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Jefferson's
Communication Methodology, ClearComm™,
has been developed and successfully implemented through very large
organizations. A clear communication plan is necessary to facilitate acceptance
and transition to a new organization, technology, approach or process.
There are many rationalizations in organizations for not communicating.
Some common ones are:
Don’t
need to know yet. We’ll tell them
when the time comes. It’ll just
upset them now – For
every week of upset that you avoid by hiding the facts, you gain a month of
bitterness and mistrust. Besides,
the grapevine already has the news, so don’t imagine that your information is
a secret.
They
already know. We announced it –
You told them but it
didn’t sink in. Remember the
adage - tell me and I will forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and
I will understand and support. Say
it again and find different ways to say it and different media (large meetings,
one-on-one, memos, email, a story in the newsletter) in which to say it.
I
told the supervisors. It’s their
job to tell the rank and file – The
supervisors are likely to be in transition themselves, and they may not
understand the information to convey it accurately although they are the most
influential with the associate (aside from the informal leaders).
Don’t assume the information trickles down through the organization
reliably or in a timely fashion.
We
don’t know the details ourselves, so there’s no point in saying anything
until everything has been decided – In
the meantime, people can get more and more resentful and unsure.
Much better to say what you do know, say that you don’t know more, and
tell what kind of schedule exists for additional information.
If information isn’t available later when it was promised, don’t
forget to say something to show that you haven’t forgotten your promise.
Communicating
Features, Benefits and Educational Components
Creation
of a features and benefits statement is recommend as an integral part of
any effective education and communication program.
This statement is often referred to as the “product vision.”
This marketing message should be compelling, persuasive, and easy to
understand and communicate. A
product vision session should be convened that includes representatives of
various organizational constituencies, and a consensus vision statement be
constructed that can then form the nucleus of the communication effort.
Included is the timeline and constituency of the education and
communication effort.
However, communication is key to the education of
associates to the what, why and who of change and transition.
A communication plan should contain the following main points.
Involving corporate communications at this point is necessary as
their expertise can be leveraged – their understanding of what works and
what doesn’t and their knowledge of the media available to the
organization.
Define what is being moved out and what isn’t
-
Think through each aspect of the product change and
be specific about what goes and what stays.
It takes time to define, but does not take the time to recover
from the following:
-
A
Associates won’t dare to stop anything.
They will try to perform the old methods as well as the new.
After a while they will burn out with overload.
-
Associates will make their own decisions about what
to discard and what to keep and the result will be chaotic and the
product will not be adopted.
-
Associates may react to toss out all customer service
contact. It may provide
desired results for IT, however, their technical and job productivity
will suffer and cause frustration.
-
Mark and communicate the end of the previous capability.
Clearly define the new capability in terms of
timing and benefits for the individual:
-
Associates will want a new capability (especially if there
is frustration with the old), however, they will also be ambivalent due to
the natural emotions of change and transition.
-
Explain the purpose behind the outcome sought by the new
product. What was the motive
or problem and on what evidence. What
would have occurred had no action been taken and taken and what would have
been the consequences? One of the clear obstacles to adoption is a
perceived lack of purpose and benefits to the proposed changes.
-
Paint a picture of how the outcome will look and work.
Associates need to experience the product imaginatively before they
can support it. There are
several methods available to provide the picture of the product for
stakeholders, leaders, informal leaders and associates.
The benefits can be clearly shown.
-
Lay out a step-by-step plan for phasing in the new
capability. Associates need a
clear scheme of how they can get to the new capability and the support
available to get them there (and the support that may be required once the
capability is implemented). This
is not a plan on the large scale of product implementation, technical
plans and group changeover – it is the steps and schedule by which
associates will receive information, training and support they will need
to make the transition.
-
Provide for individual involvement (a part to play) in both
the plan and the outcome. Associates
need a tangible way to contribute and participate although it may be in a
passive manner. This
capability will be discussed further in the next section.
Communication should be planned as a
project, with specific goals, objectives, deliverables, roles and
responsibilities, and schedules. It
is recommended that a communications team, consisting of associates involved in
the planning of product adoption as well as representatives of corporate
training and communications departments, be created and tasked with the
responsibility to design a plan that includes the elements outlined above.
This plan should then be scheduled and budgeted as a discrete element of
the overall adoption effort, and its activities should be integrated into the
master product implementation project plan.
We have significant experience in the design of IT project communication
plans and should be pleased to participate in this effort.
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