Best Practices for Your Change Management Communication Plan
Myths, Mistakes, and Must-Do’s
It’s standard practice in most organizations to build a communication plan as part of the overall change management project plan. Most companies understand that communication plays an important part in achieving the change management project initiatives. Not all communication plans are created equally, however, and many miss the mark. Communication should be more than just an occasional, sporadic activity. Here are some key points to remember in making your next communication plan more effective:
Mistake: Confusing communication with implementation
While a solid communication plan is extremely important, communication alone is insufficient. Generating sponsorship, developing a reinforcement strategy, defining the change, and developing readiness are as important—in fact, sponsorship is the single most important factor in achieving project success. Organizations over-reliance on communication is a common mistake in many implementation plans.
Myth: Providing information is the primary goal of the communication plan
In reality, the primary goal for project communication plans is to drive behavior change, not just to provide information-sharing. Even if you successfully communicate information to the target audience, you miss the mark if that communication doesn’t actively promote behavior change.
Mistake: Depending on one-way, top-down communications as the primary delivery method
One of the most common mistakes we see is a dependence on media like newsletters, emails, and even web-sites as the primary method for communication of large-scale, complex changes. Even in large, geographically-dispersed organizations, agents should rely much more on two-way communication than is often the case.We see many communication plans that do a fair job of information-sharing, but fail to have a mechanism for gathering data to be fed back to the project team and sponsors.
Must-Do: Include a feedback loop to check for understanding on every communication
Without some kind of feedback loop, you have no way to gather data on how people are responding to the communication, no way to answer questions, and no way to surface sources of resistance.No matter how sophisticated the delivery vehicle, if you haven’t built in a feedback loop, your communication is missing the “best practice” mark.
Myth: Expecting that the production of a large-scale, exciting launch event is the most important element of a good communication plan, or is all that is needed for communicating to the targets of the change
While it can be motivating to produce a creative launch event, or a series of cross-functional meetings, remember that that communication is not a substitute for implementation. As Kenneth Klepper, President and COO of Medco puts it, “You can spend enormous resources on implementation– but if you have failed to build the sponsorship for the change, you can’t spend enough money or have enough cross-functional meetings to be successful.”
Must-do:Put messages in the Frames of Reference of the targets
Keep in mind that messages must be constructed to align with the Frames of Reference for the targets, meaning there will be multiple Frames of Reference and therefore, multiple messages.
Must-do: Use multiple communication vehicles, and communicate on a regular basis
In order to better align with multiple Frames of Reference, a variety of communication vehicles should be employed. Regardless of the vehicle, however, there must be a feedback mechanism. In addition, communication should be planned and done on a regular basis.
By rejecting the myths, eliminating common mistakes, and following the “must-do’s”, you will significantly improve the effectiveness of your change management communication plan.
Archive for August, 2009
Best Practices for Your Change Management Communication Plan
Friday, August 28th, 2009How Customer Communications Creates New Factors in a Marketing Communications Plan
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009In delivering a customer communications management system, there are extra considerations in respect of the development of a marketing communications plan.
The marketing communications plan can provide a clear guideline as to how to execute, the expected costs and the expected return. Customer communications management will increase the ease with which a multi-channel marketing communications strategy can be executed. It will also increase the sophistication with which a company can communicate in a relevant manner with its customers.
In the context of discussing the plan I will use Philip Kotler ‘P’s framework as this is the standard study for virtually all marketers.
First off, lets establish the Four P’s of product marketing in context with customer communications management:
Product – Which products are you looking to promote? Today’s customer communications management platforms mean that you can market more than one product in an individual campaign based upon an individual users profile. Therefore Product Range Selection is an additional component in the customer communications management driven marketing communications plan. Place – Customer communications management processes give the marketing communications plan complete freedom to choose from a wide range of communications methods. These include voice, Direct Mail, Transactional Mail, Email, Social Media oriented email, social media direct, SMS, mobile and web. Therefore channel flexibility is a key advantage for the marketing communications plan. Promotion – Specifically what is your promotion and what are the promotion objectives? To garner new customers? To market more to your existing customers? To raise awareness of a product launch? To build brand appeal through a news advisory about your company’s efforts in the community? To raise funds for a charity that your company sponsors? The options are wide and varied. The key thing to note again here is that with an integrated customer communications platform, you will have promotion flexibility.
I’ve highlighted four key phrases here that I feel should now be implemented within the marketing communications plan. Lets review these individually.
Product Range
A good customer communications infrastructure will provide significant data analysis and extraction capabilities. A good propensity to purchase analysis model will allow not just a single product to be promoted to an individual customer but, a range of relevant products that will appeal.
Remember that each customer can be communicated with on a genuine one – one basis. Therefore the scope of products that you wish to promote should be considered – They may not be in the same category but you may desire to push certain products in certain categories harder.
Price Elasticity
Not all customers are born the same. The data analysis process within customer communications management will allow you to build price elasticity into your marketing communications plan. You may know for example that keener customers may only buy when a promotional offer is in place. Other customers may buy only when the product is the newest item available. The marketing communications plan may need to consider price elasticity and the targeting of offers on a one to one or customer segment basis.
Channel Flexibility
The ability to deliver a standard but relevant message, in a synchronised way to virtually any customer communication channel has always been a holy grail. My list reveals 9 communication channels here. Each has its merits and with the ability to systematically deliver consistent messages across each, the power of these systems is as yet unexploited by marketers.
Certain channels bring the capability to target the consumer 24 hours a day. Others such as mail have the benefit of longevity and time in front of the customers eyes. The scope for ever increasing sophistication in marketing is increasing all the time.
Whilst this level of flexibility is new in the market, I can see that the next few years will reveal much interesting data about the use of these channels and their performance in different customer and product segments. The ability to analyse the performance of campaigns using data from a single system is a new feature that works in support of the marketing communications plan.
Never before have companies had such a choice of communications channels combined with the ability to manage them effectively. The next decade is going to offer some very interesting insights in communications channels and their relevance in different market segments.
Please visit the Document Projects website for more information relating to this topic.
Nonverbal Communication: What’s it All About?
Friday, August 21st, 2009Communication is critical to continued human development throughout our life span. It is what allows us to share thoughts, feelings, wonderings, and knowledge with others. Whether you are a verbal or nonverbal communicator, the vast majority of communication we do is through nonverbal channels.
So if nonverbal communication makes up a substantial portion of our communicative experience, what does it involve? Many of us associate facial expression and gestures with nonverbal communication, but these are not the only two types involved. There are, in fact, eight different types of nonverbal communication:
Facial Expression This makes up the largest proportion of nonverbal communication. Large amounts of information can be conveyed through a smile or frown. The facial expressions for happiness, sadness, anger, and fear are similar across cultures throughout the world. Gestures Common gestures include pointing, waving, and using fingers to indicate number amounts. Paralinguistics This includes factors such as tone of voice, loudness, inflection, and pitch. Tone of voice can be powerful. The same sentence said in different tones can convey different messages. A strong tone of voice may indicate approval or enthusiasm, whereas the same sentence said with a hesitant tone of voice may convey disapproval or lack of interest. Body Language and Posture A person’s posture and movement can also convey a great deal of information. Arm crossing or leg-crossing conveys different meanings depending on the context and the person interpreting them. Body language is very subtle, and may not be very definitive. Proxemics This refers to personal space. The amount of space a person requires depends on each individual’s preference, but also depends on the situation and other people involved in the situation. Eye Gaze Looking, staring, and blinking are all considered types of eye gaze. Looking at another person can indicate a range of emotions including hostility, interest, or attraction. Haptics This refers to communicating through touch. Haptics is especially important in infancy and early childhood. Appearance Our choice of color, clothing, hairstyles, and other factors affecting our appearance are considered a means of nonverbal communication.
By the time most children are one year old, they are experts in nonverbal communication. They have spent the whole first year of their lives making their wants and needs known, as well as sharing their experiences through nonverbal channels. Around the time of their first birthday, they add the next layer to their dynamic communication repertoire with the verbal piece. Even with the addition of verbal communication, nonverbal expression continues to be the main mode of communication for children as they add more and more words to their vocabulary. Even after children are talking in sentences, nonverbal communication continues to add meaning and structure to the messages being sent and received.
This use and understanding of nonverbal communication becomes automatic for ‘neuro-typical’ children. It is so automatic that many of us are completely unaware that we employ facial expressions and gestures, or that we are using this information to enhance the words we are hearing from our communication partner. We continue to use this mode of communication throughout life.
Think about the word “no,” which can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the nonverbal communication that is being conveyed along with the word. If we say “noooo” with a wrinkled nose and a questioning tone or funny voice, this could convey that we are unsure or don’t really believe what we are hearing. If we hear someone say “NO!” with a loud, or harsh voice, we can interpret that they person is angry or wants an action to be terminated. If someone asks you if you would like a drink, you may answer with “no”; but your tone of voice will most likely be even with little inflection, and your face may just be neutral. In each of these examples the person was saying “no,” but there were three different meanings being conveyed. Without nonverbal communication, it would be difficult to know how to interpret the word.
Many children with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty interpreting multiple modes of communication, and because of this they often miss the nonverbal communication piece that allows accurate interpretation of what is said. In the examples provided above, most children with autism spectrum disorders would only hear the word “no” but miss the nonverbal pieces which help to interpret which “no” is being communicated. This misinterpretation can lead to frustration on the part of both the communicator and the child who is struggling to understand what is happening. At other times, the child may interpret a facial expression, tone of voice, or gesture but not hear the words that went with the nonverbal, which again results in miscommunication. These breakdowns make it difficult for the child to make sense of his/her world.
Working to improve the use and understanding of nonverbal communication is essential for a person with an autism spectrum or neurological disorder. In most cases, working to improve nonverbal communication is the best place to begin improving communication abilities. Expanding the ability to use and understand nonverbal communication provides the necessary foundation for building meaningful dynamic communication. Just as a neuro-typical infant begins by communicating nonverbally, going back and teaching this mode of communication for children who may have missed this step is the foundation for productive communication throughout life.
Teaching nonverbal communication should be done in a natural way that makes sense for each individual child. Telling a child, “look at my face,” or showing a child several pictures of people’s faces and having him/her identify the emotions he sees is not a natural way to work on nonverbal communication. Spending time doing activities with the child where the adult uses very little verbal communication, but is communicating through nonverbal channels, is an effective way to begin introducing nonverbal communication. Playing games where you have changed the rules slightly so as to use only nonverbal communication can also be a fun and more natural way of working on nonverbal communication. For example, you might play Simon Says, using a made up signal for when Simon says to do something. Playing charades can also be a fun way to work on nonverbal communication in a natural context. Take a walk with your child; but instead of saying, “hey look at that dog,” you might pause, point and vocalize, “oh” with a rising inflection to draw attention. There are many ways to work on nonverbal communication that can be explored and used to build this critical foundational piece of communication.