Effective Change Communication by Etzold Veit;

Author:Etzold, Veit;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gabal Verlag
Published: 2021-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

2.2Change cannot exist in a vacuum

When it comes to change projects, managers often fail to reckon sufficiently with the fact that their own story is far from the only one. Rather, numerous stories will be circulating in the heads of employees. Such stories might claim that the whole affair is doomed to failure, that the same thing has been heard a thousand times, or that employees simply need to hang fire for another two months and wait for the project to inevitably fizzle out. Most dangerously, a story might claim that the change process is inherently unfavourable for the company and its employees. Understanding is the exception; misunderstanding is the rule. As Prussian general and military strategist Helmuth von Moltke put it: “An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.”

In the end, one party or the other will seize control of the narrative – you, or the blockers of change. Former US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld aptly observed that if a government does not step up and govern, someone else will. With communication, it’s no different. Whether you tell a convincing story or leave a gap for someone else to do so, a story will be told.

Some years ago, a group of students in California sparked panic with a petition to “ban DHMO”, a substance they alleged to be “everywhere and highly dangerous.” The whole thing was of course, no more than a science-based prank: dihydrogen monoxide is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, better known as ‘H2O’ or ‘water’. It was not a threat at all, but was readily perceived as one due to its dangerous-sounding name.

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