The Role of Communication in Supporting Successful Change Management

A quick internet search for change and communication will throw up lots of statistics about how many change management projects fail because of poor communication.

I’m not sure how many of them are based on sound evidence but nevertheless I think we can all agree that communication is essential for successful change initiatives that deliver the expected benefits.

While the change is happening, business-as-usual needs to continue and after the change is complete, wouldn’t it be good if employee engagement was not just maintained but actually improved?

All this relies on solid change management and change communications approaches.

In this briefing, I set out to explain how communication can support successful change as an essential part of the change management process.

I’ve also asked Martin Flegg, internal communication specialist and PR Academy tutor to share some top tips along the way.

What you’ll learn:

What do we mean by change?

What is change management?

The change management strategy

Analysis of the change – what’s the impact?

Who’s role is it?

The role of communication in change management: myths and common missteps

Project management and change communication

Building an effective change communication strategy and plan

Employee listening research: a key component of change communication

What do we mean by change?

But what exactly do we mean by “change”? “Change is any adjustment or alteration in an organisation that has the potential to influence the organisation’s stakeholders’ physical and psychological experience.” (Oreg , By and Michel 2012 )

The focus in this briefing will be what is often referred to as business change – moving from one way of working to another in a planned way.

This is different to “emergent change”. The differences are set out in Managing and Leading People through Organizational Change by Julie Hodges.

For this type of change to be successful three things need to work effectively together and if one is missing, the others will always struggle:

• Project management
• Change management
• Change communications

What is change management?

According to the Association for Project Management Body of Knowledge:

“Change management is the overarching approach taken in an organisation to move from the current to a future desirable state using a coordinated and structured approach in collaboration with stakeholders.

“Organisational change is introduced into corporate settings through projects, programmes and portfolios in order to deliver business value however it is only the beginning of the process of embedding change and making it the new normal state for the organisation.”

John P Kotter is the author of Leading Change and co-author of Our Iceberg is Melting. In his book XLR8 (Accelerate), he sets out his accelerators for change:

• Create a sense of urgency
• Building and maintaining a guiding coalition
• Formulating a strategic vision
• Communicating the vision and the strategy to create buy-in and attract a growing volunteer army
• Accelerating movement towards the vision and the opportunity by ensuring that the network of people removes barriers
• Celebrating short-term wins
• Never letting up
• Institutionalising strategic changes in the culture.

Learn more about Kotter’s approach to change on his website.

(And if you are studying with us at PR Academy, you will find his book “Leading Change” in the online library on the Study Hub.)

The change management strategy

In my book Communicating Projects, I explain that just as with change communications, there should be a change management strategy in place that is informed by research and analysis and then delivered through a change management plan. In devising the strategy, it may be necessary to look at the change initiatives in the wider organisation to understand how the change project fits in. Are there overlapping stakeholders? How high is the priority of this change compared to others that are happening? If the organisation practices portfolio management (which is about balancing projects, programmes and business as usual) then the thinking on this may already exist and can inform the strategy.

A typical change management strategy may include the following elements, starting with an analysis of the change through to the implementation approach and on to measurement and evaluation:

• Analysis of the change. This will include the analysis work undertaken, for example, the findings of the gap analysis, change impact assessment and stakeholder analysis.
• How the change will be delivered – for example through a change network and how this will be managed
• Roles and responsibilities
• Stakeholder communication
• Change readiness criteria
• Measurement and evaluation
• Dependencies
• Risks and issues
• Budgets and resources

Analysis of the change – what’s the impact?

Models such as Kotter provide really good guiding principles, but first, you need to understand the impact of the change that you are dealing with.

This is important for two reasons:

• You can assess how much effort and resource is needed to make the change a success
• You can design the change management and change communications strategies accordingly

In the Change Manager’s Handbook, a key text for our PRCA Diploma in Change Management and Communication, Caroline Perkins explains the importance of understanding the impact of a change:

“Identifying and analysing the impact of change is one of the keys to effective change management planning and helps to avoid, or at least minimize, the disruptive effects and support the positive aspects of the change.”

She suggests the McKinsey 7 S model to inform this gap analysis. This model looks at an organisation through the lens of the following, which all begin with the letter S!

• Strategy
• Style
• Skills
• Systems
• Structure
• Staff
• Shared values

You can do this by taking each element of the model and identifying the current situation, the desired future situation, the gap, the barriers to closing the gap and then the activities – including both change management and communication.

Who’s role is it?

Having worked out the impact of the change and what needs to be done, it should be clear what the role of the change manager is and what the role of the communicator is – but there can be grey areas.

For example, who looks after stakeholder communication and relationships?

It’s helpful to agree and document roles and responsibilities at the start of a project – particularly between change management and change communication. This avoids duplication of effort, confusion and ensures nothing is missed.

The role of communication in change management: myths and common missteps

• “Say what’s in it for me.” One of the most common mistakes with change initiatives, and communicating change is to try and “sell” the change. No! Talk about “what it means for me”. Don’t try to sell the change. There may not be anything in it for some stakeholders.
• Resistance to change. A commonly-held view is that employees are resistant to change, but actually it could be that what employees resist is badly delivered change.  Things aren’t explained clearly and nobody listens to their feedback. Listening is an important part of good change communication. Listening is explored later on in this briefing.
• Culture change. Although this briefing is about business change, culture change is something that communicators are often asked to support.  There is an excellent quote from Bill Quirke in his book Making the Connections: “….those yearning for it often cannot define in what ways they want to see things changed. If culture can be defined as ‘the way we do things around here’, culture change is changing the way we do things. This begs the questions, which things need to be changed, in what ways and why? Asking these questions is vital to turning ‘culture change’ from rhetoric to specific and observable outcomes.”
• It’s OK not to communicate – signpost! Not everything will be known from the start. There can be a temptation to fill the void with communication for the sake of communication. In this scenario employees simply stop engaging with the content because it isn’t telling them anything useful. The change communication strategy to use here is signposting.  Let people know why something isn’t known and tell them when the decision will be made. Explain that between now and then they may not hear any updates. Ensure you communicate as promised when the time comes.

Project management and change communication

The Association for Project Management defines a project as:

A business change initiative will be delivered by a project so an understanding of project management principles is helpful.

The business case. Every project should have a business case that explains the opportunity or the problem that the organisation wants to address. It will discuss different options and make a case for a particular course of action. In making the case, it will explain the benefits that will be gained for the organisation, costs and risks.

The business case is a good place to start when trying to understand a project and develop change management and communication strategies.

The sponsor. Every project should have a sponsor (sometimes this role is referred to as the “Senior Responsible Owner/Officer” or SRO). They own the business case and are responsible for making sure that the project realises its benefits. They will chair the project board, or equivalent governance group, and support the project manager but they don’t get involved in the day-today running of the project.

They can be a really important contact for the communicator because they can help smooth difficult stakeholder relationships, unlock funding and will probably sign off the communication strategy.

Guide to project management

Building an effective change communication strategy and plan

A change communications strategy and plan can follow the usual structures – but there are a few key differences.

The communication strategy is there to help the change project realise its benefits in the same way the any strategy should be designed to help an organisation to achieve its goals. Those benefits will be set out in the business case.

• The starting point should be change impact assessment – which stakeholders are impacted and how? What does each group need to know or do differently?
• The planning stage should ensure that objectives and tactics are aligned to the project plan and change management plan.

Dr Kevin Ruck’s RADAR model is an example of a model that can be used for strategic planning. Check out our toolkit for more.

PR and comms planning toolkit

Employee listening research: a key component of change communication

Listening to stakeholders is a key factor in successful change communication. Most change projects will have employees and/or other stakeholders involved – for example as part of the project board.

However, listening more widely can help the project by identifying pitfalls that may have been missed and helping employees to feel more engaged with the change.

But the results of employee listening research must be acted on. That doesn’t mean that everything employees say goes – but its essential to respond and if something can’t happen, explain why.

As part of the change impact assessment, assess what level of listening is required and where the organisation is on the Listening Spectrum developed by Dr Kevin Ruck, Mike Pounsford and Howard Krais in their research.

Explore the “Who’s Listening” research 

Dr Kevin Ruch shares six steps for creating a listening environment for “business as usual” but these can be adapted for the life of the project and used to develop good practice to carry forward:

Step 1: Conduct a listening audit

Step 2: Analyse the results from the listening audit

Step 3: Set measurable listening objectives

Step 4: Develop a listening plan with monthly (or interval relevant to the project) reporting and feedback processes

Step 5: Review the plan and check progress against objectives

Step 6: Evaluate the plan

Find out more:

Six Steps for a Listening Climate

CIPR Internal Communication qualifications – change is embedded

Both of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations internal communication qualifications – certificate and diploma – cover change and change communication.

Find out more about the internal communication courses:

CIPR internal communication qualifications

PRCA Diploma in Change Management and Communication Course

Together with the PRCA (Public Relations and Communication Association) at PR Academy we have a course on change management and communication leading to a PRCA qualification: the PRCA Diploma in Change Management and Communication.

This change and communication course is designed to bring together the three key disciplines for change:

• Project management
• Change management
• Communication

The programme can be completed in around six months or more quickly. Learners study on the PR Academy Study Hub with access to a range of live workshops including change communication, internal comms and other areas such as crisis comms.

Our Study Hub online library has an extensive range of books on change management, communication and listening.

Discover the course

And finally….

Successful business change results from project management, change management and communication working together.

Change communication is different to “business as usual” communication because it needs to work hand in hand with these two disciplines and be focussed on the project achieving its benefits.

References and useful links

APM what is change management. https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/what-is-project-management/what-is-change-management/

Julie Hodges. (2016). Managing and Leading People Through Organizational Change : The Theory and Practice of Sustaining Change Through People. Kogan Page.

Oreg , By and Michel 2012 in Managing and Leading People through Organizational Change. Hodges, J. 2016

Ann Pilkington. (2021). Communicating Projects : From Waterfall to Agile. Routledge.

PR Academy Guide to CIPR Internal Communication qualifications 

Bill Quirke. (2008). Making the Connections : Using Internal Communication to Turn Strategy Into Action: Vol. 2nd ed. Routledge