11 Communication Pitfalls to Avoid in a, Business Transformation Programme

With COVID-19 leading to Supply Chain disruption, war in Europe leading to rocketing fuel prices and most of the world gazing at a possible recession, VUCA is more relevant than ever. The comfortable implicit conclusion is that business market will continue to be in the state of ambiguity for as long as the businesses exist.

Is there a way to avoid the ever-changing scenarios? Certainly not. Is there a way to navigate Change in a way that is delivers results? Absolutely yes. Intelligently designed Change Management practices make sure that the change is managed well, and the transformations deliver the promised results.

Include a Project Situation – mention the industry/ domain;

11 Common Pitfalls to avoid while Communicating Change

1) Not planning communications strategically – Taking communications casually in the larger scheme of Change Management activities and delivering them on an ad-hoc basis renders Communications ineffective. There are times when communications must address a specific request, but in most cases- objective, frequency, format, time, and channel must be decided and some form of content inventory must be established to make communications effective.

2) Non-targeted communications – following one-size fits all model.

Dividing the audience into focused groups is crucial and must be done early on while strategizing communications. The organization must be appropriately sliced – horizontally and vertically and on basis of a host of parameters to ensure that appropriate Focus Groups are identified – facilitating custom communications leading to sustained interest and participation. User personas must be detailed out based on elaborate Change Impact Assessment. Asking questions and understanding stakeholder sentiment helps Change Communications professionals come up with ideal personas.

The Change Management and project phase must be carefully evaluated while drafting communications.

3) Relying heavily on one or limited media options

Communications as a subject has evolved much in the last couple of decades as have new Communications Channels. From office communicators like Teams/ Skype to apps like Slack, Social Networking sites, MS Teams and Yammer, we have all seen improved ways to communicate. The evolution of multiple channels is like a gold mine for Communication professionals as they can nudge and re-enforce using multiple channels – allowing the receivers to accept the messaging through a channel of their preference.

4) Missing out on Innovative Communication Methods

Not evaluating and leveraging the array of communication formats available can lead to a missed opportunity of meeting the stakeholders in their preferred meeting ground. With a new mix of generations at the workplace, if an interesting doodle or a testimonial story can persuade a section of employees, the communications teams must go all in to explore and adopt creative and persuasive ways of communicating!

5) Using mundane and/ or boring tonality

Change Management is all about engaging, enthusing, and aligning people. Leveraging emotional quotient like demonstrating genuine empathy invariably helps strike the right chords with the stakeholders. The underlying tone for communications must include elements of empathy and belongingness. Change can trigger intense emotions, especially in scenarios involving organization restructuring like mergers, acquisitions, or re-badging. It becomes even more critical in such scenarios to ensure that tone of change communications is empathetic and brings in the perspective that stakeholders’ interest is aligned with organizational goal.

6) Not establishing a robust feedback mechanism:

Achieving the strategy success metric is a tangible way to determine if Change Communications is successful, but having a feedback loop on Tonality, Clarity and Frequency is sure to improve communications satisfaction multi-fold. An informal way or a personal connect to gather feedback from a well representative population periodically goes a long way in ensuring that the change communications achieve their objectives.

7) Ignoring the Organization Culture

Culture and Communications are inter-linked and symbiotic. Communications helps build culture and culture shapes the way stakeholders communicate. The Communications Specialist must sense the organization culture early in the program and leverage it to the advantage of the program. A conventional organization might have employees who feel comfortable having top-down communication rather than jazzy community announcements. As a Change Management professional, one must have a knack of sensing the culture by reviewing communications from the past programs and gathering intelligence from the influencers in the organization.

8) Not leveraging the Power of Personal Touch and one-on-one Conversations

The aftermath of Covid has only re-emphasized the importance of personal touch and the value it brings to the lives of those around us. Though there are myriad of channels and ways to communicate, one must not forget the importance of the trust and impact that a one-on-one conversation creates. The in-person meetings have higher recall and greater chances of creating commitment. Communications professionals must not shy away from planning in-person meetings with stakeholders either directly or through the Change Champions, Managers, and/ or Supervisors etc.

9) Not collaborating across programs –

Today, most organizations typically have multiple change programs running simultaneously at any given point of time. The Communications Specialists must identify ways to collaborate with other programs and operations to leverage existing media such as Periodic Sales Conferences, Department All Hands meets, existing Project Portals and Yammer groups etc. to build up on existing efforts.

10) Not doing enough to earn Stakeholders Confidence.

Extensively use levers such as Leadership Videos, management talks, and local influencer meetings to build stakeholders’ confidence in the Change. When there is a lack of alignment between the project mouthpiece, Leaders, Management, and the Change network, and if the users get conflicting messages from different sources – confusion prevails. All sources must be aligned to the initiative to ensure stakeholders confidence.

11)  Not leveraging technology to the Change Program’s advantage

Artificial Intelligence has changed the way we work and look at different aspects of work and communications is no exception. For example, ChatGPT, the recent AI tool by OpenAI has increased the ability to create effective content exponentially. As an AI tool, it can produce large volumes of content in the blink of an eye. But how relevant, creative, and purposeful the content is, still must be carefully evaluated by an experienced Change Communications professional. As the technology helps reduce the time required for execution, and expand the reach into different communications platforms, the Communications Professionals will have more time for strategizing, planning, and collaborating. The inputs and commands to AI driven tools must be relevant and carefully chosen for the communication output to serve the objective.

Communications sit at the intersection of intellect & art. It requires deep knowledge of various human factors. At the heart of Change Communications lie people and emotions. Flavors like Humor, Empathy, Kindness, and Compassion are irreplaceable and help build bonds and mutual trust. With the advent of myriad communication channels, content creation capability using Artificial Intelligence e.g. ChatGPT, the domain of communications development and delivery is only going to get more complex and competitive. It is essential that we value these emotions and invest in technology as we communicate to win hearts and transform lives!

By Paras Bharadwaj Mani Maheshwari