Better Communications for Organizational Change

 

In 2011, we should all be experiencing our share of organizational change. It may be driven by mergers and acquisitions or by adaptations to competitive markets or by executives' striving for better performance or by something else from a long list of drivers. As a change manager and leader yourself, how do you design your communications to the workforce? Do you assume that what you are changing from was stable and that your workforce must survive a period until  it reaches a new stability with new org charts, relationships and processes?

You might have seen that organizational change model where there is a block of ice representing the organization. Organizational change is where this block has to melt and reform into another block. Employees are warned that there will a period where the organization is adjusting and that they must be patient and active participants.

In this paper in the Organization Science Journal, the authors take a different position. Forget about states of organizational constancy and steadiness, they say. Instead, embrace the organization itself as a pattern created by adaptation to constant change.

What does this mean to your communications related to managing the change?

• Don't try to convince your workforce that the organization you are leaving has been some kind of refuge or standard. The organization simply must do what it always has and adjust its pattern to the current environment.

• Don't do anything to suggest the previous processes were superior in any way. The only way to judge superiority of processes at any time is how well they enable you to be successful in the marketplace. That ability changes over time for internal and external reasons.

Consider this kind of phrasing: 

"The most recent organizational changes have been designed to allow us to succeed in the marketplace. If we succeed we are more likely to capture additional market share and each of us can continue build our careers. We want you to be an active participant  as we refine our processes in this latest iteration. This is your opportunity to help reduce friction among groups you work with and get work done more efficiently."