Those ideas on complexity of communication and organization sound vaguely familiar. Let's see what we can do to find our way through all of this complex mess. Let's start by determining what needs to be communicated in any changing organization. There's two sides to this equation. One would be content information. And the second would be process or process information.

Let's start with content information using an integrated approach to leading change the content information or the facts about three basic domains. We've got the strategic domain, the big picture stuff that talks about where we're going and why we need to go there, etc. We have got the domain around change. These are all the details, the facts around what is going to be different, when, who needs to do what etc. There's also the third domain of transition and helping people adapt What are things that we can do? What are the decisions that need to be made, that will help people leave the old way of doing things and ensure that this new project becomes successful and organization achieves their strategic objectives.

So those are the facts that we need to get at. And of course, communication is the way to bring this live into any organization. Let's dig into each of those three in a little bit more depth. The essential strategic message embodies five major domains, the principles and values support the mission or the purpose. We've got the pushes the poles and the vision. These are the big picture things around any organization or department or division.

And when we're talking about communicating the essential strategic facts, the emphasis has got to be put on the bottom three here. Why is change necessary? What are the pressures or threats or opportunities that are in our midst right now? And what are the consequences of we don't respond to those that just kind of come with a realistic sense of urgency. Why are we changing? Then we want to talk about where are we going?

How would we recognize this? What's the direction. And it's also helpful to communicate the key priorities, the two or the three or the four key priorities. And we can talk about this for the organization, the division, the department, whatever it might be. When we talk about essential change messages, there's several to consider. How do all of these changes aligned to the priorities and the strategic direction?

How are the projects all coordinated with each other as opposed to competing with each other. Of course, there's a myriad of details for each and every one of the changes that relate to the WHO THE what the when, the how, the where, etc. Most importantly, and all of that people need to know what they're expected to do differently got to ensure that the project or the change teams and their plans are accessible in a meaningful way and putting your project plan on a website and sending everyone an HTML link to that. website is not making the plan meaningfully accessible. And then there's a central transition messages messages around what's over now and what isn't probably the most important transition message, what do we need to leave behind? And what will we bring forward?

Explain how the old ways will no longer be rewarded. We've got to communicate to help people through this time in between building trust leaders need to show up, they need to connect people together. We need to provide opportunities for learning and trying these new skills that are going to be required to make the new change successful. So that's got to be communicated. And then the small successes as they slowly start to build towards a big huge success. The small successes have got to be publicized and made very visible for everyone to see.

So when small groups in the organization start to get some sense of traction around this new project. They've got to be able to tell their story to everyone. Also clarify how the foreman Informal rewards will support the new ways of doing things. So when we think about these dimensions, there's an organic flow as it relates to timing. Ideally, strategy messages are first and then the change details are next. And then the transition information is shared after that.

Unfortunately, most organizations have developed a habit of starting a little late and stopping a little sooner. So we will announce a change no context as to the strategy, no sense of how this change aligns with any of the others. Here's the details of the change. There's the website to call and get some more information maybe a week later another update on that. And then that would be it. No follow on transition information.

But really, it's not it because then another change is announced. and on it goes change after change after change after change. No context to strategy nofollow on helping people adapt and we wonder why people feel overwhelmed and confused. So every time a new change gets announced, it should be put in the context of the basic strategy for the organization, and how this particular change aligns with the other changes or projects that are going on. And we need to follow that up with transition related information. So we need to avoid that habit, and make this organic flow much more frequent and much more consistent, because this is what it takes in terms of timing, and the content information, as opposed to the too late and stop too soon.

Let's think about process or process information for a moment. People want to know, where are these decisions coming from? Who's making these decisions? Is that a group decision? Does everybody get a vote which of course is absolutely not going to happen? But people want to know how these decisions are being made.

It's really important for people to understand there's a difference between gathering information and making decisions, asking people To show up and express an opinion does not mean that's the decision made, and they're going to do what you want. So we need to clarify that. What's the makeup of the project teams? If people don't think the project teams are getting enough information about what's going on in their particular part of the organization as it relates to this project? Who do they need to talk to? If they want to become part of a project team?

How do they get on it? When delays happen, explain the delay. Rather than just saying nothing. There will frequently be times when information is available. decisions have been made, but it can't be shared. It could be legal reasons.

It could be personnel reasons. It could be competitive reasons. There's any number of reasons why information can't be shared, rather than just go into the silent mode. Explain why we can't tell people people understand that if you get really frustrated with ongoing periods of quiet Where can people get the most current up to date information? Who's in charge of what? Where can people get their questions answered?

Is there a queue and a board? That's of any value? Is it up to date or not? And this process information needs to be continually shared as the situation requires. So, here's a question. How can you balance content information and process information much more effectively, in your own organization?

I'd like you to find this worksheet, this action plan, and I'd like you to make a note to yourself. What can you do to balance content information and process information so that it engages much more people much more effectively throughout your organization?