How Well Do You Communicate Change?

Good communication can minimize resistance. The way in which you communicate a change to your employees will make a huge difference in how change is either accepted or resisted. A poor approach to take when change is occurring is to speak in generalities. Even worse is not to communicate at all! Rumors will escalate and the consequence will be the “grapevine”! Grapevines usually distort the truth, and once the rumor is out there, it’s very difficult to reverse it.

Communicating change sometimes means breaking bad news to people. Bad news is bad news, and it cannot be forever concealed. It is only fair to communicate the facts as soon as possible. The sooner, the better.

There are times when you are not in a position to give out much information. Even so, as a leader it is important to communicate this by saying, “All right, this is the situation. I don’t have the words you want to hear, but we’ve got a couple of choices. Either we resist the change and hold on to the way things are, or we get involved and see how we can influence the change positively for ourselves.” As best you can, describe to your employees the changes that are likely to occur and what the possible consequences will be. Be sure to describe any opportunities.

A large casino in Las Vegas was to be listed for sale. Wisely, the management team called a “big-picture” meeting. This was a companywide series of three meetings, to which all employees were invited, where the situation was explained. Management encouraged questions and gave straight answers with no punches being pulled! Thereafter, a series of department meetings was help to discuss specific changes and the impact on each department. The resistance to the change was limited because employees understood the reasons for the change and how it would affect them.