Communicate

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate & Communicate Some More

One of the most persistent pieces of advice regarding change management is “Communicate, communicate, communicate.” This repetitive counsel generally means you should keep hammering home the message. That’s true enough but that’s only part of it. Let’s begin examining the rest of it by adding a fourth repetition so that the counsel becomes “Communicate, communicate, communicate, and communicate some more.” Now, let’s sort out four different uses of “communicate” and examine their implications. Communicate (1). A first use of “communicate” does indeed refer to “hammering home” the message, of continuously and constantly broadcasting the reasons and rationale for the change – for its necessity, for its value, for its nature, and for the form it takes. But repeating the same message over and over, even though it is absolutely necessary, won’t get the job done by itself. Communicate (2). A second use of “communicate” refers to recognizing that people are different and, psychologically speaking, they are in different places at different times. Accordingly, they hear and don’t hear different things at different times. The message, then, must be varied so as to take into account the differences among people and the different places a given person might be in at a particular time. If not, the message won’t get through. And the same basic message must be repeated over time so that people who weren’t ready to hear it will hear it when they are ready. The bottom line here is that you need multiple versions of the same message – and you have to keep hammering them home, too. Communicate (3). A third use of “communicate” refers to the fact that, over time, the message itself needs to change. As a change progresses (or doesn’t), what needs to be communicated changes, too. Some things (perhaps the outcomes sought) might remain constant, but progress will vary as might the strategy and tactics associated with effecting...