One of our Change Management consultants rightly describes Communications as the most powerful tool in the Change Manager’s tool belt. Without effective two-way Communications (meaning that questions and feedback make it back up the chain from a push-out messaging strategy), stakeholders will have little to no confidence that a change initiative is set up for success.
Andrea’s favorite mistake led to the founding AJC, a company that prioritizes that people have a whole life outside of just what they are doing for work.
Many companies forget that they wrote their own rules and protocols. Even those governed by external compliance or certification bodies typically are held accountable to the rules they impose on themselves. So why do so many companies, then, find it so hard to change their outdated processes? Is it time to rip off that “Red-Tape” band-aid?
Where effective communication is prevalent, business results are superior, often by far, over organizations where communications are observed as being ineffective or insufficient. AJC is committed to ensuring that your messaging operates on the multiple levels necessary to brilliant execution on your commitment to your staff and your mission.
Here are our key considerations from AJC’s recent Lunch and Learn describing how to communicate around the Return to Work (or delayed Return to Work) during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Sally Thomsen is a versatile consultant providing services in Project Management, Process Improvement, and Change Management. Here she offers advice on process, including how Change can be thought of as a process.
Your employees are busy with work and struggling to manage each day with so many emails and meetings. It is often difficult to get their attention. One of our consultants was asked to lead a Communications team for a global technology program with a large pharmaceutical company. They needed to find ways to cut through the clutter and get their message out to target audiences.
Various sources suggest that as many as half of all workers are currently looking for new opportunities. In these quickly evolving times of employee mobility, the new talent war is one of retention. The real focus on the stay-or-go decision, should be on the relationship between the staff and their manager. The time for that work is now, before the wave hits.
Why is it liberating to recognize that Change Management is a process? To know that we don’t have to be “born” with something, that we can “learn” it, allows us to use our growth mindset and frees us to try, assess, and improve on things. Understanding Change Management as a process to be learned can then follow the Focus on Improvement Virtuous Cycle.
The Tuckman Model, coined by psychologist Bruce Tuckman in his 1965 article entitled “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups” describes “Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing,” as a typical path that most teams follow as they work together. As would be expected, the “Storming” part of team interaction is not always sunshine and rainbows. The take away is to be aware that teams do go through these phases. It is normal, and that in and of itself can bring confidence that you WILL get through it!
