Transformational Communication: Working Through Persistent Bad News (Jim Lukaszewski's Strategy Newsletter)

Crises in most organizations are few and very far between. Among the most difficult communications problems facing management, and the communicators who advise them, are long-term, often transformational situations. This is where many players and audiences, with a wide variety of issues, questions, and problems, need change to occur both from the inside out and forcibly from the outside in, over extended periods of time. Deregulation of large companies, like mergers and acquisitions, present interesting communication problems and are management behavior laboratories because so much of what occurs is understandable, predictable, manageable, but often ignored or minimized. When the news is constantly negative and problems persist, the need for management action must be recognized first, so that remedial, competitive, or pre-emptive strategies can develop. Then, communication becomes the mechanism for signaling change, explaining change, teaching change, recognizing barriers to change, acknowledging when change occurs, and explaining the new organization to those directly and indirectly affected. The analysis in this newsletter is designed to help illustrate the longer-term patterns to be expected and strategies required to overcome problems, friction, resistance, and especially management timidity and hesitation. When change is occurring, resistance develops. One of my favorite concepts comes from Price Pritchett, the organizational and cultural development guru from Dallas, Texas. When it comes to resistance, he reminds all of us of the 20-30-50 Rule: 20 percent of your employee base and managers are change friendly; 50 percent of your employees and managers are sitting on the fence waiting to see which way the debate, structure, and management survivors go; and 30 percent are active resisters trying to stop what’s happening to bring back or stay locked in the past.