As any change management expert knows; making any kind of organisational or strategic change and moving away from the status quo can be a challenging process for any business whatever it’s size. Change always brings uncertainty and uncertainty leads to a lack of security and in a surprisingly short space of time the office can quickly become a hot bed of gossip and anxiety. Staff can then begin to lose confidence and motivation and the focus on work and productivity goes out of the window!
Improve or impede the process
It is the job of senior employees therefore, to ensure that their management style is one that will enable the company to move through the transitional process of change as smoothly as possible and in a stress free way. Effective communication is everything – it is vital to the successful implementation of any change initiative – but it is not just what comes out of our mouths which can make or break a situation. An astonishing ninety three percent of human communication actually takes place via our body language (or at least when it comes to thoughts and feelings) so whether we are aware of it or not, we are constantly interacting with each other with wordless signals too.
Difficulties in communication style
These can so easily arise when verbal and non verbal signals conflict; for example, a manager may be saying how sorry he is to have to let an employee go, but his body language may reveal a complete lack of empathy for the employee being made redundant. It is important to have self awareness of one’s own communication style and work on giving clear signals to avoid further conflict and stress for both parties. A simple approach may be to have more informal conversations – surprisingly perhaps it is the informal conversations that can have the biggest impact in times of uncertainty.
Listen
One simple way to communicate better during organisational change is for managers to make sure they actually listen to the opinions, grievances and feedback expressed by their employees so they can react in a respectful and empathetic way. By becoming better listeners; managers improve their ability to influence and negotiate with employees during times of organisational change even if it involves negative consequences for some. What is important is that you start to have a dialogue as early as possible in the change process – preferably right at the start during the planning phase, even though there might still be some questions you are unable to answer at that stage.
Step 1 – how to listen
It may sound like a contradiction in terms but there is an actual difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is where you simply use your ears to register sound (think blah blah blah!) but listening is the actual skill of interpreting and understanding the words that you are hearing to form a coherent meaning. All management level people need to employ active listening skills where a conscious effort is made to hear both the words another person is saying (without interruption or personal judgement) and the complete message being communicated by their verbal and non-verbal body language. These kind of invaluable skills don’t always come naturally but can be practised on change management courses or in a facilitation skills workshop.
Steps 2 & 3 – Responding in verbal, and non-verbal ways
It is just as important for managers and leaders to indicate that they are actively listening by responding appropriately with verbal and non-verbal prompts, reflection and feedback. This further encourages honest and open communication between both parties in order to reduce the possibility of misunderstandings and promote workable solutions that will ultimately help to ensure the future success of the business.
