[00:00:00] You're at work and you're about to get involved in a new change project. You know, it'll be big, you know, it'll involve some transformational effort, but that's about it. Your role is as the change communication specialist and everyone is clamoring for a change comms plan. But here's the thing. Not only does a good comms plan rely on a good project plan, but a good comms plan also relies on good preparation.

[00:00:25] You can't simply magic the comms out of thin air. You need to understand the ins and the outs of the change first. So how do you do that? Well, that's what today's episode is all about.

[00:00:36]

[00:00:42] Hello and welcome to episode 82 of Less Chatter, More Matter, the communications podcast. I'm your host Mel Loy and I'm recording this on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people here in Meanjin also known as Brisbane. So what I described in the intro is a tale [00:01:00] as old as time. Here's the thing, us comms folks, we're undeniably good, but we're not so good that we are mind reader good.

[00:01:08] And we're often underestimated too. Often people on a project think that anyone can do comms or the change manager can do comms and it's not until people start complaining that they don't know anything about the change that the project brings some comms people in. But you can also get lucky and be involved from the start.

[00:01:28] Either way, it is impossible to just jump in and start writing a plan. Apart from needing a good project plan to know what's happening, when, to who, and the outcomes, you also need to have a good understanding of the scope of the change, the strategic intent, And so much more. So today we're not going to talk about writing a change comms plan, but I am going to talk about the four things you need to do before you start writing your comms plan.

[00:01:55] And these four steps will give you the best chance of creating a strategy and a plan [00:02:00] that actually work. So let's get into it. Step one is understand the scope of the change. If you are lucky enough to have a good change manager on the team, they will have done some of this work already. But if not, you'll have to start from scratch with this step, which is all about how understanding not only what's changing, but in what way for what audiences, when and how.

[00:02:24] Firstly, we start with working out, well, who are your audiences? Now, for those of you who have read my book, this will sound familiar. You'll see a little matrix in there I've drawn up to help with this, but basically imagine this. On the horizontal axis, you have impact from low to high and on the vertical axis, you have control from low to high. So impact is basically how much this change will affect a particular audience group. Is it a big impact or just a little impact or somewhere in between?

[00:02:55] Control is exactly what it sounds like. How much control do people have over [00:03:00] the change? Now, the reason that's important is because while people are generally good with change that they initiate or have a say in, they are more resistant to the change that happens to them. And it also means that people who have little control probably have little influence or a depth of knowledge of the change because they just haven't been involved.

[00:03:20] So you end up with four quadrants in this matrix. The bottom left is your low control, low impact quadrant. So these are the audiences we call our interested observers, and you might need to keep them informed about what's going on, but that's probably about it. Now, sometimes these could be suppliers, media, maybe even board members.

[00:03:41] The quadrant above that at the top left is high control, but low impact. So this is our change sponsors or change influences bucket. They help shape the change, but I personally not impacted by it. And often they are C suite leaders. Then once you have. Uh, those two on the top right, [00:04:00] you've got those who are highly impacted, but also have a high level of control.

[00:04:05] These people are important. They are your change leaders. Now our change leaders are often team leaders or senior leaders within a particular department. And you are going to need them to do a bit of the heavy lifting in the change and comms process. And finally, the bottom right is high impact, but low control.

[00:04:24] And these are typically our end users. They're often team members, although they could be customers as well. So part of the scope is understanding who all your audiences are and where they fit into those quadrants. Then we go through those audiences one by one, and we ask questions like what's changing, why, how is this different to their current state?

[00:04:45] What's not changing, what are the benefits of the change, et cetera, et cetera. Now, I do have a template for this step that you get when you buy my book, but you can also just buy the pack of templates from my website if you want. So once you have that level of detail, you [00:05:00] start to get very clear and a very detailed picture of the scope of change.

[00:05:04] And this is what change communication is all about. It is granular communication, and that's what makes it different from other comms disciplines. So that's step one, understand the scope of change. So step two, sometimes combined with step one, depending on who is leading the change and it is take the brief.

[00:05:23] Now in smaller teams and organisations, the person leading the change can also be the sponsor. So you might be able to take a brief and complete the scope at the same time, but often the person who is ultimately responsible, accountable, and the sponsor for the change is not the project lead. So you need to interview them separately.

[00:05:43] Now, why is that? Because taking a secondhand brief is a very poor idea. I should note, I've had this backfire on me before where the person I took the brief from wasn't actually aligned with the sponsor of the project. And it turned out that all the work we'd done, everything we developed wasn't [00:06:00] what they wanted at all.

[00:06:01] So it just results in the client thinking you're incompetent and a whole lot of rework. So go to the source and in this step, you will get their point of view on why the change is so important. But critically, you need to understand the strategic link and this step, people need to know there is a strategic well thought out reason for this change that it's not just something an executive decided to do on a whim, because when you can demonstrate a strategic link, you bring credibility to the change, and that helps it get over the line.

[00:06:34] So apart from asking how this change will support the organisation in achieving its strategic goals, other questions you can ask as part of this briefing process also include: what's the problem you're trying to solve or the opportunity you're trying to take advantage of? Why is that important to the organisation right now?

[00:06:52] What would a great outcome look like for this project? What do you want people to know, feel, and do when we talk about this project? [00:07:00] What do people already know? What are the top three key messages you want people to take away from this project? The point of these questions is really to help you construct your positioning and your compelling case for why.

[00:07:14] And it's also about truly understanding and sometimes coaching what the sponsor wants and needs. A top tip: during this conversation, make sure you play back some of their answers to these questions, especially if they are still being a bit vague or high level and they don't really give tangible or concrete answers.

[00:07:34] So, for example, you could paraphrase back to them, say something like, okay, it sounds like the problem you're trying to solve is X, Y, Z. Is that right? Or use mirroring. If they say, for example, it will help us achieve our strategic growth objectives. That's pretty vague. Just repeat back to them the last few words.

[00:07:52] So you'd say something like: strategic growth objectives? Which in particular? And hopefully they'll get more detailed [00:08:00] because at the end of this, the people that you are communicating to need clear, concrete direction and reasons why. So you need to get away from the high level corporate speak and really get down into the nitty gritty.

[00:08:12] Okay. That's step two. Step three is the reverse brief. And this is the step that I hear most about from people who have read my book or come to one of my courses because they love the reverse brief. And here's why. Number one, it covers your ass. Number two, it helps you get clarity. Here's how it works.

[00:08:32] After you've done the scope of change and the brief, you then consolidate all that information into one document called the reverse brief. And this is essentially a playback of everything you've learned, including the outcomes you need to achieve, what's changing, who's impacted, etc, etc. Yeah. And you send this back to the sponsor and the project lead, and you ask them to review it.

[00:08:52] Say that once they have reviewed it, then you'll start working on the comms. Because otherwise they might not do it. So it becomes a blocker if [00:09:00] they don't review it. But back to the reverse brief, sometimes we work with people who struggle to verbally articulate what they're thinking, what they want, and it's not until they see something written down that they're able to do that really well.

[00:09:13] So they might read the reverse brief and go, Oh, that's not what I meant at all. Well, that's great. Tell me what you did mean then. So this process helps them clarify their thoughts. And also it often sparks other ideas or reminds them of information they forgot to tell you. Ultimately, this is about making sure that you've got the full accurate picture.

[00:09:32] And that's important because you don't want to go off and do a whole lot of work that turns out to be completely wrong. And then you have to redo it all again. But also, as I said, it covers you. So if you do create a comms that the sponsor doesn't like, you can point back to the reverse brief that they approved and say, well, this was in the brief that you approved.

[00:09:51] I cannot undersell how important this step is and how, if I'd done this consistently throughout my career, it would have saved me so [00:10:00] much frustration and time. So that's step three, develop the reverse brief and make sure it is approved by the powers that be. Step four, develop your FAQs.

[00:10:11] Okay. So some of you may be thinking, why would we develop FAQs when nobody's asking questions yet? And wouldn't this just be part of the comms collateral that you develop later on? Those are great questions. Here's my answer. Firstly, because developing the FAQs upfront helps you identify where the gaps in information are.

[00:10:31] We write down all the possible questions each audience group could ask, and then we attempt to answer them. And it's during this process that we always find we are missing information or the level of detail that's going to be needed. So you do the first draft of these, and often we're making wild guesses, to be honest.

[00:10:50] Uh, but educated guesses, of course, and then we send them back to the project manager and the subject matter experts and get them to review. Sometimes you point [00:11:00] out gaps they didn't realise they had and that spurs them into action too. So that's the first reason, identifying information gaps. The second reason is that once you get these done and approved, you've basically got a whole stack of key messages ready to go. It makes the writing process so much easier because you have this great detailed information and a lot of the responses to these questions will help you position the change in specific ways. Basically it's helping you work smarter, not harder. Okay. So it's time for your episode recap.

[00:11:35] And in today's short and practical episode, I've shared a few Four things you should do before you write your change communication plan. Step one, understand the scope of change. Take the time to get a detailed understanding of what the change means for different audience groups. And it's important because you'll be communicating different things in different ways to different audiences.

[00:11:57] Step two, take the brief, talk [00:12:00] directly to the sponsor or the accountable leader to get their take on why the change is important to the business. You want to understand not only their expectations, but also the strategic link and help develop your compelling case for why. Step three, create the reverse brief, consolidate all the information you gathered in steps one and two, and create the reverse brief.

[00:12:22] And you share this back with the project lead and sponsor for their review and approval. It covers your butt and it helps you to make sure you've got an accurate picture and that everyone is on the same page. And step four, draft your FAQs. This usually identifies where there's gaps in information and a level of detail that's missing.

[00:12:42] And it also gives you a great base to start writing your key messages later. Okay. So hopefully that gives you some ideas to get started in the right way. And if you want to learn more, my final change comms bootcamp for the year is coming up. It will be held next week from the 3rd to the 6th of [00:13:00] September.

[00:13:00] And it's a 75 minute webinar every day. For those four days. So bite sized learning, you'll get the pack of templates and have access to all the materials and the recordings for 12 months. Now, if that's not for you, I talked through this whole process in my book, Change Isn't Hard!, and you get a pack of templates with that too.

[00:13:18] Or you can just buy the template pack from my website and we'll pop all the links to this in the show notes. Now, in the meantime, if you have any feedback on the show, questions or topics you'd like me to cover, please get in touch. And if you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe or share it with somebody else who may find it valuable too.

[00:13:36] We'll be back next week with a fresh new episode of Less Chatter, More Matter. Keep doing amazing things and bye for now.