Communications in change leadership are vital, as they carry a significant influence over the adoption of all change and transformation initiatives. However, it is becoming increasingly tricky to engage and retain the attention of a multi-generational workforce, amid the constant stream of information they consume daily. With unscripted, raw media continuing to dominate social media platforms, our media consumption habits are also shifting, pushing corporations to move beyond heavily scripted messaging and adopting more genuine, unscripted communication strategies that ring more true.
This executive brief captures the importance of this shift, discusses practical approaches for implementing unscripted communications in corporate settings, and highlights potential communication setbacks along with solutions to mitigate them.
This roundtable was held on July 25th, 2024.
3 Key Reasons Why Organizations Need to Shift to Unscripted Communications
1. Trust
The erosion of workplace trust is an ongoing challenge, with employees increasingly placing their trust in immediate, functional leaders over their CEO. Scripted corporate language often feels impersonal or detached, resulting in skepticism and disengagement especially when the level of trust in an organization usually plummets during times of change.
2. Content Overload
Scripted communication can come off as sounding too generic, which can cause it to sound irrelevant. With the amount of media and content the average worker ends up consuming daily, scripted communications risk being ignored and classified as noise.
By crafting engaging change communications that deliver more honest, unscripted messages catered to specific audiences, the message will come across as more authentic and more likely to be truly heard throughout the workplace.
3. Communication Channels
While sending scripted emails might seem convenient, it's worth noting that only 7% of internal emails are actually opened.
Utilizing unscripted communications and disseminating it through a change activation platform like Tigerhall helps to turn information into highly consumable materials, through more engaging formats like power reads, videos, or podcasts.
3 Common Change Communication Challenges
1. Communication in the Field
Reaching a workforce that operates primarily in the field or those who aren’t always at their desk (such as sales reps, distribution workers, or scientists) presents its own set of challenges: how do you reach people who aren’t always easy to reach?
Personalizing message channels, messaging, and methods to reach all affected parties is important to ensure everyone is engaged in the organization’s change journey. It is better to adjust the way you speak to ensure information is relayed accurately.
2. Legal Preferences for Scripted Communications
Change leaders prefer the efficacy of transparent, unscripted communications yet legal departments often prefer the safety and predictability of pre-approved, scripted communications. In this case, change leaders may struggle to deliver messages authentically due to the restriction of organizational policies like legal reviews and approval processes. Keep in mind that audiences are usually unable to connect well with scripted communications that are overly sterilized and sanitized.
3. Authenticity in Uncomfortable Situations
While senior leaders may find comfort in delivering written communications, these often lack authenticity. How can change leaders encourage them to step out of their comfort zones while also being sincere and compelling?
5 Unscripted Communication Strategies To Improve Message Efficacy
1. Build Trust Through Authenticity
Practice Direct Communication
Establish trust by prioritizing direct, in-person communication before following up with a written form of communication to create a stronger impact and connection.
Encourage leaders to maintain a personal touch in their communications to ensure the change message resonates well with the audience. Organize town halls to communicate topics such as strategies going forward, what kind of change the organization is bringing in, how it is impacting everybody, and more.
Maintain Empathy and Accuracy
Emphasize the importance of empathy and accuracy in messaging, particularly during challenging times. Apathetic messaging will lead to a loss of trust and unrest within the organization. Authenticity might mean different things to different people. Eradicate the assumption that everyone learns or processes information the same way. It is important to ask stakeholders to be thoughtful of the end receiver when communicating change.
2. Tailor Communication via Personalization
Identify Audience Segmentation
Recognize that different audiences within an organization may require different communication styles. Develop a communication plan that segments audiences and choose the ideal communicator to deliver change messages to make it authentic to the right audience. In some cases, functional leaders might be more effective than CEOs in delivering messages through their own words and perspective, due to their closer relationship with employees.
This has been proven true when considering cultural differences, especially within the Asian region. Having someone who directly experienced the benefits of the change talk about the change proves to be more useful than hearing the same information from senior leadership or the CEO.
Implement Content Localization
Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach by using varied channels, languages, and methods tailored to specific groups based on factors such as locations or cultural differences.
Creating communication packs and templates while allowing regional teams to adapt them accordingly will help streamline communication for organizations that operate in multiple countries. For instance, preparing a slide template for local town halls will ensure consistency of message delivery even when they are adapted into a different language or for a different market.
3. Prepare and Equip Leaders for Effective Communication
Manage Fear and Discomfort
Senior leaders often hesitate to talk about change initiatives, for fear that these initiatives will fail. It is important to coach and educate leaders to view change as iterative improvements and an ongoing experiment. Making commitments and communicating change can be tough but leaders must learn to conquer their fears and see change as an opportunity for corporate advancement.
Workshop and Training
Before launching a new change initiative, inviting senior executives to a change leadership workshop can be incredibly beneficial to help put them in the right mindset. Important topics such as building a culture of change and fostering trust within the workforce can be explored while providing real-world insights on how others experienced their journeys through change.
Sharing past experiences through change can help leaders learn the best way to communicate change, know what to expect, how to react to people’s responses, and what to prepare for in times of change.
Close Collaboration and Alignment
Leaders should work closely with communication experts to avoid past mistakes and enhance message delivery. Consult and listen to your communication specialist within the company for the best practices when curating messages. For example, even if layoffs aren't planned in the near future, promising that there will be no layoffs can backfire and erode workplace trust if circumstances somehow change.
4. Measure & Adjust Communication Strategies
Regular Feedback and Insight Tracking
Implement regular feedback loops to monitor the effectiveness of communication. Use this data to continuously refine your approach, moving from scripted to more unscripted and authentic messaging as needed.
Opt for both structured and unstructured methods, like pulse surveys, Q&A sessions, town halls, and sentiment tracking to gauge communication impact, how much it is helping people, and whether it is saving time and improving workplace productivity. Personalized feedback is also achievable through anonymous evaluations on a departmental level.
While real data can be scary to look at, it accurately reflects the impact of change on the corporation. Despite adoption difficulties at earlier stages, regular tracking will help to demonstrate how the effectiveness of change will outweigh its challenges down the line.
Embrace the Change Curve
Prepare leaders for the initial discomfort observed from early-stage perception data at the beginning of the change process. Send a written email to help set senior leadership expectations before the launch of communications to provide a point of reference should any issues arise in the future. Continued observation and tracking of workplace sentiment is important to measure the true effectiveness of change communication.
5. Innovate in Message Delivery
Leverage Creative Methods
Use creative methods such as corporate swag or localized messaging through functional leaders to engage different audience segments. Ensure that every message, regardless of format, retains its authenticity and relevance to its intended audience.
Production Quality vs Efficacy
Much like a lot of professional work, the tendency in change communications might be to lean towards producing a highly polished formal email or video. High-quality, formal production isn't always necessary for authentic communication as the message's content and delivery are what matter most.
Conclusion
Unscripted communication is a powerful tool that promotes transparency and authenticity throughout an organization, especially during times of change. Leaders must recognize the limits of traditional, scripted communication and begin to embrace this new change to foster deeper connections, enhance message retention, promote employee engagement, and cultivate a culture of trust at work. With the correct strategies and framework in place, this shift will lay a solid foundation for successfully activating changes, from start to finish.
The Executive Council for Leading Change
The Executive Council for Leading Change (ECLC) is a global organization that brings executives together to redefine the landscape of organizational change and transformation. Our council's aim is to advance strategic leadership expertise in the realm of corporate change by connecting visionary leaders. It's a place where leaders responsible for significant change initiatives can collaborate, plan, and create practical solutions for intricate challenges in leading large organizations through major shifts.
In a world where change is constant, we recognize its crucial role in driving business success. ECLC’s mission is to create a community where leaders can excel in guiding their organizations through these dynamic times.
Interested in joining ECLC? Learn the membership criteria and sign-up below.
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