In the August/September issue of Strategic Communication Management, Jane Easton, internal communication manager for Westminster City Council, explains how she and her team helped drive a major change project.

Working closely alongside staff and project managers, Easton's team successfully delivered the first phase of the WorkSmart change project, as well as saving the council £13.4 million in 12 results.

What were the secrets behind this success? "Staff don't just want their opinions heard, they want them acted on," says Easton. "Introduce a few meaningful ways for staff to feed back – and make sure you and the organization have the capacity and the will to respond."

Read on to discover Easton's 5 golden rules for achieving change success.

1. Be campaign based
Your project managers will be the first to tell you that "he who fails to plan, plans to fail", yet they'll often expect you to deliver the tactics they want, when they want them. You're not a glorified mail box and must avoid this approach at all costs – you're a strategic adviser who must build a plan based on achieving measurable targets. If your leadership team want four out of five staff to feel committed to your change program then it'll take more resources than the odd email.

2. Don't just listen – respond!
Staff don't just want their opinions heard, they want them acted on. Introduce a few meaningful ways for staff to feed back – and make sure you and the organization have the capacity and will to respond. Label as much of your comms as possible as "you said, we did" to show that staff really are in the driving seat.

3. Offer leaders a genuine insight
Too often internal communicators offer their opinion on what staff think, or they simply offer a pile of statistics. What leaders really want is an honest and accurate picture of the level of risk and the 3 to 5 actions they should consider to ensure success. To ensure you have an accurate picture of what's going on, you need benchmarking information to judge whether your headline stats are as good or bad as you think they are, and you also need to understand the relationships between the data.

4. Work with project managers
It's essential to maintain close relationships with your project managers and stakeholders during a change project. Gain their trust by proving your approach works through a robust evidence base and by pitching what you do in terms of how you can help them.

5. Think global – act local
At the beginning of a project, you should concentrate on getting the undecided majority on your side and leave the "assassins" (the most skeptic of staff members) alone, as they'll soak up a disproportionate amount of resources. Try to move enough of your staff over to positive so that you reach a tipping point. You can then turn those who are positive about your approach into active advocates to free you up to address the concerns of the "assassins". This will need to be done locally, so the support from managers will be critical. Their support is dependent on there being a clear call to action, director advocacy for the project and an understanding that they will benefit.

Until next week,

P.S. There are still places available for the 60-minute live and interactive webinar with William Amurgis, manager of intranet strategy at American Electric Power, on 26th August. Register now to guarantee your place!

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