, you're looking at your metrics, figuring out how you're going to measure your outcomes and how you're going to track them.

So I want to go back to the idea of the stakeholders. The stakeholders are everything, and communicating with stakeholders will, as I've said before, enable you to ensure that your message is carried far and wide and as positively as possible. So stakeholders will need a lot of communication, and you need to find out what their preferred methods of communication are, and you need to offer your message in as many channels as possible.

So that means the emails, the texts, the telephone, pick up the phone, go to an in-person meeting, or do a virtual meeting. You can put up signs in break rooms. You can make sure that wherever people communicate, there's a way to distribute information you want them to see, hear, or talk about.

You want to identify what we call a preferred sender. So the preferred sender is the champion that I mentioned in module one. That champion is the person who believes that change is necessary, that you have identified an ideal way to change, and that your vision of what we're going to look like at the end of the change is a good vision.

This person is preferably going to be somebody that people respect, that they trust, people that they won't walk away from when they see them coming down the hallway. Those are the folks that are the best ambassadors for your message, and those are the folks that you're going to be sending out there with your message as often, as early, and as often as possible. So when you are preparing the messages that your preferred senders are going to be carrying out for you, you're remembering one of those early questions you asked of yourself, and that is, how do I connect this change to positive personal outcomes for all of the employees, for everybody on the team, not just employees, but anybody who's a stakeholder.

Remember: what's in it for me. As long as you can keep that personal connection as part of the center of your message, you remind everybody why they benefit from going along with what it is that you're proposing to do. Messages don't always hit the first time.

They don't always hit the second or third time, either. So you want to be prepared to repeat your key messages five, maybe even seven, all the way up to seven times. You want to emphasize face-to-face communication, and I do mean in person as often as possible.

Virtual communication is as close to face-to-face as we might be able to get in some cases, but whenever you can lean into that face-to-face, that personal connection, that's valuable. Always evaluate the effectiveness of your communication. Do an after-action report for yourself.

Check out what messages you got from that communication. What was the body language? What were the questions? How did that person seem from or that group of people seem from the beginning of your interaction to the end of your interaction? This is where you're using your emotional intelligence, reading the room, and reading the signals you get from the people you're talking to. Always make sure you're involving everybody.

So we've talked about that in terms of the communication plan. We also mean broadly involve everyone when it comes to talking about what the best practices are, and what are some of the best approaches to ensuring that you, the people involved in this change, have an opportunity to learn new skills. What kind of training do you want? What kind of training do you need? What kinds of systems will support you in this change? And make sure that, again, the end user is crucial.

The end user who's going to be the one who tries out the new data input system or the new communication tool that you're using, all of those ultimate ends of the change, those are the people who will have the most at stake. And so you want to make sure that they get an opportunity to provide what is often really specific and subject matter expertise kind of input that can positively influence how well you implement your change. Do make sure you are ready to measure your outcomes.

You want to identify parts of the change to measure to make sure that you are on time. Within budget, that you've got the right people, and that you're not going off track. Going off track happens, and it doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world.

It just means that you have to be prepared for what to do when that happens, and also to evaluate whether that means you need a process improvement within your change. That's pretty normal. That's pretty standard for change management to be prepared for parts of your plan to not necessarily hit the ground exactly the way you thought they would, or maybe they do hit the ground the way you thought they would, and then they change.

You need to be nimble in this process and be prepared for the possibility of going with the flow and finding different ways to approach how to implement your change, if that seems to be the best way to make sure you keep the people, the budget, the time, and everything else on track. Remember to celebrate. Change can be stressful.

Change can make people who feel like they were good at their job all of a sudden feel like they're not sure that they're experts anymore. You're relying on them to continue to be the stalwarts of your organization, to be the people who can lead your team forward. And so when you have opportunities to celebrate them and to help reinforce for them the confidence that you have in them, you should take those opportunities, even if it's just a quick meeting in the break room for cupcakes or a note that you send around that tells everybody they're doing a good job.

Take those opportunities.