How do you reach and persuade your audience?

In my experience ‘knowing your audience’ because the ‘the soft factors’ are really the hard factors creating alack of management buy-in. I like to share with you ‘15 Principles of Winning Buy-in: - Pick the right moment - Spark a culture for innovation - Create an eco-system for change - Align to Strategy - Co-decide the assignment - WEnovate instead of Innovate - Pick the right team - Create Godfathers - Use proven methods - Crowdsource ideas - De-risk everything - Bring back business - Get customer buy-in - Think outside the box and present inside the box - Make a convincing pitch Wishing you lots of success, Gijs

Spend some time talking to audience members one-on-one to understand their top 2 challenges. Then circle back to them with feedback from the others to build trust that you are really listening and sharing. Talk about the collective #1 challenge, how solving it will benefit them AND how their personal #1 may dovetail with it. Ask their support toward solving the collective challenge while partnering with them to gain consensus toward next priority item.

Typically, when a change is occurring, the change initiators have sat with the idea for so long that they fail to see the broad impact. They know what they are doing but don’t appreciate how it can affect all levels and internal and external stakeholders. My strategy is to do an impact analysis that answers Who, What, When, Why, and How are the various stakeholders affected. This can be difficult - and may seem impossible at the outset. But you can get to the answers by continually asking why. Keep drilling the parties who are implementing the change until you clearly have an answer for all directly and indirectly impacted people and until you can explain the change to each unique audience in plain language.

Find out who key stakeholders are - beware they might be in hiding or in really strange places sometimes. Get yourself immersed in the team, do one to one and those water-cooled chats. When you have got your group identified, use Kotter and build powerful coalition!

I find these questions are helpful to knowing more about my audience, whether it be a group or an individual. ? What currently gets in your way? ? What do you spend the most time on? ? What would be the biggest help to you? ? What would you wish could happen? ? What have you used that has helped even a little? These questions help me understand their struggles and possible energy focus points. They also convey the message that I am interested in and involved in elements of their work. Their answers also give me plug-in opportunities to my story telling, blending their reality into my change narrative.

Defining a vision enables all the silos to have a centralised goal post Identify the current or As Is state of process Analyse the gaps between the current state and the vision Create an action plan. A centralised vision helps different departments to come together and create an action plan

Make sure you really have only one clear objective in each communication. Be brief, and clear about the call to action. Give a deadline and identify the desired outcome and when you will report whether it was met or if not achieved, the next step to achieve it.

Setting clear objectives helps people stay focused on important tasks and promotes productivity among teams. Understanding the practical characteristics of goal setting is crucial for enhancing performance management. These characteristics can be categorized into various types of goals, such as: ? Aligned goals: Connecting team goals to the organization's objectives helps clarify how work contributes to success. This makes the team more focused and better able to prioritize and achieve key objectives. ? Personalized goals: crafting objectives that are aligned with an individual's job function, level, growth requirements, and professional ambitions establishes a sense of responsibility and ownership.

Every project or change needs a Sponsor. Make sure you deliberately select a sponsor that speaks to your audience. That might not be you. Sponsors and executives are key to your change initiatives - plan a communication strategy for them to endorse and sponsor the change.

Storytelling matters more than ever. It’s how we make sense of the world when the world around us doesn’t make sense. Isn’t that what change feels like? At some point the pace of change exceeds our human ability to process it all logically and cerebrally. Cue storytelling. The space between our experiences and expectations & perceived reality and obligations, is often felt as “heartbreak.” Each & every change management effort is a walk with grief and heartbreak, whether we want to admit it or not. That’s the sensation we feel when faced with unanticipated, unending change. Methodologies will only get you so far. Tell me a story that captivates me and restores my belief in the human spirit. Make it relatable & memorable. I’m in. ????

In your story, ask the reader to stand in the shoes of the protagonist so that they naturally personalize the story. Frame the story to focus attention narrowly to avoid distractions. Use any condition or factor approximate to what the reader likely has experienced (based on your research of their concerns) to help them look through the lens that you are posing. Be crisp on the decision faced, the potential negative outcomes if no decision or unadvisable choice is made and the satisfaction attained by choosing the alternative that you seek.

In healthcare, the stories of real patients and the impact your change will have on patients is paramount. Each year we have an all company on-site. The most powerful session is the one where we invite one of our patients to share their story. It’s inspirational to everyone. Invite your patients to share their stories with your entire team - it’s invaluable!

Apply ADKAR model to persuade your function - Awareness - helps to educate about the subject - Desire - an inner desire to bring and be part of the change - knowledge - of how to be part of change - Ability - to incorporate the change on regular basis - Reinforcement- to continue with the change after implementation

Exploit the power of Pain. Understand what problems the audience/client is encountering and confirm with them that it's real and undesirable. Gain their commitment that they want to eliminate the pain. Show them a path to eliminating the pain. Give real life examples. Test it with them, if possible, even if in just a small way. Identify resources to help them reduce roadblocks to improvement.

Change happens when people change the story they tell themselves. No one likes to be persuaded or sold to so it’s wise to tell the story in different ways and with close attention to the language used. Cialdini talks about the power of small bigs. What is the smallest change with the biggest impact? Embrace the power of but. Own the objection and then highlight a strong justification. Example: We are expensive but you are worth it Highlight social proof: The most popular here is… Encourage autonomy: It’s your choice. You have the freedom to choose. Personalizing messages People hate to lose. Loss aversion. Embrace FOMO: “I’d hate you to lose out…” #HybridRemoteExcellence

Persuasion is still outside in. The best change is always inside out. So by all means use pursuation exactly as suggested here but do it gently and allow people time to digest reflect and even argue. Corporations are not democracies and so leaders will always be able to assert authority if they must. But allow the organization to internalize the change. Start early and over communicate.

Agree with all of the above comments in that I disagree with the Cialdini example used. Specifically scarcity. One should - and leaders should - live and operate in a mindset of abundance not scarcity. People will follow abundance and gratitude fare more than scarcity in any case.

1. Apply Agile feedback techniques - iterative feedback from the stakeholders supports collaboration 2. Use positive language to encourage brainstorming together 3. Weigh pros and cons of different perspectives. This will show respect and understanding

In the many change processes in which I have been involved, finding mutual benefit of the group or the "what's in it for me" resulting from the change. Highlight this to the group to help them see all aspects of the desired change(s). Be proactive in anticipating what they will say.

Feedback shows that you care about the effects of the change. Keeping dialogue about the change helps people stay engaged as well.

Feedback and progress measures are crucial in achieving goals. Giving feedback enhances goal attainment effectiveness. Correctly setting goals and providing feedback motivates individuals and measures progress. Regular and continuous feedback enables employees to identify their strengths and areas for improvement, leading to overall growth and development, and has become an important part of performance management for the virtual workforce. It reinforces the practices that will help the organization grow, boosting employee morale, motivation, and satisfaction.

Just the process of gathering feedback is extremely rewarding. You are making people heard. Wise leaders go a step further and acknowledge that they have heard and understood the feedback. It is important to make others feel heard and acknowledged and welcomed in providing their feedback. But the best leaders they turn their worst critics into their best advisors. They find nuggets of wisdom in the critic and turn it into action.

Change is not naturally accepted by humans. No one likes uncertainty or be pushed out of their comfort zone. A proper support system should be in place. A COE can support the teams to crusade emotionally and help them build technical skills and approach to the change implementation. Measure the change process - throughout the change management process a proper structure should be in place to measure the business impact of change Document and define RAID to capture lessons learnt in the process for future references

One of the biggest mistakes we make, especially early in our change practice, is to rely on one way communications or even two way communications as the only way to reach and persuade others to change. A suggestion could be instead to leverage communications (not just emails please!) to get stakeholders to ENGAGE in the change process and not to influence them. Best way to influence is to get them involved.

In my experience, the biggest barrier to implementing change is that pre-planning is omitted or readiness for change has not been assessed. Many management teams are faced with making change too quickly under the guise that "we don't have time." The is required to happen asap. This sabotages the change process causing cognitive dissonance, lack of trust in management, and outright resistance to change.

In the world of change management, winning over your audience is like herding cats at a disco. To build trust, reduce resistance, and drive change adoption, become the ultimate smooth talker. Paint a dazzling picture of the future, involving key stakeholders like a boss. Spice it up with WIIFM (What's In It For Me) magic and testimonials from satisfied folks. Create urgency, rewards, and support to fuel change. Remember, it's like juggling flaming donuts—tricky but oh-so-rewarding when everyone's dancing to the change beat!

When it comes to change management, you can never overcommunciate. So keep communicating the right message as much as you can via as many channels as you can