“Well, you know, dearie, a change is as good as a rest…”

(English folk wisdom)

As a multimedia specialist I tend to look at things through the lens of media technologies and applications. About a year ago I started writing a ‘paper’ about strategic approaches to change in modern enterprise. I wrote it in such a way that after its completion I would easily turn the paper into a script for producing a couple motivational corporate video. There was so much to say.

After writing a thirty-page article I realized that, as we live in Twitter times, enterprise communication needs to be adjusted to optimum conditions for perception and absorption. Messages have to be short and to the point; meaningful bullet points are preferred.  (No, I didn’t delete that paper although a few times I was tempted to do so. As I dislike waste, it ended up as a source for various other shorter articles and blogs.)

Since then, in numerous occasions I wrote and spoke about the tandem change-innovation and I said that any process of corporate governance must include specific provisions for that to occur. A policy of change could be constructed and clearly enunciated but it requires a basic understanding of how the members of the organization would react to change and also be encouraged to embrace a culture of innovation.

Typically people do not come to work and say, “Hey, today I came to realize that we haven’t had any change for quite a while; isn’t it time to have some change and maybe some innovation to take place?” The more likely scenario is that where and when change happens employees are apprehensive, opposed to it or even lost in the process. In fact the ways in which employees find change unsettling are much more varied and nuanced. As companies move, upsize or downsize, merge or acquire, change culture or chief executives, introduce new cultures or technologies, the employees naturally worry about their job security and they may even feel guilty if they keep a job whereas their workmates couldn’t. Other employees fret about being asked to work in some other fashion than the usual routine, with different tools and with new people.

There is no greater threat to optimum performance in any enterprise than when employees do things begrudgingly after feeling that the new directives and norms haven’t been properly explained to them. Nobody likes to go blindly into action and, in order to avoid a managerial predicament, a suitable effort has to be made to demystify any arbitrariness and to avoid the perception that change is brought about for the sake of change.

Perhaps that is why it could be repeatedly said that strong governance and fast action are the most important aspects for successful change management and for instituting and maintaining a culture of innovation.

Before we look at this challenge from the multimedia point of view, let’s look first at some valuable tips and sensible advice; we could start with one intriguing pointer from one of my old favourite business and social ecologists, Peter Drucker:

“One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it. In a period of upheavals, such as the one were living in, change is the norm. To be sure, it is painful and risky, and above all it requires a great deal of very hard work. But unless it is seen as the task of the organization to lead change, the organization will not survive. In a period of rapid structural change, the only ones who survive are the change leaders. A change leader sees change as an opportunity. A change leader looks for change, knows how to find the right changes, and knows how to make them effective both outside the organization and inside it. To make the future is highly risky. It is less risky, however, than not to try to make it. A good proportion of those attempting it will not succeed. But predictably, no one else will.” (From The Daily Drucker, by Peter Drucker and Joseph Maciarello).

So for change management and/or managing change the following should be considered:

-          It is crucial to clearly identify the roles of the senior team and their responsibilities;

-          Equally important is to establish a decisive, fast-acting governance for the company, whatever the state of change or adjustment the company is in;

-          Nominate a suitable leader in charge of the change/transformation process, which should attentively address any possible concerns with regards to customers, employees and money;

-          Create a simple plan of action and execute it quickly and with decisiveness, while allowing a wide and meaningful discussion about the positive aspects of it;

-          Keep employees and customers as informed as possible about the change and they will appreciate and more easily accept the change because of a suitable level of consideration is awarded to them;

-          Include role-playing and empathetically try to view the other side’s perspective (staff, customers, suppliers, etc) and assure them that you have a well-thought-out plan of action and execution;

-          Be prepared for negative feed-back as not everyone will be ready for change; deal with the negatives directly without ‘broadcasting’ or publicizing them.

Now, with over twenty-one years of practicing multimedia for supporting business management initiatives, handling corporate image issues and applications for effective corporate governance, I am a passionate advocate for using rich-media technology as one of the most valuable tools in implementing a suitable policy for change. As change means many things for many, I will focus on what it could be ideally optimally done to inform employees about change:

-          Create and put in place a strategy in writing and make sure that all senior leadership agree with terminology and suitable wording.  Do not forget to consult with the legal team who usually are experts in semiology (even if they don’t have a diploma for it plastered on their wall). Direct emailing is still an excellent tool for that.

-          Ask the senior leaders to talk to lower echelons of management of decision-makers about the issue of change, its importance and meaning and how best the employees could be informed about it. Face to face communication has been radically simplified (distance, time, costs, availability, etc) due to technology. Here’s again another favourite old quote from Peter Drucker: “The new information technology has practically eliminated
the physical costs of communications.”

-          Take advantage of this truly affordable means of communications and publicize in writing (print and online) the strategy for implementing the change and allow for a suitable time to be agglutinated (digested, understood), perhaps a week or two. Include a pledge that a face-to-face discussion about the strategy will take place at a certain date by way of a physical general meeting (if possible) or via webcasting.

-          Have the chain of communication – various levels of management – trained/prepared to answer questions about the change both upwards and downwards, and encourage participation during this process. Select relevant emails and/or recorded video chats for further dissemination.

-          Have the managers organize work groups to discuss the issue of change with employees and how they could positively (including constructive criticism) affect the strategy for the change to optimally take place. ‘Cross-pollinate’ the best ideas that result from these group discussions and finally create an effectual list of Questions and Answers that would be made available online to all the employees.

-          Maintain a culture of awareness about the process of building a best possible strategy for applying change in the organization. Multimedia is your best means for that: the least demanding and yet the most rewarding partner in this endeavour.

To conclude this article, I must say that rich-media is a valuable means of using various formats and suitable combinations of media for attaining the expected successful results in any campaign. We all know that change is traditionally not easy to impart and make it acceptable without facing an entirety of reactions and sometimes unexpected consequences. Yet dollar for dollar, multimedia is one of the most affordable and effective set of tools in the modern enterprise in today’s information society, which is readily available for a suitable and smooth governance of change.