Modern Rules for Communicating with Employees During Change

In an info-overload, fast-change world of business, communication has changed.

The #1 issue employees cite in interviews I perform about culture is “insufficient communication from leaders.”

Here are 5 practices to evolve your communication to the modern era and help employees keep pace with the speed of change.

1)     More frequent and shorter. Think Twitter-style. Short communications that create topical updates on the essential priorities of the week, month or quarter. (depending on your level in the company and how many employees.) Every CEO or top leader should send out a monthly personalized Business Update, ideally sometimes with a short, conversational video about what’s happening in the business. This would be in addition to any town halls.

2)     Beyond email. HipChat, Slack, other modern IM platforms work better for a quick conversation and can be organized by #topic. Boomers can learn these too! Stop flooding the inbox and limit lengthy email exchanges. You’ll see more engagement. You can also use these as a mini-focus group to gather opinions or solve a situation more quickly than a meeting would. 

3)     Respectful transparency. Telling the truth (with kindness) builds trust. People have finely tuned BS meters, more than ever. Please give straight talk – OWN it. (especially when the news is bad.) See #5 for tips on how to organize the message.

4)     Close the uncertainty gap. If you are going through a significant change – such as a merger, changes in leadership, a new strategy – you need to up-level the communication by ten-fold. If you were communicating weekly, try daily – the content should be specific, reassuring, and help people relax. Think about the announcements an airline pilot makes when the plane is stopped on a tarmac – typically answering 3 questions: Why we’re stopped. What is happening. When we’ll be moving again. Even if the news is bad, anxiety goes down when they KNOW.

5)     The 5-rule. All communications from leaders should consider (and often answer) 5 simple questions:

a.      Why this change (or decision)? Why now?

b.      What happens if we don’t do this?

c.      What does it mean for you? (WIIFM)

d.      What’s expected of you? (time, engagement, new behaviors)

e.      What leaders will do to support the change or decision.

Answering these in short, frequent communications during change, shows respect for people and lowers the anxiety that comes with uncertainty.

Practicing better communication is about empowering others to act.

Seemingly small decisions can quickly take on a negative tone if people don’t hear from their leaders. You don’t want gossip, second-guessing and the rumor mill to determine the story being told.

#Empower #Lead #Communicate