Communicating Change and Managing Stakeholder Perceptions

Описание: SNHU MBA687 Module9 Overview

How do we get people to want change?

How do we persuade those who will be impacted by a change to welcome and even engage in the transition?

Beer and Nohria had a firm answer: Make people dissatisfied with the status quo, so they demand change.

We see this approach daily from politicians, special interest groups, marketers, terrorists, and con artists.

The change agent attempts to make us unhappy with history, situations, others, and ourselves.

You might even hear some of the more nefarious change agents openly mutter a Machiavellian mantra: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

This is because crisis “unfreezes” the status quo, making us vulnerable and even welcoming of change, even if the shift ultimately goes against our interests.

If anything, our study of change management should help us recognize when unscrupulous change agents are applying Lewinian Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze change processes to manipulate our thoughts, actions, and behaviors.

Of course, this introduces questions about the ethics of using change management practices to influence others.
Critical: As with most tools, it’s not the tool that’s the problem but how the tool is used.

Welcome to Module 9

Welcome to module 9, where we will learn how to communicate change and manage stakeholder perceptions. Critical questions to consider this week include:

• What is the role that communication plays in driving change?
• How do we communicate the need for change?
• What are the methods and channels we can use to encourage change?
• What are best practices for driving continuous change?
Ethical applications

Our study has explored ethical applications of change leadership practices that will benefit the organization and the employee.
This will be a key in your communication plan. How do you persuade others to want to change?
Uncover and communicate the WIIFM; what’s in it for me?

Don’t make change just about the business. Help those impacted by the shift recognize how the changes can benefit them.
Engage the stakeholders in helping you develop and communicate the plan so they can have ownership in the process.

It’s not an accident that ADKAR’s Awareness stage is the first step in the “Unfreeze” phase of the change process.
How do we make people aware? Kotter gives us specific steps:

• Create a sense of urgency by communicating the problem
• Build a guiding coalition of people you want to keep, who will be impacted by the change, and who can help you drive change from throughout the organization.
o This will reduce resistance and smooth transition in a way you can’t do by trying to force change from the top down.
• Work with the guiding coalition to develop the change vision.
• Then, with the support of our guiding coalition, we communicate the change vision.
o Those impacted by the change have ownership in the process and are part of a change leadership team that influences dynamic change.
Communication Plan
That brings us to a critical Module 9 activity. You will develop a communication plan to persuade those impacted by the change to accept and drive the change.

Put on your marketer hats because you will craft a story to help stakeholders see their role in the change process.
Craft a story from the perspective of those you want to persuade. Help them understand why the change is vital to them and the organization.

Final Project

You will also pull all the pieces together for your final project. This will include the following:

• Integrate Milestone One and Milestone Two into a cohesive document.
• Develop a communication plan to help the leadership team effectively communicate and implement organizational changes. You will
o Describe the communication campaign
o Summarize workforce development techniques
o Reveal the communication channels for educating and influencing employees.
• Write an executive summary of your project, including best practices you recommend to help the organization sustain change.
o Don’t get confused by the “letter” designation in the assignment. Just include it as an executive summary at the start of your project. Keep it brief and factual.