Effective communication plays a vital role in the change management process, and all changes are bound to fail without an effective communication strategy. Most stakeholders including customers and employees resist major changes in the existing operating procedures and processes. The resistance to change stems from the uncertainty, anxiety, stress, and expectations related to the changed processes. Individuals believe that they can suffer through these changes and this would negatively affect their organizational performance. However, effective communication can alleviate the factors that lead to resistance and anxiety. Communicating with the stakeholders of the organization enables the management to remove any obstacles and make the transition in a smooth and effective manner. One of the most important considerations in change management is that all stakeholders share the primary purpose and vision of a major change. It is essential that all stakeholders including customers, suppliers, and employees share the purpose of the change and the benefits linked to the change. The leadership and change managers also play a vital role in effective change management to alleviate resistance and enhance motivation levels. A communication plan will be ineffective without the input and feedback from the external and internal customers. Different stakeholders benefit the organizational process and they frame up the entire thinking process of an organization.
The communication plan and strategy will incorporate all three factors of effective change management to remove obstacles and increase the acceptance levels. The company will face the most significant communications problems in the immediate phase of transition. The internal and external customers will have the highest level of anxiety during the change implementation phase. Therefore, the frequency of communication will be highest during the pre-implementation and implementation phases of the change. The supervisors and team leaders will organize meetings on a daily basis, and the top management will hold meetings on a weekly basis. The primary purpose of all meetings will be to address the concerns of stakeholders and communicate the long-term benefits of the changes. The change agents along with top-management will utilize social media, booklets, emails, bulletin boards, and videos to communicate the benefits of change. Social media play an effective role in communicating the objectives and benefits of changes in organizational processes to all stakeholders. Although the management will utilize social media and other communication mediums, but face-to-face meetings and discussions will be a top priority. Meetings and discussion groups have the highest effectiveness with respect to communications in change management. Different aspects can play a major role if implementation would be proactive in nature and the decision makers would focus on the perspective of effective implementation.
New York, NY 12345-6789
John Doe
Chief Executive Officer
Dear Mr. Doe
I am writing this letter in context of a major change the organization is planning to implement. The company is planning to bring a major change in the standard operating procedures in the next six months. The change will be considerably valuable for the long-term growth of the organization along with the prosperity of all stakeholders including employees and customers. However, the change will attract a significant amount of resistance, anxiety, and uncertainty in the initial phases of the transition. The company can minimize the resistance and curb the anxiety and uncertainty of all stakeholders through effective communication. Therefore, an effective communications plan is essential to implement the change and make a smooth transition to a new state from the existing procedures. We can achieve optimum results by implementing the following plan and communications strategy.
The plan would focus on conveying the benefits of changing the general procedures. It would depict the fact that how our organization would benefit from such procedures. The plan would affect internal and external stakeholders, stakeholder’s management and culture of the organization. Besides that it would focus on the change oriented framework, directional sub plans, process improvement, technology enhancement and effective staffing. The plan would focus on training and development of the employees and it would not only focus on different general staff of the organization but it would also focus on different higher management too. The communicational strategy would be clear and concise and it would focus on the basic aspects of the plan. The core benefits of the plan would be documented in this strategy and employees can give their valued feedback through online submission of their respective answers. A confused implementation or communicational strategy would not work in this regard and this would produce negative results for the organization.
In order to excel in the current era every organization should itself with the advent of time and by changing standard operating procedures our organization can bring a proactive change in our processes, which would benefit all the stakeholders of the organization.
Sincerely,
Kevin Smith
Chief Operating Officer
References
Eisenberg, E. M., Johnson, Z., & Pieterson, W. (2015). Leveraging social networks for strategic success. Journal of Business Communication, 52(1), 143-154.
Griffin, R. (2013). Fundamentals of management. Mason: Cengage Learning.
Yüksek, S., & Bekmeier, F. S. (2013). Culture-specific objectives of change communication: An intercultural perspective. Journal of Management & Change, 30/31(1/2), 180-193.
