Elements of Communicating Change – Segmenting and Targeting Communication:
Blockers, Champions, Sleepers and Preachers – based on Energy and Commitment matrix
Principle:
From the dimensions of Energy (profile/visibility) and Commitment to the change, categorize into Blockers, Champions, Sleepers and Preachers
Issues:
Simplicity
- all jargon and “technobabble” must be eliminated
Methaphor, analogy and example
- a verbal picture is worth more than a thousand words
Multiple forums
- big meetings and small, memos and newspapers, formal and informal interaction – all are effective for spreading the word
Repetition
- ideas sink in deeply only after they have been heard many times
Leadership by example
- behavior from important people that is inconssistent with the vision overhwelms other forms of communication
Explanation of seeming inconsistencies
- unadressed inconsistencies undermine the credebility of all communication
Give-and-take
- two-way communication more powerfull than one way
Media:
Rich = personal contact and emotional -> Blockers
Lean = mail and rational -> Champions
Message:
- clear, compelling and simple
- linked to specific behaviour changes
- very clearly and understandably linked to the business, and
- creates a sense of urgency and a need for action
Applications:
To plan and implement a communication strategy
Source of Communicating Change – Segmenting and Targeting Communication:
(Kotter, 1995)