What are the top 5 ways to ensure your culture change initiative is communicated effectively?

We need to bust the myth that the key to culture change is “Communicate, communicate, communicate!” The impact of your communication will depend on the role people are hearing you from. For example, if people see their role as “change observers” they will tune out or ignore key change messages. You need to ensure that the role of each part is clear and that people are prepared to step into this role… otherwise your communicate will fall on deaf ears.

Change management is one of the hardest things to implement in any organization. People commonly resist change out of fear for the unknown, even though they may recognize the current situation is not optimal. So, for your communication to be effective you need to start by explaining why there is a need to change and why now; what is the scope of the proposed changes; and what is the expected outcome. All throughout the process, leadership should engage with their teams to take stock of the progress, be transparent about what goes well and what does not, and actively listen to the feedback of employees. Staff members that understand why they are being asked to do things differently are much more likely to contribute to the change agenda.

Leadership readiness to receive, digest and align to common goals is absolutely critical. If there isn't that alignment and collective accountability no amount of communication will drive culture change. Understanding the goal, the readiness/ urgency to make required culture change (even if its uncomfortable), and accountability to drive culture change in a consistent and unified manner is key.

Even before this, you need to get permission from those who will be changed that they will commit to the principle(s) of change. To happen at all change needs to be done with your people not to them.

I wholeheartedly agree with the points made in this discussion. I find the concept of introducing an external or temporary change manager compelling. The outsider can serve as a conduit for all the frustration and resistance that often accompanies change initiatives. This allows the internal leadership to maintain stability, ensuring that day-to-day operations continue running smoothly while the change manager navigates the turbulent waters of transformation. It's a proactive strategy to ensure effective leadership and minimize potential disruptions during periods of organizational transformation.

There is no one-size-fits-all when communicating change initiatives. Identifying who will be impacted by the change and how you are to communicate is key to developing your communication strategies. Build a coalition of sponsors from leadership, managers or peer groups who can communicate directly with employees. Some people prefer to hear from trusted leaders, or from their supervisors or peers. Make use of all mediums for communicating - emails, tutorials, 1:1 check-ins, group training, office hours, visual aids, video or written workflows, etc. to adapt to a variety of learning modes. Communicate initiatives or next steps in a timely and sequential manner. This allows everyone to learn, adjust and adapt to the new way of working.

We need to bust the myth that the key to culture change is “Communicate, communicate, communicate!” The impact of your communication will always depend on the role people are hearing you from. For example, if people see their role as “change observers” they will tune out or ignore your key change messages. You need to ensure that the role of each part is clear and that people are prepared to step into this role… otherwise your communicate will fall on deaf ears.

Truly understanding your audience is essential to communicate, engage, and activate anyone. In design thinking, one principle that is highlighted is co-creation. Co-creation in this scenario can entail inviting the audience to co-create the overall message and to select stories that connect deeply with them alongside language and words that hold meaning. Another principle is “living as a customer” or, in this case, “living as an audience member.” In short, it’s a matter of putting yourself in the audience and experiencing the message being delivered from the stage. This can elevate the understanding of the audience and amplify the impact you are aiming for.

There are several tools out there that you can use to identify and manage these key stakeholders. - Stakeholder map, where you identify and cluster groups of stakeholders. - Power/impact matrix, to understand how much influence they have in your change initiative. Once you have done this exercise, you can design a communication strategy.

Communication is more than the verbal written and exposed messages it's is essentially the messages that come from behaviours and small micro messages in tone inflections and body movements and eye contact in the message delivery. It has to have the emotional content linked to the cognitive message aligned.

Storytelling is a very effective tool for communicating the direction of culture change initiatives. Doing so will allow the audience to better understand, connect, and empathize with the desired outcome and what it will mean for them.

Authenticity is paramount, with a focus on avoiding "purpose washing" by refraining from overpromising or embellishing. Transparency about challenges enhances credibility and employee engagement.

Communications in culture change need to reflect the needs of contemporary stakeholders. Formulaic approaches will fail for a variety of reasons: These are my top two. #1 Lack of contemporary relevance in the core message and the way it is communicated Corporate speak, consultant speak, or a 'snazzy' motivational slogan can all fail to resonate. Impact and engagement will be disappointing. It takes great skill and clarity of thinking to get the message right. #2 One-size-fits-all thinking. A campaign approach with well-considered audience segmentation, selection of channels and platforms works best.

Consistency of messaging, brought to life through everyday stories that relate to people can help people to see what the change means for them. I find it helpful to answer a few quite basic, but fundamental questions to help me craft messages (most of these would need answering for each key audience group so you can make it real and tangible for people) - What change are we talking about? - Why is that change important? - What would happen if we did nothing at all? - What does it mean to me, in practice? - What will be different and what might stay the same? - What's the first thing I need to do? - Where do I go for more info / how can I keep up to date? In all of those questions, stories and examples can help people understand.

Crafting messages is like building bridges between current realities and desired futures. It’s vital to infuse real stories that echo the aspirations and challenges faced by the team. Use simple, clear language and vivid examples to illuminate the path ahead. It’s about making the abstract tangible and the distant feel reachable. A well-told story can turn resistance into curiosity, doubt into belief. It’s not just about broadcasting changes; it’s about weaving a narrative that helps everyone see the part they play in this new chapter, fostering a shared sense of purpose and excitement for the journey ahead.

One of the best examples of instituting a change management communication plan I've been a part of, was when the leadership team committed to using a defined lexicon of phrases and maxims that was part of the change management. These included simple changes like integrating them into our weekly meeting topics both at the department and one on one levels and the titles of our on-going reports. While it felt slightly forced at the beginning it helped embed the language into the culture at every level, and quickly became part of the entire organizations vernacular.

I see all too often that the plan is seen as the solution to the change. It is important to remember that a plan is a forecast of the process you will follow and that it needs to be continually evaluated for adaption and enhancement.

Leadership is key to any culture change initiative. They can be your most effective ally or your biggest obstacle. Get them onside early to ensure change happens as quickly as possible.

A simple way of gathering feedback and measurement that tells you about your approach and impact is: Reach: Are you reaching everyone you need to? If you're not even reaching your audience - the chances are, your plan won't work. Look at things like, views, hits, visitors. Reaction: Once you know your comms have landed, it's time to evaluate if they've had the desired effect. Have they helped your audience to know, feel or do something? This is where you need qualitative feedback through surveys, workshops, 1:1s etc. ROI: Finally, have you made an impact? Look back at the business need you were supporting and map your comms to relevant business KPIs e.g. transformation, customer satisfaction, lower employee turnover etc.

There will always be early and late adopters and you will have to dig deep into your pulse survey data to compare the success of culture change in all different regions, business units and departments. Find detracting patterns and try to find out what causes them. Also do look for champions that can be leveraged as ambassadors.

We need to bust the myth that the key to culture change is “Communicate, communicate, communicate!” The impact of your communication will depend on the role people are hearing you from. For example, if people see their role as “change observers” they will tune out or ignore key change messages. You need to ensure that the role of each part is clear and that people are prepared to step into this role… otherwise your communicate will fall on deaf ears.

Change initiatives need to be simple to understand. Simple to get the 'WHY' and the 'HOW' To get a litmus check on whether you've succeeded in communicating your initiative in a simple way is a corridor test. If you are 1000 person org then check in with 10 folks in corridor (virtual or physical!) and ask them: Why do you think we are doing {change initiative}? What needs to happen internally for it to succeed? How do you see it working out? If you get wildly different answers from 10 people you know you've got your work cut out on the comms front.

More than communication, you′ll need collaboration. Probably the objective of the culture change initiative is to be more inclusive, empower people and create a shared culture. Include people from the start of the change process. Ask them continually for feedback and ideas, include them in decision-making and make sure you′re not creating resistance by designing it alone and then push down a culture change that nobody sees themself reflected in.

I’m addition to communicating the values, vision, mission etc and running change management initiatives, it is very important for the leadership in the organisation to lead by example. This means that the actions speak more than words.Just like children try to emulate the behaviour of parents and not just listen to what they say, employees in the organisation generally emulate the behaviours of their leaders.

Focus on the positive behaviors and habits that are demonstrated Daily and keep reinforcing that by connecting it to the Daily work that people do