Measuring the impact of change

When an internal communicator is charged with communicating about change, a holistic view of measurement can help identify successful tactics and where additional efforts might be needed.

Alison Zurcher, director of internal communications at Seattle Children’s Hospital, shared her experiences helming the organization’s strategic plan rollout and the measurement tactics that led to adjustments and lessons along the way. To hear more about Zurcher’s experiences, register for the Ragan Change Management Certificate Course, with sessions on April 29, May 6 and May 13.

Building a baseline

In the fall of 2023, Zurcher and her team conducted an internal survey to gauge awareness about the organization’s strategic plan rollout. They were struck by what they found.

“At that point, we had about 38% awareness according to an internal survey,” Zurcher said. “That is not anywhere near good enough.”

The low awareness numbers activated a multichannel awareness messaging strategy spearheaded by the internal comms team. These pathways to awareness included:

• The hospital’s intranet platform
• Leader toolkits
• Town hall meetings
• Surveys during employee meetings

The findings of the initial surveys helped inform how Zurcher and her team approached leadership with progress updates in the awareness campaign. She said that her team used the findings to show success points and gaps where improved awareness was needed, in addition to encouraging leaders to share relevant messages with their teams.

“We involved key leaders in the strategic planning process,” Zurcher said. “We also worked to get their buy-in for our communications and change management strategy.”

Data informs the ongoing change management process

Zurcher’s initial meetings with leadership found an agreement that the employee base needed more awareness of the strategic changes to come at Seattle Children’s.

“The numbers were one of the most important parts of the arguments for the campaign we brought to senior leaders,” Zurcher said. “When we brought data to leaders that said people weren’t up to speed on the coming strategic changes, we agreed that more communication was needed to get people up to speed.”

Zurcher added that the process wasn’t a one-time fix — it’s an ongoing process that evolves and shifts over time.

“It’s an iterative loop of keeping our leaders informed of employee awareness and realigning our messages according to the feedback and data we have,” she said. “We’re doing an internal comms audit later this year that’ll ask the same questions we did at the beginning of the campaign so we can get an update on our messaging’s effectiveness.”

A clear focus and a sustainable path forward

Seattle Children’s strategic plan is rooted in two main phases — Horizon One and Horizon Two. Horizon One’s three primary goals are to stabilize hospital operations, improve patient access and return the organization to a sustainable, positive operating margin.

Zurcher said that the team’s storytelling efforts about the strategic plan focus on those three major areas.

“We’re making a concerted effort to tell stories about and bring attention to those areas,” she said. “We’re highlighting those teams and the measurable successes they’re seeing.”

Another major focus of the internal comms team’s messaging efforts is how sustainable and achievable the long-term goals of the campaign are. For instance, Zurcher said that providing tangible examples of the organization’s successes helps drive the campaign to its future Horizon Two phases. The team has even organized prize giveaways and online scavenger hunts to drive engagement to the strategic plan.

“We show people that these are the people doing the work,” she said. “These are the projects. This is how it’s making a difference and helping us to achieve those Horizon One goals and get us ready to move into Horizon Two. It’s about showing, not just telling.”

Zurcher said that the plan rollout and accompanying messaging isn’t tied to any specific date, but is instead pegged to the internal audience’s reception and readiness.

“It’s an ongoing process,” she said. “We have very specific goals to hit before we move into the next phase. This isn’t a distant strategic plan where we defer to some far-off dates and goals. We’re evolving and keeping people informed — and measurement ensures we’ve got the latest information at our disposal.”

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.