Every day, it seems like the taken-for-granted foundations of our lives are crumbling. Sometimes, it’s a sad loss and other times it’s an opportunity for a fresh start. But the initial reaction to this persistent uncertainty—threat, fear, resistance—is pretty much a given.

The human brain strives to maximize certainty and predictability as a central driver of behavior. In the presence of ambiguity, people fill in knowledge gaps with fear. Even the smallest change can be experienced as a threat and activate the flight or flight response.

While many of the changes we’re experiencing these days are largely or totally out of our control, we also take part in a variety of intentional change processes. Examples include:

Helping to implement new protocols to respond to ever changing pandemic conditions
Adapting our team work to accommodate a virtual workplace
Helping our kids develop good study habits in a less than ideal situation

The post below, originally published in February 2015, is at least as relevant now. It’s been adapted slightly to include an infographic that you can use as a guide when you’re involved with any kind of change.

Imagine this:

Your team has designed an organizational change that will have significant operational impact. It’s a complex process and you’ve worked for months to get all the moving parts aligned. The deadline for rollout is fast approaching, you’ve run out of time, and you’ve pinned down the last details just under the wire. You all leave the final meeting exhausted but proud of your accomplishment.

The next day, someone who wasn’t part of the planning calls you and asks what’s going on. You open your mouth to reply and then realize you don’t know what to tell him. You fumble through an explanation but your story sounds incoherent and flat. Later, another colleague emails you with these questions: “How’s this going to affect the line workers? Does the union know about this? How will my job be affected?” Uh, oh, the rumors are spreading.

As the day progresses, emails from your team pile up. They are running into the same problem. And before the day is over, you suspect your wonderful plan has been seriously compromised.

What happened? Something I’ve seen over and over (and even been part of, sadly). In our haste to wrap up the “what,” we’ve neglected to address an important question: “How are we going to communicate this change in a way that will create the greatest likelihood of success? What will enhance the likelihood of buy in and alignment by the people responsible for implementing this change?”

How we communicate a change is as important as knowing what the change is. Yet this step is often completely overlooked. Any change effort will have a far better chance of succeeding if the same attention and thoughtfulness is paid to communicating the change as to designing the change itself.

This includes consideration of such things as:

Sequencing: Who do we tell, how do we tell them and and in what order?
Input: What part(s) of the change are we looking for input on? From whom? What is non-negotiable? What's the most effective way to get input?
Message: What’s the story? Do all the change initiators have a consistent yet personalized story?
Modeling: How do the change initiators convey heartfelt investment?

There’s a useful formula for creating a Change Story that I learned from my colleague Dave Flanigan, who adapted it from various sources. It asks five simple, but not easy, questions. They can be answered in any order that makes sense. They become refined over time and revised depending on who the audience is.

Take a look at the infographic below and give it a try!

Click here to download a printable PDF

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