How to write compelling key messages for change

How you position your change can make all the difference in your audience’s first impressions of what’s to come. So when it comes time to draft your key messages, you need to think beyond the facts … to what you want people to FEEL about the facts! Here’s our top tips on writing key messages as position statements for change.

Start with why

This is all about context - helping people understand why the change is necessary in the first place. It could be that your customer behaviours are changing, or the environment you operate in has presented new opportunities or challenges. 

Sell the benefits

Even if the reasons for change are based on something negative (eg, needing to cut costs), there will always be benefits. And if you only focus on the negative, then your audience will as well, making it that much harder for successful change. So what are the benefits for each of your audience groups? Tailoring your benefits will help to ensure your messages resonate.

Show the strategic link

Change for the sake of change is just annoying. In your positioning, you need to show how the change relates to the overall organisational strategy or the ‘bigger picture’. The question you need to answer is, how will this help you achieve your strategic goals? Talk also about the thinking that’s gone into the decision-making process.

Show you care

This is all about speaking to hearts and minds, and recognising the audience’s own contexts. For example, if they’ve already been through a lot of change recently, this should be acknowledged. Providing reassurance where you can will also go a long way to easing some of the uncertainty. So if you can, talk also about what’s not changing for each audience group.

Keep it simple

Jargon-filled fluff will only create more uncertainty, and therefore more fear. And fear is what results in unsuccessful change. As a communicator, during change you have a responsibility to help people understand what’s changing, why, when, and how, and doing that in a way that is very clear. While some might feel an urge to ‘soften’ the change through using more corporate-style language, all it does is create more uncertainty, as people struggle to understand what you really mean (or see it as ‘spin’, and so it erodes trust).

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