After 30 years working in communication, one of the biggest mistakes I’ve often seen is leaders thinking they will know how employees will react simply based on their personal opinions without checking in.

What they forget is that employees:
– don’t have all of the research and analysis that helped make the decisions over months and years around the boardroom table in the first place.
– aren’t all the same. Decisions may impact some more than others.
– are expected to support right at launch without understanding why.
– need to go through the change cycle that starts with shock, anger, resistance before they get to acceptance and commitment.

Strategic Internal Communications thinks bigger.
– An audience analysis to really understand impacts and potential reactions.
– An audience relationship strategy that (when possible) can ensure early messages start creating change readiness or are consistent with what the organization has already been saying.
– A communication plan that gets the right information, to the right people, at the right time in order to guide them to acceptance faster.

At the end of the day, engaging communication earlier means fewer surprises and shoulder shrugs when you are trying to figure out what went wrong.