[00:00:00] Mel: Hi, and welcome to Less Chatter, More Matter, a podcast about all things communication without the waffle. I'm your host, Mel Loy and in this show, I will give you short, punchy, practical communication tips and insights. You can start using in your communication practices right away. I'm a former corporate communication executive who happily took a redundancy, started my own business, and never looked back.

[00:00:27] Mel: These days, I use my 20 plus years of experience to help guide organizations of all shapes and sizes in how to communicate more effectively. I'm wife to Michael, cat mom to Cookie, auntie to 12 nieces and nephews, a yoga teacher, and a group fitness fanatic. I promise these episodes will always be short, sharp, and helpful, so let's get amongst it.

[00:00:52] Mel: Hi there friends and welcome back to another episode of the show. We are racing towards the end of the year and I don't know [00:01:00] about you, but for me it feels like things are not really slowing down all that much.

[00:01:04] Mel: I've just come back from a quick trip to Malaysia where I was running a three day course on all things, corporate comms. It's for a client I work with fairly regularly and each time the group of attendees is different. So it's really great. I get to meet so many new people and we've also been running the Fresh 2 Freelancing course pilot.

[00:01:23] Mel: So yes, I ran another session of that from Malaysia. Great group of women doing that course at the moment, and it feels like they're really getting a lot out of it. So that really excites me. But now it's back into regular programming, which means it's back into working with our clients on a lot of different things, but most of them centre around change.

[00:01:43] Mel: And I know many comms folks, leaders, project managers, change managers, whoever you are who listen to this show. You are probably involved in change work in some way. So today I'm going to give you the 101 on how to write a change communication plan. And if you haven't [00:02:00] already, I encourage you to go back and listen to last week's episode on five behavioural science hacks you can use in your change communication, because those strategies will absolutely come in handy when drafting your change comms plan.

[00:02:14] Mel: So firstly, what is a change comms plan and how is it different to any other comms plan? Well, the biggest factor that sets a change comms plan apart from any other typical comms plan is that it's all based around change impact, which means it's very granular when it comes to your audiences. So when we're talking about or taking the brief for a change conference plan, we are asking not only who is being impacted, but also the scope of that impact, how big it is, how different it is to the current state, what will that look like in practice? All those sorts of questions, but also what's not changing for these people. And once we know that we can start to categorise our audiences based on the level of impact, but also the level of control they have over the [00:03:00] change. So, in my new book that's coming out, you will see how that works, but in short, you end up with four key categories of audiences.

[00:03:07] Mel: The first one is end users. So they have the lowest level of control, but the biggest impact. You've got change leaders who have both a lot of control, but also a lot of impact. Your sponsors and influencers, they're the ones that don't have a lot of impact, but have a lot of control. And then what we call interested observers. So low impact, low control. Now, because of that granularity, you will have very specific outcomes for each audience group, along with specific messaging and strategies. Whereas a typical comms plan, like something you'd do for safety week or reconciliation action week, whatever that looks like, may just have those outcomes at a very broad organizational level.

[00:03:49] Mel: Now, because we've got that specific outcomes and specific messaging and strategies, then the second big difference is that we're really about driving action and minimizing resistance [00:04:00] from some of those key audience groups. And because of that, we're looping in other elements of change management, like leadership and training and governance.

[00:04:09] Mel: We're not managing that stuff. Let's be clear. We are not doing that. That's the change manager's role or the project manager's role. But our comms will include elements that support that activity, and that all ladders back up to the change management plan and the project management plan. And it's worth pausing here to remember that a good comms plan is only as good as a good project plan.

[00:04:31] Mel: So don't try and do this in isolation of that. Now, that leads us to the third major difference, which is where we're focusing on reducing fear by increasing certainty. And in doing that, we build trust in the change in leaders. Whoever that is, whatever it is that helps people feel more comfortable with what's coming.

[00:04:50] Mel: And so that means we have to have a really deep understanding of how people are likely to respond to change. And that's not always bad. Some people love it, but [00:05:00] also giving those people what they need to feel more comfortable. So those are the three big differences. Number one, it's based on change impact, so therefore it's very granular.

[00:05:09] Mel: Number two, it's supportive of other elements of change management. And number three, it's focused on reducing resistance by increasing levels of trust and comfort. So now we have that background, let's look at the plan itself. Now, typically I develop a change comms plan that has three key phases. The first phase is awareness, where we just start to build a sense of what's coming.

[00:05:32] Mel: So it's not a surprise, but we also need to use this time to equip leaders and change managers with the communication tools they need to help drive the change. Now depending on the scope of change, this phase can literally just be a couple of weeks long or it can be months long, especially if the change itself is being introduced in phases.

[00:05:54] Mel: Now the second phase is where you actually launch the change. And this can also be called activation. [00:06:00] Typically, this is quite a short phase, but a lot of activity happens super quickly, and we start from the inside out. So we communicate with our internal stakeholders before our external stakeholders.

[00:06:12] Mel: During both the awareness and the launch phases, we've really got our ears to the ground to get a sense of the sentiment, what's working, what's not working, and also where some of those pockets of resistance might be. And it means we are always going to be updating and tweaking this plan. It is a living, moving beast.

[00:06:29] Mel: So if you're not comfortable with a plan being set in stone, maybe change comms isn't for you, or we need to start to work on that mindset. The final phase is embed, and this is usually the longest of the phases because you have to use communication to support other change activity as well as use it to keep reinforcing key messages and encouraging the adoption of change.

[00:06:50] Mel: So it is less frantic than the other phases, but it goes on for a lot longer. So you have this phased approach, and we know what change in project [00:07:00] activity is happening in each one of those phases, and we know what the impacts are so we can start to map out the com strategies and the plans for each one of those phases.

[00:07:10] Mel: For each audience, you are going to have a different set of outcomes. And if you've been listening to this show for a while, you'll know there's three key outcomes we have for every comms piece. Know, feel, and do. So what do you want people to know as a result of your comms? What action do you want them to take and how do you want them to feel about it?

[00:07:32] Mel: Now, I won't go over all the ins and outs of that because I did cover that in detail way back in episode two. So you can go to heymelcomms.com.au/002 and listen to that one. Not only do we have desired outcomes for each audience. But in each phase of the plan as well. So again, this is where we're getting very granular with our thinking and that granularity really helps us design the strategies we will use in each one of those three [00:08:00] phases, which leads us to the next step, which is designing the communication strategy for each phase.

[00:08:07] Mel: So this is the approach we will take in each phase, but also for each of the audience groups. For example, in the awareness phase, your strategy might be focused on bringing change leaders into the fold and helping them feel comfortable and confident in leading the change. But your strategy for end users at this point would probably be quite light on.

[00:08:27] Mel: No two way communication, just some broadcast, one way style of comms to let people know something's coming and to prime their thinking. Now, your strategic approach would then be different when you get to the launch or activation phases because the end users now need to do something different. So the comms strategies here would be more focused on two way communication probably with feedback loops and those sorts of things.

[00:08:54] Mel: So you can see that we need to evolve our strategies for each audience as we move through this change planning [00:09:00] process. Once you have your strategy set, that's when it's time to plan out the tactics, and this is the actual comms activity that you're going to do in each phase. So this could be CEO emails, EDMs to customers, social media posts, Yammer posts, town halls, team meetings, posters on the back of a door - whatever that is.

[00:09:21] Mel: And of course, those tactics should align to your strategy. So if your strategy was about two way communication, then your tactics and your channels should reflect that. And at this point of the planning, you're just going to list all of those things out for each phase. And speaking of which, this is also the time when you think about what channels you'll use, whose voices you will leverage, and also what collateral you may need to develop.

[00:09:45] Mel: So things like imagery for emails and internet sites, uh, or imagery for social media, one pager, explainers, videos, animations, infographics, posters, et cetera, et cetera. That way you can plan ahead [00:10:00] with your graphic designer or art department or whoever you have available. Maybe it's you to help get this stuff going.

[00:10:07] Mel: Okay, so you've planned all those strategies and tactical ideas out. It's now time to develop the line by line comms plan itself. And again, this will be done in three phases. But this is where we get really granular with activities. So, for example, for the launch phase, you may have a CEO email going out at 8am, an EDM to customers at 8. 30, social media posts at 8. 45, CEO town hall at 9am, and so on and so on. And as you're getting feedback throughout the launch phase, you may need to tweak some of this activity, change up the messaging, use different channels, and so on. It's really important that you're able to quickly identify what's working, what's not - so you can jump on it and change what you need to change.

[00:10:48] Mel: Give yourself the best chance of success. Okay, let's do the episode recap, but stay on the line because after this, I've got two more top tips to share with you. So recapping [00:11:00] number one, a change comms plan is different from a typical comms plan because it is super granular. It is based on the impacts on different audience groups and understanding of how people respond to change and building a sense of certainty to help drive action.

[00:11:14] Mel: It's also built to support the other elements of change management and ladders back up to the change management and project management plan. Number two, a change comms plan is typically designed in three phases, awareness, launch, and embed. And awareness is usually fairly light on, and in this phase, there's more stakeholder engagement from the change sponsor and change manager than there is actual comms.

[00:11:38] Mel: The launch phase is usually short, but furiously busy. And the embed phase is less hectic, but much longer. Number three, we developed the different know, feel and do objectives for each audience, but also for each phase of the plan. And then the strategies are designed to help us deliver those outcomes.

[00:11:58] Mel: Number four, [00:12:00] once we have the strategies, we can develop the tactics, the channels, the voice, and the collateral we need. And number five, finally, we map out line by line the comms activity that will take place in each phase of the change. Now I promised two extra tips, so here they are. Number one, make sure you are setting up leaders to drive communication.

[00:12:19] Mel: That is their job, not yours. So you will work with them to develop messaging and tools they can use to tailor the communication to meet the needs of their team. We know a person's immediate leader is usually the most trusted and influential voice, so those leaders need to build their communication capability to help drive change, and they do that by making it meaningful for their teams and also responding to individual reactions.

[00:12:45] Mel: The second top tip is to use change champions. They can be another great channel for driving communication. You can equip them with messages, FAQs, guides, and all sorts of things. So they can help others in their circle of influence adopt the change. [00:13:00] They can work really well because they're a peer of the others in their circle.

[00:13:04] Mel: So again, they're trusted. And we know from behavioral science that people are more likely to trust and respond to people who we think are like us. So they're a really great resource for driving change. It at the team level at the ground roots level in my new book, I talk about all of this in more detail.

[00:13:22] Mel: And when you purchase it, you will get access to a bunch of templates, including a change comms template. Yay. So if you haven't already head to melanieloy. com slash book, or click the link in the show notes and pop your name down on the mailing list for the book. That way you will be the first to know when the book becomes available for sale.

[00:13:42] Mel: Also, next year, I'm going to be offering public workshops in change communication for the first time. That's exciting. They will be in Brisbane, but if there's enough demand, I will happily travel elsewhere. And of course, if you've got a big enough team of people at your own workplace, including leaders from throughout the business, [00:14:00] those sorts of people, you can book in a course just for your team.

[00:14:03] Mel: There's links to those training options in the show notes or head over to heymelcomms.com.au forward slash training. Okay team, that is all we have time for today. As always, keep doing amazing things and bye for now.