What do you want your customers to understand?
One of the purposes of marketing is to make sure that your customers understand...
· What you offer
· How you want them to act
The ultimate goal of any good marketing campaign is to establish a call to action on the part of your customers. That call to action is what you want them to buy or to do, in other words. Additionally, marketing communication has an underlying assumption; the message is targeted to reach and appeal to a chosen demographic of your product or service.
You've researched what wording and method will resonate with your customer so that the effect of your messaging focuses on capturing their attention.
How do you figure this out? By learning as much as possible about your desired customer, studying what motivates them. Then the message you create elicits the call to action you want because it comes through loud and clear.
There is an analogous goal to communication for change management.
Effective change management communication provides your customer (the team or people you want to change) with the messaging that reflects their perspective and needs. In the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM) terminology, this is called their frame of reference.
Using the frame of reference, the need to develop targeted messaging becomes clear. Each team will need a call to action that reflects their understanding of why the change is being made. They need specific motivation to commit to the change and understanding their frame of reference reveals the point of view that will be effective.
Here's an example of why the frame of reference is an essential consideration for communication:
A hospital has identified a new process for ensuring that patients are discharged early in the day. They will need to purchase a new tracking software to manage the patient discharge to launch this process. It also requires that the healthcare team members make changes to their care practices to be successful.
What is the message about this new patient discharge process that will resonate with each of the constituents needed to heed the call to action?
How about the clinical team members?
· Patients discharged earlier in the day have demonstrably better clinical outcomes by going home as soon as possible.
What about the team from the finance department?
· The cost savings of this new discharge process will be more than the cost of the new software.
Both statements are true. The return on investment for the cost of the new software will be a net positive and patients will likely fare better if they get home faster. However, the frame of reference for each team is unique and requires a specific call to action to motivate their adoption of the new process. Therefore, using the message that motivates them based on their frame of reference speaks to their ability to commit to the change in the patient discharge process.
This is not to say that clinical teams are not cost-sensitive or that finance teams don't care about patients' welfare; it's just that each of these teams has a particular lens they're viewing their job through. Understanding this lens means crafting communication with their perspective in mind. Once you know each team's perspective, managing the message for each constituency becomes part of the communication plan.
TIP OF THE WEEK
What is the best way to assess the frame of reference of your change customers?
Your change agents and champions are a crucial component of your change plan. They are in these roles because they have credibility with your customers for change. Ask them to help create the messages that resonate for a more effective change communication outcome.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Powerful and sustained change requires constant communication, not only throughout the rollout but after the major elements of the plan are in place. The more kinds of communication employed, the more effective they are."
DeAnne Aguirre
Are you liking our weekly updates? Then Week to Change might be for you!
I created this week-long email workshop for those just starting out in change management, or anyone who is curious as to where we can use change management in our daily work life. Because change (especially at work) is so prevalent learning how to surface change resistance, stay on target and ensure lasting project success is key!
In this introductory change management email workshop, we'll cover things like where change management can be useful, common CM methods, how to ensure success by addressing actions leading to failure and much more. Luckily you can start learning change management with just five minutes a day for five days!
While you're working through Week to Change feel free to hop over to The Change Manifesto podcast for even more change management resources and insight from entrepreneurs and change-makers to learn how they navigated change.
