Chapter 9: Communicating about Change

Summary
Managing and communicating change is one of the greatest challenges facing today's managers. Events such as restructuring and downsizing can force radical changes on the organization.

When employees are faced with major changes, such as new technology in the workplace, many will pass through stages of reaction similar to experiencing grief: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. A skillful manager can ease the transition by being sensitive to these stages of reaction. There are characteristics that identify each reaction stage and appropriate actions that the manager can take.

The chapter presents a model that helps managers more strategically communicate about major changes in order to speed employee acceptance and boost productivity. The Iceberg Model outlines a strategic approach to communicating change that is based on four levels of planning:

• Level 1: Analyze the context
  Consider questions such as: How congruent is the change with the culture? How will key relationships be impacted?
  
  
• Level 2: Analyze the audience
  Consider questions such as: What groups will be impacted by the change? How will each group be impacted?
  
  
• Level 3: Design the strategy
  Develop a unifying theme that energizes and motivates.
  
  
• Level 4: Develop the tactics
  Select the channels, develop the message, determine the timing and the spokespeople.

The strength of the model is that it focuses the majority of the organization's resources on the "below the water-line" issues—the first three levels of planning. This suggests a more strategic approach, instead of the more usual and less effective tactical approach that focuses the majority of resources on level 4 issues.

Outline

1. Approaches to Change
   1. Top-down
   2. Bottom-up
   3. Integrative
      
      
2. Types of Change
   Consequences:
   1. Under-communicating
   2. Over-communicating
      
      
3. Reactions to Change
   
   
4. The Iceberg Model
   1. Contextual analysis
      1. How have employees assimilated other changes?
      2. How congruent is the change with the culture?
      3. How non-complex and manageable is the change?
      4. How advantageous is the change over past practices?
      5. What benefits will be readily observable?
      6. How will key relationships be impacted?
   2. Audience analysis
      1. How will each group be impacted by the change?
      2. What are the most likely points of resistance of each group?
      3. What are the communication or channel preference of each group?
      4. What does each group know or think they know about the change?
      5. Who are the "lions"?
   3. Strategic design
      1. Develop tentative communicative objectives for each of the audiences
      2. Determine common objectives that are shared by all the audiences
      3. Develop a unifying theme that energizes and motivates employees
      4. Allocate communication resources according to the audience analysis
      5. Formulate a general sequence of stages or phases of the communication plan
5. Tactics
   1. Channels
   2. Message
   3. Safety valves
   4. Timing
   5. Spokespeople
      
      
6. Conclusion