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But 70% of them go on to fail.
Buy-in to the change is regularly cited as the main reason which leads to a lack of alignment. In our experience, this is down to gaps in knowledge and understanding with both transformations and IC.
The gaps in transformation programmes
1. Transformations generally tend to impact large groups of colleagues in companies, if not all. Yet, in our experience, comms representatives (and HR for that matter) don’t seem to be included in the strategic level conversations ahead of a transformation. This means there’s little to no prep planned to take their people on the epic change journey ahead.
2. There isn't enough understanding on the virtues of good comms and how to leverage this golden opportunity. Here’s what we found:
- Comms is thought of as a side-of-the-desk job.
- Comms is often an afterthought.
- Transformations think the comms they’re putting out are good enough, but in fact they’re creating more confusion.
- In the absence of data to measure the impact of a lack of good comms on a transformation, the work of IC is often not valued or recognised, with comms often being seen as ‘fluff’.
3. Significant budget gets allocated to transformations, but little to none of this is allocated to communications. If a provision is made, it’s left to the big consultants who have no inside knowledge on the company, its people, the culture, or the tone and language of comms.
The gaps in IC teams
1. Transformations generally impact all colleagues in organisations, yet there is still a misconception that it’s a just tech change, “it doesn’t apply to ‘us”. Worryingly, we’ve seen this at the CEO level too.
2. There isn’t enough knowledge on tech/IT changes and Agile Ways of Working in-house, making it difficult for IC folks to support the comms for transformations.
3. The traditional approach to comms, as we know it, simply won’t work in change environments and new ways of working. A flexible mindset and approach is needed to be successful.
No doubt about it, there’s an array of complex reasons why transformations fail. But it is well known that there’s a comms gap with transformations. But how do we plug it?
Our three key recommendations to IC professionals would be to:
1. Do a risk assessment with HR and the programme lead on the change and its impact.
2. Host a workshop to educate the responsible stakeholders.
3. Lobby for budget and resources to mitigate risks!
And to progress your career in this space:
1. Be curious about the transformation in your company. Become engaged. Lead by example.
2. Upskill in the change, the jargon and ways of working.
3. Build relationships with the programme or delivery lead.
Taking these steps will set you up to play a critically important part to get buy-in, and set the transformation and your company up to succeed.
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