How do you match change communication to your culture?

1 Assess your culture type

Before you plan and execute your change communication, you need to understand what kind of culture you have and how it influences your communication style and preferences. There are different ways to categorize organizational cultures, but one common framework is the Competing Values Framework, which identifies four types: clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and market. Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, as well as communication needs and expectations. For example, clan cultures value collaboration and trust, so they may prefer more participatory and transparent change communication, while market cultures value results and competition, so they may prefer more persuasive and data-driven change communication.

2 Choose your communication channels

Once you have a clear picture of your culture type, you can select the most appropriate and effective communication channels to deliver your change messages. Communication channels are the mediums or platforms that you use to convey information, such as email, intranet, video, newsletter, webinar, town hall, etc. Different channels have different advantages and disadvantages, depending on your communication goals, audience, and resources. For example, email is a convenient and fast way to reach a large number of employees, but it may not be very engaging or interactive, while video is a more dynamic and visual way to showcase the benefits and impact of change, but it may require more time and budget to produce.

3 Adapt your communication tone and style

Another important aspect of matching change communication to your culture is to adapt your tone and style to suit your audience and context. Tone and style are the elements of communication that convey your attitude, personality, and emotion, such as formal or informal, friendly or authoritative, humorous or serious, etc. Your tone and style should reflect your culture type and values, as well as the nature and urgency of the change. For example, if you have a clan culture that emphasizes empathy and support, you may want to use a more personal and empathetic tone and style when communicating change, while if you have a market culture that emphasizes efficiency and performance, you may want to use a more direct and factual tone and style when communicating change.

4 Involve your employees in the change process

One of the best ways to match change communication to your culture is to involve your employees in the change process as much as possible. Involvement means giving your employees a voice and a role in shaping and implementing the change, as well as providing them with feedback and recognition. Involvement can increase your employees' engagement, commitment, and ownership of the change, as well as reduce their resistance and anxiety. Involvement can take different forms and levels, depending on your culture type and change objectives. For example, if you have an adhocracy culture that values innovation and experimentation, you may want to involve your employees in generating and testing new ideas and solutions for the change, while if you have a hierarchy culture that values stability and order, you may want to involve your employees in defining and following clear procedures and standards for the change.

5 Monitor and evaluate your change communication

Finally, you should monitor and evaluate your change communication to see if it matches your culture and meets your expectations. Monitoring and evaluation means collecting and analyzing data and feedback on your communication activities and outcomes, such as reach, frequency, quality, satisfaction, understanding, behavior, etc. Monitoring and evaluation can help you identify what works and what doesn't, as well as what needs to be improved or adjusted. Monitoring and evaluation can also help you demonstrate the value and impact of your change communication to your stakeholders and employees. Monitoring and evaluation can use different methods and tools, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, analytics, metrics, etc.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?