Internal communication helps in aligning people. When changes happen, communication will increase user adoption and decrease resistance. Tips and tricks from real life cases.
2. This is the reaction we want
“50 to 70% of all change initiatives fail
due to a lack of communication.” John
Kotter
“50 to 70% of all change initiatives fail
due to a lack of communication.” John
Kotter
“Up to 70% of all change initiatives fail
(amongst other due to a lack of
communication).” John Kotter
3. “You can have brilliant ideas,
but if you can’t get them across,
your ideas won’t get you
anywhere.”
Lee Iacocca
6. CHALLENGE
› Important reorganization inside the IT department
› Way of working internally
› Way of working with the business
› Communication key initiative
7. GOALS OF COMMUNICATION PLAN
› Ensure buy-in
› Empowering IT
› Instill a sense of pride
› Improve NPS
› Improve image of IT
8. GOALS OF COMMUNICATION PLAN
› Ensure buy-in
› Empowering IT
› Instill a sense of pride
› Improve NPS
› Improve image of IT
12. COMMUNICATION APPROACH
1. Environment
Analysis
2. Stakeholder
and risk Analysis
3. Concept &
messaging
4. Communication
plan & channels
5. Roll out
communication
streams
6. Measure
Communication
Success
15. COMMUNICATION APPROACH
1. Environment
Analysis
2. Stakeholder
and risk Analysis
3. Concept &
messaging
4. Communication
plan & channels
5. Roll out
communication
streams
6. Measure
Communication
Success
16. WE ARE NOT HERE TO STAY
STEP 4
Evaluate and create
communication
roadmap phase 2
MARCH-APRIL 2016
Embed
communication
processes in the
organization
JAN-FEB 2016
Communication
roadmap phase 2
2015
Communication
roadmap phase 1
18. BASICS OF THE COMMUNICATION PLAN
6 PILLARS
BUILD TEAM CULTURAL CHANGE
SHARING OF
INFORMATION
SHARING OF SUCCESSES IT-AS-A-SERVICE EMPLOYER BRANDING
25. RESULTS
› Spectacular improvement in NPS
› Internal and external recognition of IT successes
› Creation of open communication culture within IT
26. WHAT SHOULD YOU REMEMBER OF THIS
STORY?
› Stick to the plan
› Involve everyone
› Impact of external communication should not be neglected
› Work with communication specialists
Thank you all for coming.
It makes me smile to see a full house!
How many of you heard recently the following phrases:
This tool is not the solution to our problem
The new system is too complex
IT does not understand what we need
It is clear that any change that is poorly communicated, will lack impact and may decrease the user adoption
This will ultimately result into a low ‘return on change investment’!
How many people in your company know what your IT organization is doing?
Do you think it is important that they know what you are doing?
But even more importantly, Do you know what you are doing is relevant for the business?
Today I will talk about Internal Communications and show you how
communication helps to build an engaging climate
I will share the story of the transformation of the IT department at EDF Luminus and explain how IT took control of their core messages and
succeeded to spread happiness.
I have also chosen to talk about this project because we were involved in building the communication strategy, the communication plan and implement but more importantly we build a communication team within IT and coached them to take over when we left.
At this moment in time we are no longer involved but we are acting as a sounding board on request of EDF.
The Butterfly change project
Not only changed the way IT worked internally but also changed the way of working with the business!
Luckely as from the start the CIO made communication a key initiative in the project
Ensure buy-in for Butterfly change program inside IT and in business
Empowering the IT organisation
Instill a sense of pride in the IT department
Improve NPS
For those who do not know NPS stands for Net promotor score. This is a metric that measures the loyalty that exists between a company and its employees or a provider and its customer
In a survey people were asked if they would recommend working at EDF IT to their friends and family. The NPS was -64%
Last but not least Improve image of IT within business
In a nutshell this is the reaction we wanted
EDF already faced a number of changes and the biggest risk was that people would not engage and would just wait to surf the next change wave.
We used the following fased approach
Each step is even important and between each step we organize a validation session.
First we have we understand the project and how it fits in to the strategy of the company. Secondly we have a look at all the different stakeholders, and try to capture and understand any resistance the could have against the project.
Environment and stakeholder analyses are based on documents provided by the client as well as a series of interviews / workshops with the project team.
Thirdly we have define the core messages of the project. Based on these messages we may decided to develop a separate concept with a separate project name, baseline and brand if relevant.
During different phases we use different tools. One of the tools we also used in this project is the message house tool.
People will talk about projects anyhow
If you do not set and take control of your core messages, employees will set theirs!
Through a ‘Message House Workshop’, the umbrella statement and sub-messaging of the change or project are determined and aligned with the different target groups
This is can be the basis of the story of you change, a kind of 2-minute elevator pitch, which everyone involved in the project should be able to
The message shouse ensure constistent messaging.
After understanding the project, setting the communication goals, understanding the target groups and defining the messages we build the communication strategy and tangible communication plan.
This plan consists of the right intensity of communication efforts to each type of stakeholder.
A communication kit is built and advice is given on a rollout communication plan.
At a certain point in time it is very important to measure the success of you plan and to adapt if necessary.
External specialists should not stay forever
Throughout first phase: communication volunteers involved – turned into communication steerco (rol? Zij hebben nu de communcatie overgenomen)
Selection internal vacancy for Communication Coordinator dedicated half time for the communication of IT, helped with the (half time)
Rest of 2016: we were considered as external sounding board.
niets
Togehter with EDF we translated the communication goals in to 6 different pillars. Those pillars became the backbone of the communication plan. They are the enablers of the communication goals.
Cultural change: we wanted to employees to take initiaitve and responsibillity to improve things and to embed the change empowering IT
Sharing of success: even if they are small we need to share them with each other. So people can be proud of what they deliver and share it.sense of pride which results in impoving image of IT
IT as a service: EDF IT don’t want to be seen as only bits and bytes but first of all as a partner and a facilitator for everybody to do there work as efficient and comfortable as possible. From the reception desk until the contact center but also our CEO. -->image of IT
Employer branding campaign to improve the NPS
The communication plan was build and structured on 3 main target groups.
All IT employeers
All employees at EDF
And the external world
In this change project it was extremely relevant to integrate those 3 target groups in the communication plan.
Based on the messages and target groups we chose different types of channels and types of communication communication
Let’s talk about the tactics!
For each type of communication we had different communication actions/tactics.
For example we organized a series of ‘brown bag’ session where we explored one of the aspects of the change/ reorganization. F.e. How doe we collaborate in the new organization. During this sessions everyone brought his own lunch. cultural change
Yammer program Yammer was already introduced but poorly used. During the butterfly project Yammer became the most important online channel within IT. The CIO Peter billau was our core ambassador and started to be very active on the platform published articles, ideas, complementing collegues. He took the lead and showed that is was ok to share successes but also concerns. IT became the communication channel open for every emotion, idea.
Recruitment poster campaign. The goal was to make sure IT employees knew which profiles we were looking for. This way they could look into there network and check relevant profiles and promote our vacancies. employer branding
Some examples for all EDF employees
1/ In order to build a trusted relationship we organised roadshows from IT to different business departments. talk about the strategy, new organisation, way of working but also learn and listen to their concerns --> and creating by-in to become a trusted partner
2/ We also reviewed the portal site for IT on intranet. With a projectteam we created a look and feel, new structure and review of content sharing information in a user friendly way
Internal communication is owner of the channel Progress of the month. They hang up posters about different projects on different plateaus. We build a liason with them and made sure several IT projects got the attention it deverved.
We also made us of the available narrowcasting screens to promote the butterfly campaign.
Remember: external communication reflects internally
LinkedIn blogs on behalf of CIO
Supports recruitment efforts
Participation in competitions
‘Flexibility’ project wins ‘IT Project of the Year’ at Data News
Survey: NPS increased from -64% to 0 after the communication plan was executed. This is an increase of 64%
We find also a lot of people in the business willing to blog about successful IT projects the IT people of EDF could be proud of their work and business is even action a an embassador.
Stick to the plan Embedding change takes time repitition of messages is key
Everyone has a story to tell
Impact of external communication should not be neglected to install pride
And finally…..
work with communincation specialists internally or externally….
Thank you all for coming!
I hope that everyone in the room, and you are a lot today, will take something home and get motivated to invest more time in communication.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to send me an email.
Or just grab my arm during the network drink so we can have a chat