Heading into 2020, organizations must prepare for change.
That could include making sure your company is ready for the next recession. Or it could be adapting to meet the fast-evolving needs of your audiences.
We are seeing a trend in communication that meets the change imperative. We call it “Change Communications.”
In the past year, we have worked with clients to communicate, internally and externally, as they have had to make changes that their audiences must understand and, when possible, embrace. For example:
- We guided a private corporation in communicating the facts around a re-organization, with a tone set directly by the CEO.
- We worked with a professional services firm that changed its equity structure to stay ahead of its fast-changing industry and needed its workforce to understand what was happening.
- We were hired by a private religious school that, for the first time, has decided educate both girls and boys, communicating a change in tradition.
- We collaborated with a charitable foundation that needed nonprofits in its community to comprehend a change in strategic direction for a new generation, to ensure the next decades of investment and impact.
The fundamentals of Change Communications are very similar to what is needed in times of crisis, so our extensive experience in helping clients in crisis meets needs of companies in times of change. At the core, it’s about laying out the facts, providing reassurance and communicating concern for the people affected. When change is well-communicated, it can often prevent a crisis because audiences feel informed and, often, empowered.
Heading into a new year, it’s imperative to anticipate change and be prepared to communicate it, from the inside out. If your employees and closest customers “get it,” there’s a better chance that everyone else important will too.
Now is the time to try to get in front of change, in order to best set a tone and lay it out, in terms that will help, not hinder, the effort.