Category Archives: Communication

You share information and assume others will share it. You describe a new process that needs adopted and assume employees will adopt it. You think an idea is best for the business and assume others will think so too. When you assume, you are hoping for the best but should expect the worst. Assuming others will think and act like you do is a bad assumption. You should assume the opposite. They won’t share the information. They won’t adopt a new process just because you ask and they won’t agree that the idea is the best thing. Only when you assume the worst, can you take proper steps to impact communication and behavior change.

These are not bad people who ignore you or disagree. These are your friends, trusted colleagues, co-workers. In fact, it’s probably not even their fault. If you are trying to influence others, the onus is on you to provide the needed direction for that to happen. Maybe you didn’t hand them talking points and give them a deadline to share the information with their team. Maybe you didn’t provide support materials that describe how the process works and how it is different from the old process. Maybe you didn’t listen to what the other leaders think and offer your support to them.

To be successful implementing an idea or project, you must influence others. Nothing can be done alone.  “I assumed she would tell them,” my client said. I hear that a lot. I always reply with, “don’t assume” and “what can we do to make it as easy as possible for this person to support us.” Sometimes I get push back like, “those managers should know what to say,” or “those leaders should know what to do.” That’s not really the point. Maybe they should know what to say or what to do. The point is, in most cases, they aren’t saying what we want and they aren’t doing what we want.

Influencing others takes a thoughtful, proactive approach that requires effort. Your effort gets rewarded with results. When we assume, results usually aren’t achieved. When it comes to influencing others, providing the needed guidance and tools can make all the difference.

We have a tool called a “leadership involvement plan”. It’s a very simple idea. You have the leader’s name at the top. You have activities you’d like that leader to do – for example, 1) show up at a meeting and voice support (using talking points provided), 2) provide a resource by a certain date to help with process mapping, 3) talk to a peer leader that has concerns about the project. These are simple things that probably wouldn’t happen unless we explicitly asked and made it a plan. Leaders, if you can get in front of them, are usually receptive to this and even may add items to their lists. If you are trying to push positive change for the business, leaders should understand that their involvement is important.

So, next time you find yourself assuming someone will say something or do something to move your project along, don’t. Ask yourself, what can I do to help them support me?

Fear increases when organizations are in transition.  Leaders fear failure. Workers fear the unknown.  Fear during change is normal but it shouldn’t be ignored.   Fear distracts people. Fear drives unproductive behavior and causes poor decision making.

Lack of communication usually increases fear during change.  Workers are great observers of behavior. They see leaders meet behind closed doors.  They see high paid consultants come in and meet with leaders.  They sense important decisions are being made but the leaders aren’t talking. This leaves the workers to their own thoughts and fears. Will there be lay-offs? Will I be laid off? Will my department change? Will my boss change?  In the absence of information, people make stuff up. We know from research that people tend to fear the worst. Their fears are almost always worse than the reality. They guess and feed off of each other.  Without leaders talking, the rumor mill is the main source of information (even speculative information is better than no information). 

Thus, I’ve found part of my job as a change consultant is to reduce fear. I counsel leaders on how to communicate during change. They need to follow a set of rules such as: 1) tell what you know, what you don’t know, and when you’ll communicate more, 2) have consistent, compelling messages so employees understand why the change is happening and the scope of the change, and 3) communicate what is NOT changing which is just as important for employees to understand.  I counsel the project team on how to best reach out to employees, involve key people and expand ownership of what is coming.  These tactics help employees better understand the change.  With a set of principles and tactics, fear can be reduced. It can’t be eliminated entirely but it should be addressed. You don’t want fear to distract workers and drive behavior. Change is hard enough without rampant fear.