A Framework for Communicating through Change
By Clancey Houston, Regional Managing Director, Insights & Ideas Group, Burson-Marsteller Asia Pacific, and Diana Shayon, Managing Director, Burson-Marsteller New York

Change is a constant in this region’s business reality, and efforts to communicate organisational change represent a particular challenge. After studying many situations all around the world in which organisations have had to react and manage “through” dramatic change, Burson-Marsteller’s change management experts agree on several key insights that impact the way change is communicated to employees.

The individual and the collective experience

First, understanding how individuals experience change is important – be it based on race, culture or location - but understanding how the individual experience translates into the organisation’s experience is essential. The introduction of a new direction, a merger, or consolidation of the organisation, are all examples of change. As people understand a change, their personal reactions will translate into how the organisation reacts as a whole. The currency of the reaction is morale, productivity, commitment or engagement – all of those elements combined.

While individuals experience change in many unique and distinct ways, the way they experience it collectively and the manner in which the organisation responds, drives business success.

Dealing with disengagement

Second, there are commonalities to the experience of dealing with change among individuals, starting with “The End” of something. Regardless of what might be ‘ending’ in a person’s life experience, including work changes, common responses include concern, fear, uncertainty, sometimes anger or denial. Often when that happens they then experience a period of “Undirected Energy”, or even no energy whatsoever. In a work context, people are still showing up for work but are often there without being ‘present’, ie contributing and being mostly enthusiastic about their work.

This negative period is when morale and productivity both dip, and if the organisation is not led decisively through this period people can disconnect and disengage. This screams danger for an organisation, as it can result in good people leaving and a host of other business implications that can put a company’s sales, operations and customer service at risk.

This trough – or period of low and undirected energy- is the toughest part to deal with. Eventually, every organisation either moves on to “New Beginnings” or, in some cases, the new direction simply fails. If companies move on, they do so by going “through the change” and building new beginnings. If done right, those new beginnings include acceptance of the loss - whatever it was - and a move to “get on with it”, characterised by hope, excitement and enthusiasm for the future.

Transition takes time

The most important insight from our work with organisational change over the years is that this transitional model, from beginning to end, can take years – sometimes as much as five years or more. But good communications combined with effective leadership; about the future and what it can mean to individual employees; can enable organisations to work their way through that “low period” more rapidly than if communications are ad hoc or not focused.

So in the midst of change, how should communications be organised? And how can we ensure our communications are effective when we are dealing with dramatically different business cultures in Asia? Wherever they are based, employees tell us, time and again, that a most critical ‘lever’ for their engagement is around the content and implications of the company’s corporate strategy, the direction of the business and, above all, what it all means to them. Almost anywhere we conduct employee research we find that employees often have limited understanding of an organisation’s mission, goals and performance, as well as the reasons behind corporate-wide decisions.

Yet, by engaging employees effectively on these issues through communications, they will be more satisfied with nearly every aspect of their work, more positive in their attitudes, more committed to the company for which they work, and more confident in senior management.

Engaging with employees

With such a clear “value add” from effective communication, why do organisations still find communicating business strategy so hard? Too often, the distance between the individual employee and leadership’s explanation of business direction is vast, especially in a global company. Finding an effective means of bridging those distances is an imperative. At the very least, consider these three actions to help you bridge that distance:

• Make Your Communications Systems Credible – understanding your employees and their needs is at the heart of this. Employees tell us, in research efforts around the world, that face-to-face communication is the key; and this is even more marked in Asia Pacific. They want their manager - a credible source - to be the primary deliverer of information on new business directions. 
• Be Comprehensive – talk not just about what is changing, but also share information on why; what are the expected business results; how will employees be affected; and, in particular, what employees can do differently to help. 
• Listen, Listen, Listen, and Repeat, Restate and Reiterate – engaging in a true dialogue that makes the facts clear but also shares the big picture, acknowledges hurdles and celebrates wins will create a true sense of collective engagement in the change process.

Connecting the dots

Effective communications related to business strategy and direction is about more than just communications skills and more than content. It’s about constantly making the relevance of what is happening day to day clear in the context of the overall strategy or direction. We call it “connecting the dots”, so that skills in communicating business direction and the content intersect to drive both acceptance of the change and the positive new business direction that goes along with it.

With the right approach - one grounded in employee research and quality messaging - companies can build consensus from understanding; passion from belief in the benefits of change; and commitment through involvement. The acquisition of skills needed to do this and the pursuit of new standards that define success will ensure that at least one of today’s biggest management challenges is overcome.