Managing change through good communication
October 14, 2008
A recent survey conducted by YouGov for Investors in People has found that all too often managers are not handling change effectively. The survey was carried out on 2,500 people, and more than half of the respondents said that they found out about change through gossip and the behaviour of senior staff, such as hushed conversations. The most popular way of receiving information about change was through one to one meetings with the line manager, rather than company wide announcements or group meetings.
Change is such a major part of business now, with mergers and acquisitions, large scale restructures or redundancies, or even day to day changes such as new products or services. All UK workers will experience some sort of change in their careers, and the consequences of communicating change badly can be huge. Change often be seen as the role of the very top level of management or HR to deal with, but as this survey suggests, line managers, as with so many aspects of employment, actually have the biggest role to play in communicating change, reassuring employees, listening to valuable feedback and then doing something with it. However it’s likely that in some organisations, even the line managers aren’t completely aware of what’s happening, so would find it very difficult to communicate effectively with their staff on the changes.
Managing change and communicating effectively are two very key skills for anyone with people management responsibilities, yet I wonder how many organisations deliver training on these areas for their line managers? This is something we have not done so far in my organisation, but something that is certainly needed.
Does your organisation provide any training for managers relating to change management or communication? Or have you been through a major change that was handled very well or very badly?
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