COMMUNICATING CHANGE IN TURBULENT TIMES

This piece is inspired by Patty Sanchez and Nancy Duarte from Durate. inc.

Summary

We are experiencing unprecedented levels of change as professionals and as humans—more so now than ever. This disruptive change is dramatically affecting the way we work, communicate, and lead. It is time for leaders of all kinds to step up their communication. To help you navigate through a constantly changing landscape, your team craves communication from you, as their leaders... communication that is frequent and informative, but also reassuring and inspiring. After all, empathetic and thoughtfully planned communication can make people feel secure, confident, engaged, and empowered to forge ahead, even amidst the fog of uncertainty.

Storytelling is one of the most important techniques you can use to communicate change and mobilize people to make it a reality. By using the right kinds of story techniques at the right time, leaders can move people to embrace and act on transformative ideas. In fact, the journey of change itself follows a five-act story structure, a structure that was first revealed in the award-winning book, "Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols" by Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez.

The objective of this piece is to deliver information that can inspire people and equip them with tools to lead Change (at this time of Pandemic); because to thrive in these turbulent times, we all need to grow our skills as communicators so that we can lead people through change. Change is constant they say however, these recent times there have been modifications to this very phrase. Earlier, we would talk about change; relate it to a project or a program that would start and finish at the assigned date. But these days change seems to be a constant variable at the workplace and that there are certain things that do not align in flux at any given time. Interestingly, the events in the past years have led to situations wherein we face multiple changes at the same time, and it is a difficult thing to overcome. So, this article would dive deep into the tools and resources that would come in handy for such situations.

INTRODUCTION

When a group of international team members was asked to mention: The changes that the company saw during the pandemic. The answers were diverse which included: Digital transformation, acquisition/ restructuring, pay changes, online transition, remote working, leadership transition, compliance changes, changes in hiring structure, etc.

These changes are vital in all companies to some extent and thus have impacted the cultural environment of an organization. These changes, however small, can still have a domino effect on the future of a company. Smart work seems to be the new talk of the town and is crucial for us all to be able to undergo and lead the next vital transition in the organization. Also, another factor driving the Change Implementation in any organization is the leaders. As leaders, it is the fundamental duty of each and every one of us that our organization and our subordinates thrive through these times of change. Our team relies on us to help them navigate into the next normal.

However, the transition is only possible if our team shares the same vision as the organization, where the organization wants to reach in the future. Just imagine for a moment that the new flipped workforce with the revitalized culture can cope with change and understands the end state but is it enough? Because, after the ‘Where’ also comes ‘how’ and to deliver this ‘how’, communication is the key. Thus, soft skills like communication and critical thinking are kept at high priority in any organization. According to LinkedIn and other talent surveys that were conducted, soft skills were seen to be the vital factor to lead towards success, even at situations that seem nearly impossible but proper communication and mobilization made it possible.

THE INNOVATION IN COMMUNICATION

The S-curve of Innovation is a symbol that traces the path to the future for a business. It describes the path of a venture from its formation and as it gradually matures and reaches its stage of stagnation which often leads to decay and decline, unless we reinvent by imagining the future and then reinventing again, a never-ending journey. Reinvention is constant to thrive in our career, companies, and communities. And each of these S-curves carry us further to that future and as we imagine the future and lead a venture through innovation. As we move and take our organization from one era to the next and evolve successfully, our businesses will become an epic tale for people to take motivations and learning experiences from. The change thus becomes normal but with proper communication and innovation.

Change into a new era can make people feel chaotic and turn people’s worlds upside down, so if we as leaders do not communicate well during this era shift, the organization will face the worse spiral into decline and the damage would be irreversible. So, moving people through these major shifts require carefully empathetic and strategically planned communication to help people cope with disruption which is especially true during times like these (the pandemic) and other events from the past. The changes that the organization is trying to bring about are seen to have created a lot of uncertainty, leading to anxiety and fear amongst its employees. When these uncertain situations arise, people look up to us – The Leaders for answers and reassurances. Which leads to the responsibility of us, the leaders, to communicate effectively and understand, how, the importance of communication has evolved.

During a survey on learning and development and training of professionals in 2020, one question was put across the table: Rate the importance of Communication during- and post-COVID-19 times. The results obtained are as given in the graph.

The common thread of these views lies in a psychological safety and it does mean something. For people to have the skills and the reassurance that they need to cope with the unknown (referring to the S-curve) and what it feels like to move from the current reality to the future state is very unsettling for people. If you wish to lead people to some place new, you will have to make a lot of impassioned pleas to get them to leave the comfort and venture into the chaos and uncertainty of what could be that they are going to face. Suppress all their doubts and fears and suspend their disbelief and provide emotional fuel in them through communication for the journey ahead.

Transformations are not random, there is a certain shape to the journey of change that people go through. The Venture Escape traces the path of a transformation journey and is made up of 5 stages, grouped into three acts like a story.

PLAN YOUR COMMUNICATION

The importance of communication lies in the very fact that as leaders it is our responsibility to get people excited about the journey to a new place. Leaders will have to proactively plan their communication strategy to drive the team. In this regard, let us discuss four specific communication tools to drive change.

Stories are a powerful way to give people specific examples of what is the right approach or just point a light at the winds that your employees are having or even just making people feel more motivated. Also holding ceremonies as simple as having lunch together or having a kick-off event, it makes all the difference. Every drop makes an ocean, as leaders, you should make each moment count irrespective of the intention. All these communication tools to create galvanizing moments create something called communal effervescence; it is a sociological term meaning the effect/ motivation people attend when they feel connected to a cause/common goal set by their leaders. A true moment of spirit being refreshed with a sense of purpose.

DELIVER SPEECHES

Communication happens in every direction in any organization and if we are communicating a lot about the change efforts up and down and across and each of the circles from the graph represents one of those points of communication. Most presentations that you put forward are a great tool for others to relate to in that environment.

STORIES

Stories spark change.

Stories are all about transformation, so it makes sense to use them when one is communicating change and some of the world’s highest performing brands and most beloved executives use stories to make people feel affection for the companies and their products and even themselves as human beings. Stories can also motivate people to embrace change to imagine new possibilities and make it a reality. 

Stories transport us and bring us closer.

Firstly, stories move people by engaging all our senses. They set our synapses on fire by triggering thoughts and memories and feelings and sensations in our bodies and all of that happen all at once and because our minds are more engaged, we are more likely to remember and repeat what we hear. The same effect happens in the minds of the storytellers and the story listeners at the same time. When we are sharing stories together, our minds become synchronized and those synapses fire in the same places and at the same times as when an individual is hearing a story through a phenomenon called Neural Coupling. That is basically.

Our little mirror neurons all lighting up wanting to be alike and work in unison and this mental alignment bring our emotions into alignment as well because the emotional part of our brain that limbic system lights up and makes us feel more connected to other people. Here, we get caught up in a wave of feelings when we hear a story, that transport us to another place in our minds and that shuts down the analytical critical thinking that can create resistance to change because when we process information analytically it creates more critical thoughts and suppresses our positive emotions but when we hear stories it shifts our attention away from critical thoughts and makes us more open to new ideas.   

Stories move us to act.

Finally, stories move us to act because when we hear stories, chemicals are released in our blood like cortisol which makes us feel stressed and anxious and want to resolve the problem but also oxytocin, the love hormone which is released when we feel affection for another person and when we feel affection and connection toward another person, we are more likely to help them. In fact, studies show that when people hear a story about a cause they are more likely to donate money to that cause, so it works.

What is a story?

A story follows a three-act structure. In the beginning of a great story, we meet the hero. It's just a likable person who is trying to live their life until something happens, an inciting incident. This sends him or her on a journey and in the middle, they encounter roadblocks, but they ultimately overcome those roadblocks and emerge transformed. Now speechless and ceremonies also follow this three-act structure, but it is rooted in an incredibly old form of story called the hero’s journey.

The hero’ journey was best explained by mythologist Joseph Campbell. In the hero’s journey, the hero literally takes a trip they leave their ordinary world and enter a special world and that is where all the action happens as the hero travels through that special world. In the special world, he or she encounters all kinds of trial and challenges and tests. Also, they grow in the journey because they discover their hidden talents and skills; and when they return home, they are different. They are transformed. They do not get there alone but with the help of a mentor. 

Leaders as Mentors.

In a story, a mentor is a person who shows up and gives the hero tools and insights that help them get unstuck. A mentor is like Yoda, who was the mentor to Luke Skywalker (from Star Wars Sci-Fi Series); Yoda was qualified to be a mentor because he had been a jedi master for hundreds of years. He has the expertise to teach Luke how to be a jedi master too.

Now as we live life through our own eyes it is tempting to think of ourselves as the central figure of the stories that we are living and that we are in fact the star of the movie of our lives. But when one is leading people, they are the hero, they are the one doing the hard work and out of their comfort zone. You are their mentors and as their leaders what you need to do is communicate in a way that gets them unstuck and motivated.

The tale of a Story.

Durate.inc has been on an epic length tale for quite some time. Having founded in 1988, the organization had been through eight reinventions since then. Each reinvention is nestled in an era defining moment that created a major shift for the company in the market. Each era has lurched them forward, so they went from being a small presentation design shop to a world-renowned visual storytelling agency and now they are a global communication company. As a successful company, they implemented a lot of changes and took into consideration ‘communication’ as their biggest influencer. The new era of 2020 demands innovation at the core.

Their goal as a company is to transform how millions of people communicate around the globe by providing them the soft skills, they require to grow their influence and impact. However, the market is huge and as a global company they had to strengthen and scale their training division to 100 million annually.

Leaders and their Values are tested in times of Crisis.

During COVID -19, the company hit a setback, however, they were able to surpass those hurdles and envisioned creating something beautiful even during chaos and pain. Values are formally wired into the performance system. These values include innovation through empathy. They have crafted a Bliss Model internally and it forms a part of their intellectual property. The company in the last two decades has been able to overcome obstacles and deliver performance due to the presence of this Bliss Model. In fact, the values in the model are the same as the ones that were forged during the dot-com crash. So, the company relied on these values to get through the crisis too. 

There are four circles in the values and those are also the operating principles while maintaining the financial growth, cultivate employees, delight customers, and drive the innovation in industry. Thus, the value to drive the industry is sandwiched between innovative and lead and that part of the Bliss Model went into high gear as the world could see that communication was going to radically change from COVID’s impact, especially the work culture and service deliverance.

Innovating the Way Forward

Virtual events (training and workshops) need to be innovated at hyper speed during these times of crisis and Duarte did just that. They went on to explore new tools and approaches to training and events. They needed to flip all the events of their clienteles (customer brands) to virtual mode and pronto. The team, however, was able to change their entire roadmap to transform all the in-person workshops to immersive virtual training which was fuelled by innovation under the Duarte Method.

This method is the base of every client solution in the company. The method goes like this; when the employees have a piece of critical communication to make, one requires a well-thought-through communication strategy, a compelling story, purposeful visuals, and captivating delivery.

The very essence of the company’s delivery model lies empathy. Empathy is the lens through which the company deliver the clientele service. This approach and elements had to be taken deep down the chain of command; at times when everyone is working remotely, it seems like a challenge. Here, the audience experience must be put first. Consumer is the king. Hence, the company first revisited their approach as an audience. This is also one of their fundamental rules wherein they believe that: never deliver a presentation, where you yourself would not like to seat in. So, as a remote audience, there would be certain expectations and as a global firm, they need to understand them first. The bar is set high and to deliver effective services that would be more powerful than the in-person moments is the challenge.

Let us understand a typical setup for a virtual workshop. It takes more than just a great facilitator to keep learners engaged while they are remote. The facilitator obviously delivers the curriculum and for larger groups, a second facilitator is brought in, as they need to keep people engaged and they also manage the content in the breakout rooms. But to make it even more immersive virtually there is plenty of technology to wrangle around. With technology, the transition from the rocking permanent setup at the office to a home setup can be completed overnight. And as presentation experts, Duarte could not get this wrong.

Here is a picture of the transition in setup with the assistance of technology. They brainstormed all kinds of ways to delight the clients during meetings by changing their backgrounds, to start with.

This audience first mindset to deliver delight during the meeting and tried to incite joy in the hearts of the audience made their day.

Use Symbols

Empathy is at the heart of all dealings at Duarte.inc and during any meeting with the client remotely, the boredom was off the table. 

Giraffe – the mascot of gratitude at Duarte.

Ever since 2005, giraffe has been at the centre of any appreciation amongst the company. Later it extended to customer appreciation as well. During Employee’s Appreciation Day, Giraffes are passed from one employee to another and this is seen as a symbol of appreciation.

In 2020, Duarte.inc laid off multiple free online tools and resources worth 400 grand. Giraffes have a big heart and thus the Duartians as well share the same attribute (in action) and leave no stone unturned to resolve customer problems.

Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. The middle of the story is always messy and hard to deal with. The challenges we are living through right now is reshaping all of us in profound ways. Here we experience the most transformation because we overcome obstacles through new skilled approaches, and it changes even the core identity of an individual.   

Brave is exactly what you need in the fight phase. In American sign language gesture for brave is tapping your shoulder with your closed fist and sway it forward. It also means courage and being in good health. This very notion fuelled the founders of Duarte.inc. This very gesture was seen in a lot of her meetings and internally that was infused with lots of poignant meaning.

FINALLY, STORIES CHANGE YOU.

All of us have stories that we tell to inspire our team, to embrace change, empower them to overcome whatever obstacles that are in front of them. Some of us have endured some very messy middles in our work and probably in our personal lives too. So, I would encourage you to embrace your own messy middle and share them in the form of a story because its incredibly powerful way to lead. Stories that you share with your team gives them courage in the Change Journey. You can use stories to inspire them, to make the change that you want to see but the change starts with you. Your stories about change will instill the confidence in your team to take the leap of faith in exploring new possibilities, do new things, and overcoming obstacles. Together with this reformed team you as a leader together can change this world.