Communication is key to making change happen, but it often goes missing in action.

Too many change and project plans pay scant attention to communication. It’s often an after-thought, it’s often done poorly and too often it’s done by people who have little experience managing communication.

People must be engaged before they can be persuaded to change. Communication helps them to join the dots, understand what’s happening and why.

Engagement (or anything approaching it) is unlikely if change is a directive from the ivory tower. Or worse, the sponsor is uninterested, there’s no support from the top and no clear mandate to make change happen.

People must be consulted and involved and above all, they need to understand the reasons for change.

Little of this can be accomplished with an email, a document buried on an intranet or a line manager who’s ill equipped to deliver the news and answer questions, and who feels more like a corporate mouthpiece than an active participant.

The earlier you start communicating about change, the earlier people can start making sense of it and start working their way along the change curve.

Consider how your organisation manages change. Is it a conversation? Are you involved in making change happen or is it something different altogether?