How to deliver ‘comms that calm’ amid change and disruption

Change can be hard for many employees to accept. It’s not helped by the fact that communications messaging often focuses on driving their acceptance of proposed changes.

For Lauren Stephens, the key isn’t simply emphasizing the rationale for change. “Comms that calm” also emphasize capability and help employees understand how they can deal with change.

Stephens is the executive director of internal communications at MGM Resorts International, which has more than 65,000 team members — primarily frontline workers such as housekeepers, front desk agents and restaurant servers, as well as corporate executives in remote locations.

“The rationale for the change and building commitment to the change—we need those,” said Stephens at Ragan’s Employee Experience Conference in August. “But most change messages overemphasize the rationale and building commitment at the expense of capability building, which is instilling the confidence and self-esteem in employees that they will get through the change.”

Boosting change capability

Communicators can utilize capability “boosters” in their messaging to address this challenge, according to Stephens. Here are some examples:

Past Performance: Focus messaging on a previously successful application of a capability that will be needed during the present change. Employees’ ability to navigate previous times of change will help them successfully navigate this change as well. “That can be along the lines of, ‘Hey remember when we asked you six months ago to reset your password and it was a big thing but you got through it? Well, we need you to do it again. Everything you learned then applies now,’” said Stephens.

Peer Success: Highlight a peer who successfully navigated through change. “Sometimes our messaging is very corporate sounding and employees may think, ‘Well that’s just the company talking, I don’t know if I believe that,’” said Stephens. “But if they hear that their colleague Jane did it, they’re probably more likely to believe her than the corporate voice.”

Resources and Information: Give employees resources to address knowledge gaps that emerge as a result of the change. An example could be if an employee is struggling with new responsibilities, messaging could encourage them to check out new training courses and tools on your company intranet. “If you’re like me, I want to go read about it on my own, so knowing where I can find information makes me feel more equipped for change,” said Stephens.

5 tips for delivering difficult messages

Even when the subject matter can be disheartening, Stephens suggests five strategies to help communicators succeed.

1. Deliver the message in person. “The written word can lack the right tone sometimes,” said Stephens. “Especially when you have a very difficult message, you want to talk directly to your audience. For distributed workforces in different time zones, a video call works just as well as an in-person meeting.”

Don’t communicate organizational changes strictly via email. “You can send a written follow up but don’t lead with an email to your team saying, ‘Hey, I’m leaving and now you’ve got a new boss,’” said Stephens.

2. Communicate sensitive information verbally. Not all sensitive information has to be written and don’t let a deadline or announcement date hold you back from sharing necessary information with the right audiences.“I’m part of a publicly traded company and we often can’t share deal or partnership announcements until a specific time,” said Stephens. “However, leaders are an important audience and we strive, when able, to inform them of news before we inform the masses.”

Stephens shared an example of employees getting wind that MGM Resorts was selling a property and leadership at that property asked what to do. “The news of that sale will be released in two hours, we said get your property leadership team in a room and tell them verbally,” she added. “There’s still risk that information will leak but it’s much less than if it’s in an email.”

3. Don’t bury the lead or use complicated terms. Get the important details out upfront. “Don’t wax poetic for 20 minutes about the history of the company then tell employees they have a new boss,” said Stephens. “It’s also not the time to use complicated terms. You don’t have to dilute the message but during difficult conversations, people may be emotional and that can be a hard time to interpret complicated terms and acronyms.”

4. Adapt and be ready to act fast. Even the best laid plans don’t always come to fruition. “We had months to prepare when we were selling a property, we had a communications plan, we were ready to announce at a specific time and we got a call the day before from property saying employees had heard about the sale, can they respond?” said Stephens.

The comms team had to regroup, pull some specific talking points because they couldn’t disclose everything but owed it to employees to say something. “The absence of communication breeds distrust and its own rumors,” said Stephens. “We told leadership of the property to get their team together and say that while we can’t share all the details, we can validate the rumor and commit to sharing more once the deal was finalized.”

5. Build capability. Even with something like layoffs and loss of employment, communicators should still focus on building capability for impacted employees. “We still have options and need to bring capability and respect to any situation,” said Stephens.

For example, when an MGM Resorts venue was set to close, there were several months before the final day of operations and the venue couldn’t stay open if employees left all at once. In this particular situation, MGM Resorts offered retention bonuses to those who stayed and explored roles at other properties in the company for individuals to apply for, where possible. “Money isn’t always the answer but look at what your options are for those impacted,” said Stephens. “You always have capability, don’t forget that.”

Members of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council have access to additional reporting and can download templates for change communications. Learn more about the benefits of Council membership today.