We all feel it and we hear it from our clients every day: the speed and frequency at which we are being asked to change (and communicate change) in the organization is unprecedented.
A recently shared Harvard Business Review and Gartner article on change management said it perfectly:
“We’re seeing even experienced leaders struggling. The typical approach of inspiring employees with an aspirational vision of the future is no longer working . . . the reason is because change itself keeps changing in ways that cannot be fully controlled by leaders or their organizations.”
Through several studies, Gartner found that most organizations are now experiencing what they call “ungovernable change.” Ungovernable change is when:
- Changes are not just large in volume but also stacked
- Changes aren’t just happening fast, they are continuous
- Changes are happening at a larger and interdependent scale
- Changes are often externally driven (think tariffs, global conflicts, etc.)
Sound familiar? For most of our clients, the answer is a resounding YES.
Now that leaders have started to recognize and name ungovernable change, it’s critical that organizations begin evolving their change communications approach. What set employees up for success yesterday is no longer what will enable them today.
Here are a few key changes that we are helping clients make in partnership with KVA:
Adapt (and adopt) your organization’s core values + leadership principles
Employees today are expected to remain productive and agile during constant change. Your organization’s core values and leadership principles should evolve to account for this reality. Incorporate and normalize change as an everyday business process in these frameworks and reinforce the value of employee adaptability and embracing ambiguity. For example, our own KVA Values include “we embrace the unknown,” and our employee recognition, performance measurement, client service approach, and more are all mapped back to this value.
Build a plan to help employees embrace these behaviors
As humans, we are hardwired to resist change. Our amygdala sounds the “fight or flight” alarm when we encounter change, and we experience a whole host of mental and physical side effects. With this in mind, helping employees adopt change openness and comfort in ambiguity will take time, a clear plan, repetition, and intention. We call it “training for change,” and it can be delivered through a mixture of employee training, manager tooling, communications consistency, and ways of working.
Build a change communication system
In the era of ungovernable change, organizations must position change as an operational cadence through communications. Change is no longer an individual event to communicate or a destination to reach. It is an always-on condition.
Our communications system must reflect this through a steady drumbeat of employee communications. This could take shape in a variety of ways – like a bi-weekly manager cascade or a monthly “where we are” update. Regardless of your approach, your formatting should remain consistent and routinize change updates. This consistency will help reduce uncertainty, build trust, and help change feel normal, not disruptive. And remember, you aren’t just making employees aware of change through this consistency, you are building their capacity for continuous change.
Need help evolving your change communications? Let’s chat!
