Communicating Change In A Fast-Paced Environment

I was recently asked the question “how do you balance the need to move fast in business with the inevitable toll it might take on customers, partners and employees”? It’s a great question and one I have personally dealt with and learned from over the past decade and with several different companies, all at different stages in their evolution. I have a couple of observations to share. 1) Trust is a constant across all manner of human achievement. Building and reinforcing the reason for change, the outcome expected and the plan to communicate progress across all stakeholders will help maintain engagement and encourage feedback which will strengthen the effort over time. After all, not one of us is smarter than all of us. 2) Eatbalishing a measurement system to guide progress to/through milestones and to guage individual contributions being made along the way will provide critical insights. On the one hand to produce signals on the success of the transformation; On the other, a clear illustration of who on the team is helping to drive the change individually and collectively. Targeted training and enablement and performance management will most certainly be needed. 3) Celebrating success is a force multiplier as it builds confidence and fun in the change process. Do it early. Do it often. Other factors including cross functional alignment, identifying dependencies for success and making public the broad stakeholder benefits of change (and the pace of change) are other factors to consider. Finally, “change fatigue” can be a real impediment. This is obviously conditioned on the amount of change the company has been through and the urgency of the immediate change agenda. Getting constant feedback through employee forums will help keep track of the attitudes and impacts being realized by the team. Don’t fall in the trap of getting this feedback and failing to acknowledge what you’ve heard and taking action where appropriate. It will dry up fast if you do. So, go fast! But build trust in the change, measure the critical elements of the change effort, publish progress and celebrate wins. Remind everyone along the way that setting the pace on our own allows us to control the change agenda. Otherwise it will be controlled “for you” and likely not on your terms.

If your comms strategy during change is "wait until we know 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 before we say 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈," you’ve already lost. Transparency isn’t a "nice-to-have" during times of rapid change. It’s the only thing that keeps a team grounded when the ground is constantly shifting. If leadership goes silent, the watercooler theories start flying: "Are we hitting or missing our goals?" "Is a feature being sunset?" "How will our role change as a result?" Compare that to what we’re seeing from the best companies, who are rallying their people toward a mission, not demoralizing them: - Transparent, direct messaging 🎯 - Manager prompts 🤝 - Async videos & updates from execs 📹 - All hands with open Q&A 🙋 - Open door policy 🚪 Change is always coming, but when employees understand the context, they lean in and go the extra mile. When trust goes up ⬆️ Speed goes up ⬆️ And cost goes down ⬇️ — The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey

Change is hard. Change across multiple time zones, locations, and cultures? That’s next-level chaos if not handled well. Rolling out change in a remote/hybrid world isn’t just about announcing it—it’s about making sure it actually lands. Because let’s be real, if employees don’t understand the change, they won’t buy into it. And without buy-in? Expect a delightful mix of confusion, resistance, and disengagement. So what makes change comms actually work? ✅ Clarity – No corporate jargon, no fluff. Tell people why this change matters and how it affects them. If you can’t explain it simply, you’re not ready to roll it out. ✅ Consistency – One email won’t cut it. Hit multiple touchpoints—video, intranet, Slack/Teams, live Q&As. People need to hear it more than once, in different formats, to absorb it. ✅ Feedback loops – Change to employees feels like a burden. Change with employees builds trust. Give them a voice—surveys, town halls, manager-led discussions. The more involved they are, the smoother the transition. Yet, so many companies get this wrong. They communicate the “what” but forget the “why.” Or they announce the change once and assume it stuck. Spoiler alert: It didn’t. #ChangeManagement #InternalComms #Leadership #HybridWork