- Another thing that I strongly advise
to help people through your transformation,
communicate early and often.
I believe that it is critical
not to treat communication as an event.
You don't just have a kickoff party and then go silent.
Communication should start well in advance of any changes.
This is where you can start winning people over
by explaining what the plan is,
what's expected from them, and most importantly,
how it will affect them.
I'm including training here, too.
If the upcoming transformation is going to require
that people have new skills, the time to start training them
is before they need them.
As the transformation progresses, communication continues.
You'll want to share with people what's happening.
Share success stories.
It's very encouraging to hear when things are going right.
And if things are not,
well, it's important to communicate that, too.
People aren't dumb, and nothing will destroy trust
as fast as being lied to.
If you're trying to pretend that everything is great
when it's not, be prepared to lose mind share.
You are much better off being honest
and being able to say how the plans are changing
to adapt to results.
Even as the transition completes,
communications should not end.
Hopefully during this process the people
in the organization have grown together
through the shared experience.
Keeping a centralized communications hub available
allows them to maintain that connection
and esprit de corps.
Also, you're probably going to continue having new people
join your organization, right?
So how are you going to get them up to speed?
Well, if you've got an established communications point
with documentation and training materials,
you'll have somewhere to direct them, right?
So, communicate, communicate, communicate,
and then communicate some more.
Be honest, be accurate,
use language that people understand,
and keep the channels open.
Now, the next few videos are going to address
some of the things that you can be doing right now
that will advance your organization's digital transformation
with tools you probably already have on hand.
These videos were originally in another class of mine,
Business Collaboration in the Modern Workplace,
but I think that they're very pertinent
in the context of this course, as well.