Managing Change – It’s a beautiful day

Having a carefully planned strategy for communicating during change is a vital part of taking people on the journey. In this blog, I explore why communication during change really matters. And I share how leaders and organisations can take some simple steps to ensuring the communications land well and reduce the danger of folks getting lost along the journey.

In my previous blog, “Stuck in the middle with you”, I mentioned the constant background soundtrack I have in my head sharing there, how conversations/thoughts will result in a different song popping into my head based on hearing a few words or a phrase that connect my brain to song lyrics buried deep in my subconscious.

In this case, it was me getting out of my car to head into a leadership team coaching session where I reflected to myself that it was a beautiful day after a week of rain – and that thought brought the Levellers’ song Beautiful Day to mind.

It’s a beautiful day (hey-hey)

I didn’t know it at the time – but the view that I saw that day would be very different when I arrived on day two of the event. As I stopped to take the second photograph (see the images below), it made me think about the fact that during periods of change sometimes the lovely clear view leaders see ahead is not quite so clear (or initially lovely) for individuals and teams who are not directly involved in making the plans.

Of course, the view across to the horizon in my picture hadn’t gone anywhere – it’s just that a lack of clarity was making the view (the future if you like) a lot less appealing.

And so, totally unexpectedly, a new visual landed in my lap to help provide a background to conversations that day with the leaders I was working with as we discussed the importance of communication during change.

“and nothing is impossible”.

As leaders, it’s not enough just to know that “nothing is impossible” (to quote part of a line from the Levellers’ song), we also need to find ways to ensure that we help our teams relate to the change through the way we communicate. And, most importantly we need to help our teams feel part of the journey. At Taylor Clarke we often use the 4Ps approach developed by William Bridges as we help organisations and leaders ensure they build their communications in a way that helps everyone stay connected to what’s happening.   

The 4Ps approach to communicating follows the structure below:

• Purpose: Explain the basic purpose behind the change.  Help people understand the logic behind the change before they apply their minds to it.

• Picture: Paint a picture of how the future will look and feel.  Let people imagine it first before committing to it.

• Plan:  Lay out the plan for phasing in change. Provide a clear sense of direction.

• A Part to play: Show people the part each of them plays in the future and how they contribute.

The role of the people manager is often critical here – bringing to life any centrally produced communications with the team and having conversations about the part everyone can play can be critical in helping individuals and teams feel involved in the change. And sometimes the ‘Part to play’ can simply for teams to keep doing what they do brilliantly as they wait for more information about how any strategic change might play out. Having clarity of the Plan for when further information is going to be available can also make a huge difference to how people feel.       

Communicating the 4Ps during change is just one element of great change management – so, if you are interested in finding out about how Taylor Clarke can help you plan and/or implement organisational change, or upskill leaders and managers, then please get in touch here or email dougie@taylorclarke.co.uk

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Written by Dougie Ritchie, Principal Consultant

With deep experience gained through many years leading and supporting organisational change impacting global teams, Dougie is also a qualified Prosci Change Management and Agile Project Management Practitioner as well as being a qualified Executive Coach. He has worked with senior leaders in both the Private and Public Sectors (including Scottish Government and NDPBs) helping them define and implement their organisational strategy and change management plans.