How to communicate change effectively with cut through

The challenges that we face with communication in our day to day lives also applies within our organisations. We now carry our mobile phones around and sometimes laptops in a effort to be paperless. This means that people are often less 'present' to conversations and are continually distracted. The challenges just seem to mount up when looking to create communications that cut's through the noise.

Here are some of the reasons that the communications 'gets lost': 

* Staff don't have time to read all of the emails

* The communication channels aren't effective, being too cluttered and the communication isn't clear

* They don't have the time to 'connect the dots'.

So messages need to be consistently communicated, in a number of ways and in a clear and creative way. Here are some tips to creating communication with cut through:

Consistency: Stay on message. This is critical to any successful change. Consistently messaging and having your Sponsorship model correct is also critical. If the messaging keeps changing there is no way there can be remembered.

Get creative: For a major transformational change it is worth 'marketing' the change.  Think of great viral campaigns, and utilise some of their best tactics. Have a slogan that reinforces the benefits. To achieve recall and to absorb the messaging it is worth getting creative.

Channels: You need to cover all channels for complex and transformational change. There was a time where that you had to communicate a message 7 times for it to sink in, now with social media and an increase in technology in the workplace, this has increased to almost double. Thus all channels are important to utilise for the change.

Have the right voice for your communications. At all times you need to assess who is delivering the change communications. Remember direct line managers need to reinforce your messages for them to be heard. This can be challenging for managing the messages across tiers but a 'Key messages' one pager can go a long way.

You create engagement through effective communication. It is a tangible measurable element of any change strategy. If you are working with a communications representative challenge them to pushing the boundaries, especially if you are working on a transformation program.