#176 Making the case for 'why' in change communications

Ever noticed that one of the first questions humans learn to ask is also one of the hardest questions organisations struggle to answer: why?

In this episode of the Less Chatter, More Matter podcast, we explore one of the biggest challenges in change communication: making a compelling case for change that people can actually connect with.

Too often, change messaging focuses on the what and the how (timelines, implementation plans and project updates) while overlooking the one thing people are searching for most: meaning.

Drawing on behavioural science, change communication principles and practical examples, we look into why people don’t automatically resist change, but they do resist change that feels unclear, disconnected or imposed on them.

You’ll learn five practical ways to strengthen your “why” messaging, including how to explain what’s driving change, tailor benefits to different audiences, reduce uncertainty by talking about what isn’t changing, communicate challenges honestly and create a clearer picture of the future.

Why? because people are far more likely to move when they know what they’re moving towards. So, you'll want to listen in now.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• 90 minute Strategy Power Session
• Public workshops and training
• Less Chatter, More Matter - Mel’s book
• Template packs
• Change Isn't Hard! - Mel's book
• Sign up here to the fortnightly mail out of free resources!

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Transcript

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Do you have a toddler in your life, or have you had one in your life? Then if you do, you probably know the question they ask a million times a day, week on week, year on year. The question is, why? And it's also one of the big questions we ask as adults during change. Seems like some things don't really change all that much as we grow up. Interestingly, the word why actually started as a word meaning by what or through what, and it evolved into an Old English word that means by what means or for what reason. The question why itself was never meant as something accusatory, but it was really about understanding, and that too hasn't changed. When facing change in the workplace, we want to know the reason why, because without a good reason, it's really hard to get on board, especially if we feel like the change is happening to us, not with us or by us. So how do you make a compelling case for change? That's what today's episode is all about Hello, friend, and welcome to this week's episode of Less Chatter, More Matter, the communications podcast. I'm your host, Mel Loy, and I'm recording this episode on the lands of the Yuggera and the Turrbal people here in Meanjin, also known as Brisbane. And today we are tackling the big question at the centre of change communication, why? And there's a few good reasons for that. Firstly, what I often observe in change situations is messaging that tries to make a case for why, but it's really from the perspective of the business, not the perspective of the people who actually have to make the change happen or who are impacted by it. We need to get out of that habit. Secondly, often change messaging centres around the what and the how, so what's changing, when, how, et cetera. It's almost a project management viewpoint, where it's focused on the delivery of the change. And while those messages are important to provide clarity and certainty, they still don't create the case for why I should do something, feel something, or think something differently. Thirdly, if you can't give a good reason for why, people will simply resist, or they will find workarounds, or just make things very challenging in general. There is a famous experiment from 1978 that demonstrates this really nicely. So Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer had some willing actors go to the library at the university and ask to cut into the line of people waiting to use the photocopying machine. Now side note, if you are too young to know what a photocopying machine is, I am very pleased for you. But for those who remember back in the day, there were no online sources of books or journal articles, et cetera, so you had to go to the uni library, find what you needed, then pay through the nose to make photocopies for yourself. It was a real pain in the butt and a massive waste of paper. Anyhoo, in this experiment, the actors used a few different questions to see which messages motivated people in the line to let people cut in. When someone just said,"May I use the photocopier?" About 60% of people said yes. But when they added a reason, and honestly it didn't have to be a good reason, it could just be something like,"Because I have to make copies," about 90% of people agreed to let them cut in. So basically they found that reason plus request equals agreement. That said, they also tested a few other variables and found that when someone wanted to cut in line to copy 20 pages rather than just, say, five, they had to have a genuinely good reason to get people to agree, which just adds to the point. When things are more uncomfortable, when we have to give more when we're asking for more, then we have to give an even more compelling reason for why. The other thing we're contending with here is the status quo bias, which I've spoken about before on the poddy. It basically means we are more likely to want to stick with what we know, even if the change promises benefits for us, or if there is a little risk involved. It's because we still have that tribal hunter-gatherer mindset where the status quo represents safety and comfort, even if it is actually neither of those things. And one last thing to note here is that in the absence of a good reason for why, people will fill in the blanks themselves, and that is not always helpful or anywhere near accurate. If there's no compelling case, you will start to hear a lot of rumors, distrust will start to build, there will be a lot of cynicism, and it's just going to make things that much harder So that may seem a lot to contend with, but actually it's really useful information because it gives us guidance about what will work and what won't work when it comes to making the case for change. So on that note, I've got five tips to share with you today. Essentially, they're the types of messages you should include in your change comms messaging when you're making the case for why. So let's get into it. Number one is talk about what's driving the change. A good reason for change is often driven by forces outside of your business. This is what we call the macro context for change. It's the things that are happening in the business, political, or social environment that are having impacts on businesses and organisations like yours. So for example, it could be that a cost of living crisis means your company is selling fewer products or services. It could be that uncertainty in the fuel supply, which is driving higher travel costs, is limiting people wanting to travel to your destination, or it's driving up the cost of your supply chain. Political differences and political unrest can also have economic impacts on supply chains or getting things approved, et cetera, et cetera. Now, these macro contexts can also be about your customers' behaviors. So for example, they're expecting to be able to interact with your business through more digital channels, or in the aged care sector, for example, more people want to age at home. But that also means that when they do go into care, they're older and more frail. So these are all macro context things which are impacting business. So looking to the outside to see what's driving the change is important, and it's important to mention it to your people if these events and issues are genuinely part of driving the change. People have a pretty savvy BS radar, and they will sniff out pretty quickly if you're blaming the economy for what is actually just poor financial management by your leaders. Speaking of which, after the macro context comes the micro context. So these are the things that are happening within your business that are driving change. So they could be things like implementing new technology, needing to improve financial performance, uh, responding to new regulations, a change in leadership that's going to help drive a new strategic direction, et cetera. In some cases of change, there might just be micro context drivers, and in other cases, there can be both micro and macro. The other layer to put on top both-- of both of these things is whether your change is reactive or proactive, because that does drive a different type of messaging. So for example, if you're being reactive, it's likely driven by a compliance issue or some other, I don't know, impending disaster. If it's reactive, you are-- If it's proactive, rather, you're taking advantage of an opportunity or playing the long game. So it's worth thinking about that too. I do have a model for that, and I'll be sharing that on LinkedIn, so stay tuned for that So that's the first one, talk about what is driving the change. The second one, when we're talking about our why messaging, is include the benefits of the change. Now, leaders in particular are pretty good at spruiking the benefits because they love sharing the good news. However, if the benefits are overinflated, they are just setting themselves up for some pretty big backlash from people, a big drop in engagement, a big drop in trust, which in turn will make future changes even harder to push through. So the first thing about talking about benefits of change is to talk about them realistically and genuinely. The second thing about benefits is that they need to be tailored to the audience, and this is where we get into that WIIFM principle, what's in it for me? There is rarely a one-size-fits-all approach here. We need to firstly make sure we're talking about the benefits from the audience's perspective, not the business's perspective. So I've spoken about this before, but a benefit like this will increase engagement is a business goal or benefit. Mary Ann in the mailroom probably doesn't care if the overall engagement goes up if her work life is still crap. So stop talking about business benefits, start getting granular. For example, a new piece of technology is being implemented which will consolidate a bunch of aging systems and allow customers to have more digital interfaces with your business. Now, the business benefit lens might be that it reduces cybersecurity risks, it reduces the costs associated with trying to maintain three systems, it improves the chances of more sales from customers, et cetera. For your frontline teams, however, the benefits might be that it's going to be much easier and simpler to get your work done because you're no longer having to switch between three systems just to do one thing. So oftentimes, benefits messages are really about honing in on the pain points and offering solutions. You told us X was crap, so we're doing Y to fix it. That's a pretty compelling case when you can point to addressing an issue your people or your customers have actually raised. So think about the benefits, but also think about if they genuinely address something that your audience has raised as an issue. And importantly, make sure you get really granular. What's a benefit for some teams may be completely meaningless to others. So that's number two on the why messaging, benefits. Number three, this is something I've also mentioned before, so I won't harp on about it too much, but it is just as important to talk about what's not changing as it is to talk about what is changing. Too often our key messages just focus on the changes that are occurring, and we forget to mention the things that are staying the same. Now, why is that important? Because human brains hate uncertainty, and if change isn't clear or there's still a lot of unknowns, then uncertainty is rife, and that breeds a lot of fear. But if we can point to things that aren't changing and anchor people in what does remain of the status quo, then we can help to calm those waters a little. So for example, yes, we're now asking you to use this new AI tool, but the people you speak to every day will still be the same. The processes will be very familiar, and all your other systems and platforms are staying the same. That kind of message feels a lot less overwhelming than focusing solely on understanding a new AI system. So that's number three, talk about what's not changing. Number four, and this is important, aside from talking about the benefits and what's going to be great about the change, it's also a good idea to talk about what's going to challenge your business and your people during the change. Trying to be all sunshine and lollipops won't help because, A, people are smarter than that, and they will call you on your BS. And B, it sets up a false expectation that you cannot possibly meet. So be realistic about what might challenge you during the change. So for example, maybe it's as simple as old habits are hard to break, so we're going to have to keep reminding ourselves and each other to follow a new process or use a new system, whatever that is. The challenge could also be that just simply using new and unfamiliar technology, and you know that's going to take time for some people to get used to. Or it could be more complex, like a restructure, and challenges here are usually things like uncertainty about the stability of your role or what your new role or your new team will be like. So being upfront about the fact that it could be a bit messy as we start to work in our new structure is key. People appreciate transparency and honesty. If you set up an expectation, however, that from day one of the new structure, everyone will know what they need to do, who their new stakeholders are, et cetera, then you are setting yourself and everyone else up to fail, or at the very least, to be very disappointed. One thing worth considering when talking about the challenges is what support and confidence you can provide to your audience to navigate those challenges. So, for example, maybe you'll be providing lots of training, user guides, mentoring, open door time with leaders, et cetera. Or point to a similar change that people have been through and remind them that, yes, that change was hard at first, like this one, but now that new system or process or structure feels completely normal. And that can give people a bit of confidence in themselves and the business to navigate through the messiness. So that's number four, talk about what's going to challenge you. And number one, or number five of our five, and the final reason for why is point to the end game. What exactly is it that you want to achieve and why is that important to your business? So, for example, if you want to grow your sales, what would that allow your business to do for your people and your customers? If you want to embed AI into the systems you're already using, what does that make a day in the life of your employees or your customers look like? What kind of seamless experience could that provide for your customers in the future? You need to be able to paint a clear, tangible picture of what the future looks like to help motivate people to move in that direction. Now, this is what's often called the flag on the hill or your North Star, and it usually ties back to your organisation's purpose or vision, and especially your strategic goals. The reason why it's important to be specific here is because, A, it gives people confidence that you know what you're working towards, and B, specific goals are much more motivational than some vague, nebulous vision of the future. So researchers Edwin Locke and Gary Latham developed a goal-setting theory based on about five decades of work, so this is big stuff. And what they found is that specific, challenging goals direct attention and effort towards goal-relevant activities. So basically, if you have a specific challenging goal, it helps motivate people to behave in goal-driven ways. In ninety percent of their studies, they found that specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than having easy or no goals. And remember that specificity matters to give people a sense of certainty. We love certainty. Interestingly, Locke and Latham also found that specific daily goals improve performance by about twenty percent across different settings, so whether that's work or academia. So another way you could think about this flag on the hill message is also to reframe it into daily or weekly goals for team members. So, for example, it might be that each week you can help us move towards our goal by doing XYZ. It's a good way to reframe it because it's specific and it's not as overwhelming as a huge shift that's ultimately required to meet a big goal. It's breaking it down into smaller steps that will eventually all add up. It also needs to be an end game that is compelling for people. If they can't see themselves in the end picture or can't see why it's valuable, they will simply tune out. If we go in our research time machine back to 1964, a Yale University professor called Victor Vroom developed expectancy theory. Now, basically, that means that a person's motivation is impacted by how much they value the reward associated with the action, how much they think their effort will produce good results, and how much they believe good results will actually lead to that reward. So your flag on the hill messaging needs to show value to your audience and make it clear that getting to the point is actually feasible and that what they do will contribute to that end goal. All right, so it is time for that part of the episode where we go back and recap what we spoke about today. So today's episode was all about making the case for why, and we talked about why it's important to have a case for why. And then I shared five tips on how to im- improve your why messaging, and the first one is to talk about what's driving the change. Look at the macro and the micro context. What are the things that are driving the change from externally and internally to your business? But also think about whether that change is reactive or proactive. The second tip was to talk about the benefits of change, but do so in a really genuine way, and make sure that those benefits are tailored to the different audience groups that you're talking to. Tip number three was to talk about what's not changing and anchor people to something that is certain, that is not changing, and it's staying the same. It gives people that sense of certainty and reduces the overwhelm of change. Number four is don't just talk about the benefits. Talk about what's going to challenge you, and be honest and realistic about it. And number five is point to the flag on the hill. What is the end game? And paint a really clear, tangible picture for people so they know what they're working towards and why this change in particular is going to help you get there. All right, team, that is all we have time for today. Thank you for joining me on another episode of Less Chatter, More Matter. As always, I would love your feedback. I would love you to rate, review the show, send me a DM, let me know what topics you wanna cover, all of the above. And in the meantime, keep doing amazing things and bye for now