The Italian philosopher and poet Dante Alighieri already put it in brief more than 700 years ago: “One waits for the times to change, the other grabs them vigorously and acts.” In whatever way change is faced by institutions, companies, and people, it represents a specific challenge for communications. The existing and the established are in danger of losing their validity, new challenges in the private and professional areas are on the agenda, uncertainty is on the rise, and this causes anxiety and awakens emotional responses.
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Communicating helps shape change
The pace of change continues to be high, and this will not change significantly soon. Mergers and acquisitions, more rigorous requirements in sustainability, and restructuring of companies and business models will continue to be on the agenda in the future. Change communication shapes the change process and should remove barriers in the communications context as far as possible.
Key communication areas and stakeholders in change processes are:
Employees and managers are concerned about their professional future, customers and suppliers ask about changes in the business relationship, shareholders are interested in the future value of the company, authorities and politicians are concerned about the need for additional regulation, and a local public asks about the effects on the regional community.
Goals of change communication
In these complex processes, communicating connects the environment and the company; the task here is to cope with ambiguity and uncertainty in a situation characterized by fear and conflict. In an atmosphere characterized by risks and uncertainties, communication needs to reduce complexity and create trust to facilitate and promote the success of change. Clarity here is a must, active communicating rather than remaining silent is required, clear announcements rather than general statements are necessary, and bad news should be clearly expressed as early as possible so as to avoid obstructing constructive change.
We have a lot of hands-on experience in managing and communicating change processes, be it relocations, takeovers, or plant closures. We enable successful change communication for your success!