Communicating Change to Your Teams

Mamuna Oladipo at UXDX USA. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDRITseyZfE

Readable transcript: edited from the recording's captions for readability (fillers and false starts removed, punctuation and section headings added). Wording is the speaker's own. Timestamps are positions in the video. Names marked [?] could not be verified against the audio.

Why change communication matters

[00:00:00] Thank you all for tuning in. My name is Mamuna Oladipo and we'll be chatting today about communicating change to your teams. I picked this topic because change is constant, and we all know that products start with having solid teams. To have solid teams they need to understand the landscape they're playing in, and how success will be measured, and be aware of any important changes that would potentially impact their focus.

[00:00:22] Before I deep dive, I wanted to take a quick moment to introduce myself, if this is the first time we're meeting. As I mentioned, my name is Mamuna Oladipo, she/her pronouns. I've led a number of teams ranging from product management, product design, brand design, product marketing and engineering. I've worked across a number of industries: entertainment, music tech, gov tech, crowdfunding, and now e-commerce. I currently work as VP of product at Shopify.

[00:00:52] As I worked on picking a topic for today, I wanted it to be something that would be relevant to everyone here. Over the past two years, something we've all experienced in one way or another is change. I'm sure if I asked the room to raise their hands and provide some examples of a change that took place that was communicated well versus not so well, we'd have some pretty interesting stories. I personally have some stories about myself, but that's for later.

[00:01:18] I find communication so fascinating because there's so many layers and approaches one has to consider when thinking about what they're going to say. To think about the size of the change, the group that's being communicated to, the current state of the team, the company, the market, the world. So today, as I approach sharing with you all, I'm sprinkling some nuggets of learnings through my own personal experience. My hope is that you'll be able to take the learnings, some of the tools, and apply them to your own approach when you're managing, leading across teams.

Start with your objectives

[00:01:53] With any communication you want to make sure that you know exactly why you are saying what you're saying. You need to establish your objectives. It sounds like a no-brainer, but I cannot tell you how many times I went to tell a team a thing without taking this step. I got in front of the team, I started to ramble, I confused myself. Questions came up, I didn't know how to answer them. When it came to wrap up, I had no idea how to bring it in, and my ending was awkward. We were all staring at each other, and it was not the way one would want to end a conversation like this.

[00:02:32] You have to think about your goal here. It's not just to share information. There's likely something in particular you're aiming to accomplish, so you want to be clear on your outcomes, so you're clear on how the team will need to think about what you're saying. You'll need to be able to say what you need to say in a way that they can digest it. By thinking about your outcomes you can start to think about how your team will determine the change will impact them. You should consider words of reassurance or support or clarity that would help support your team further. You want to find natural pause points, if it makes sense, to allow for questions, whether that's at the beginning or the end. You'll want to think through those things, and then you need to think about your different mediums, which we'll talk about a little later.

[00:03:21] My recommendation here is that you'll want to try to keep your outcomes to about two or three. If you're trying to communicate more, the message is likely bloated and you're trying to accomplish too much at one time. Like myself, that went into it and had something like, I don't know, eight items to deliver on. Your team is going to get lost, as will you.

Know your team

[00:03:46] As you formalize your outcomes, the next thing you'll want to think about is your team. You should have a strong understanding of your team's goals, their values, understand how they interact. I've spoken about this in other talks, but you don't want the first time people see you to be in a conflict or in an unknown moment. You want to be sure that you're taking that time to develop relationships with different team members. You want to understand their motivations and goals, their communication styles. The way you digest information is very different from the next person, so it's important you place yourself in their shoes.

[00:04:22] I remember at the start of COVID I was leading a team through many changes in a period of time, and I just tried to jam it all in one conversation. At the time I was super uncomfortable, I didn't feel like I had a strong grasp myself. I was talking to the team about layoffs, structural changes, a change in focus for teams, and a path for the future we should get excited about. I spoke for maybe 20 minutes straight. Again, I had maybe eight objectives that I tried to capture, and in my mind it felt like the right thing to do at the time. But where did I go wrong?

[00:05:02] If you said considering the people that I was speaking to, you are correct. I did not consider many things. The team was in a very vulnerable state, a lot of unknowns, and the team really didn't need someone at that time to come up and just say things to them. They really wanted someone to see and understand them, and I didn't put myself in their shoes. Regrettably, I left everyone in the room with more questions than answers.

[00:05:31] I would have done things differently, of course, in retrospect. At the time I had just taken over a new function, I was just getting to know people on the team, I had no idea how my messaging would land. I just kind of went out there to make sure that people knew what I was going to say and people knew about the change, so I could check the box. But ultimately I probably would have done better to hold off on sharing the message until I myself felt confident and comfortable in what I was delivering, and I truly understood what I was hoping others to get out of that message, and I had taken a moment to get to know the people on the team so that I knew maybe how to think about how they might perceive some of the changes I was communicating.

[00:06:14] So don't be like me. Take that time to reflect. If you know your team is resistant to change, you want to find ways to reassure them, you want to create familiarity and create comfort in the change. If your team appreciates authenticity, you want to show up as yourself and offer that personal perspective, offer input into how you feel about the proposed changes. I feel like this one is a really important one, especially as a leader, because sometimes people feel that you're detached from the change, or that you're just telling people what to do, and you really want to bring it closer to you and personalize it more, so they feel like they have a connection with you as you're communicating this change, that you're really thinking about them. And then if you have a team that challenges change, you'll likely need to have more dedicated time outside of the space you're speaking in, to allow for questions and deeper conversation.

Authenticity and honesty

[00:07:07] A note on all that authenticity. You want to be clear and honest when communicating change to employees. Any extra sugar coating or spin or jargon feels like an attempt to hide something, and you'll gain trust when you use very simple, straightforward language and they feel like you're being very upfront about what's changing and why. You never want to talk down to your employees. This makes people feel resentful and undervalued, and so you really want to make sure that your mindset isn't that people can't handle the truth. They can handle the truth, and it's up to you to just make it as straightforward and simple as possible, so people know how to respond.

[00:07:54] My recommendation in this is, develop a set of questions and bullets to help you sort of form your thoughts on the outcomes, or the key messages you want to deliver on, and then the types of questions you potentially expect people to ask you. And then on top of that, what are the things that you think you would need to convey, either to answer those questions in the moment or get ahead of it and work those into your messaging.

Connecting the change to a vision

[00:08:22] Now, pointing back to the moment I got you, where I was talking about being in front of the teams and I started to spew information about all the changes and all that fun stuff. It wasn't a good one, I assure you. When I reflect on that moment, the thing that I also lacked there was a sense of vision. I hadn't connected the dots to say where all of the changes were going to take the organization.

[00:08:56] When you, because you don't want to be like me, are getting up there, you want to think about the organization. Is what you're communicating a part of a larger story that involves you and the business? Telling that story enables everyone to envision where the company needs to be, and also where it is currently and how to transition there. Communicating the story of your change can have a powerful effect in illuminating that path, that vision, so people can get excited and they can see themselves working in that path.

[00:09:27] As you move into more granular detail, you want to understand now the key parts of the message, so teams have that clear understanding of what the change is and how it will impact their work. You want your teams to be aligned and heading in the same direction, so you have less ambiguity in what's being done. I remember one thing I used to do was communicate change and I'd move on and say, okay great, the team's got it, done my part, whatever.

[00:09:54] But what I started to do is, anytime I have a change I'm communicating, I will start to look at the operations, or how teams are outputting, a couple weeks after. I'll start to say, okay, are the team's communications changing, are they tighter, are they looser, are we starting to see friction in the way that people are communicating, are we starting to see more questions bubble up, are people becoming detached, are people leaving? What are some of the signs you can think of within your organization that show that maybe people didn't get or understand or align with the change that you're communicating?

Tell your team what's in it for them

[00:10:32] When you're thinking about this, I think another important thing to consider is you need to tell your team what's in it for them. You have to explain the benefits of the change and what employees can expect. Things will be different, yes, you want to acknowledge that, and everyone may not like the change, you need to acknowledge that too. But there's generally an upside, hopefully, so you want to make sure you outline that as well.

[00:10:56] If there's no upside, then you should say that. You need to admit that what's happening sucks, and people may not be happy, and that you will do as much as possible to make sure that the change goes as smoothly as possible. And then you want to thank people for their patience, cooperation, for sticking through the shift, whatever it may be. You want to make sure that they feel like you appreciate them in the moment and you see them in the moment.

[00:11:28] A way to craft that vision is by answering a couple of questions. I like to think of how the organization will operate once the change is made. What will employees or the team experience as a result of making this necessary transition? Will there be tangible results, what will those results look like? Will there be a sense of accomplishment, what will that feel like? What will the rewards be, both for individuals and the organization as a whole? I think making these answers a part of your conversation is going to be central to how you communicate your change.

[00:12:04] Your employees will have a better understanding of why the organization is changing, and why the change is imminent and it's critical to success. You'll help to clarify the motivations behind organizational change, which helps your team hopefully have a better mutual understanding of what's happening, and helps everyone work towards that shared vision. Though again, I repeat that a trap here is that you may feel the need to over-communicate in one sitting, so you really want to be mindful of how much information you can throw at one person at a time. Your goal is to think about what people truly need to understand in the moment, and that balance between feeling overwhelmed and confused versus having clarity that you can build on top of.

[00:12:54] My recommendation I've adopted here is to break out the who, what, where, when, why and how of my message, to make sure that I'm anticipating what people may be wondering. And then, depending on the message, they may not all be relevant, but I think it's important for you, whoever's communicating, to know that upfront, so you know not to speak about that, or you can speak directly to that if the team asks.

Structure, timing and channel

[00:13:22] So you have your pieces together, and you have to consider now the activities around getting your message out there. You'll ask yourself, what is the best way to get your message across to your team? How can you share this communication so you achieve your objectives? Some considerations here. One, you need to think through structure, so you'll need to consider the order that you'll need to share your points when you're speaking to the team. Will you have time at the end for questions, or will you let folks pop in with questions? Will you have anyone else with you or will you do it solo?

[00:13:59] Anything about the moment? Do you have a recurring team meeting where you'll easily just address everyone, or do you need to schedule a dedicated moment? If you schedule that dedicated moment, does that cause panic on the team, do you need to think about how to approach that in a meaningful way? Then there's timing. Is there a time of day or week that works better for your team or for you to speak to? Is there a deadline for the communication? And when you think about the channel, is it a public Slack message, is it a video announcement, is it a meeting so the communication is interactive? It all depends on the size and scope of what you look to accomplish in that announcement, so you want to really make sure that you are going through all of these bits.

Setting clear expectations

[00:14:45] I wanted to throw in here a couple of tidbits for you to consider, just as you are thinking about change communication, because there's so many parts to it. One thing is, as you're setting your change management plan, you really want to be clear about your expectations. The team feels very reassured, and they're quicker to get on board, when you paint that clear picture of exactly what's going to happen and when. If you have a step-by-step list, for example, then you can do it. If your employees respond well to graphics, use them. If people work better if you design a roadmap, for example, and talk in explicit detail through each point, you can do that as well, as long as people on your team have a strong sense of where you're going.

[00:15:38] I found that in my role I've had to employ different methods. I've used graphics, I've used step by steps, I've done a roadmap, and sometimes it's for the same message. It's just depending on the group I'm speaking with, and so that's me understanding how my teams digest information. That's a great place for a lot of you to start when you're thinking about setting expectations. Don't assume that by just saying that thing, people will get it.

Start with your managers

[00:16:12] One of my biggest mistakes was not starting with my managers. I remember I was getting in front of a room to announce a pretty large change in terms of a team focus. I just put the meeting in the calendar randomly for everyone, put them in a room and I just started talking about the thing. Managers had no clue what I was talking about and they were caught completely off guard, and I had no advocates in the room to help support my messaging or to help answer questions. This was a big mistake. It is not a good feeling when everyone in the room is confused or caught off guard or in disagreement.

[00:16:59] It is nice when you have allies, so especially in a distributed environment you really want to make sure that you start your messaging with managers first. They will likely have questions and they will offer you great feedback to help adjust your messaging. Again, it is not good to have everyone in the room confused, so you want to try to flush out those moments early. Your managers likely have a good pulse on how your team is feeling, how they would respond to a thing, and you can kind of flesh that out early. You want your managers to be aligned in the direction, so when you're in a room and you say it, they're like, thumbs up, we get it. The team may have questions, managers can speak to some of these questions as well, or speak to these answers.

[00:17:46] But now, when you leave the room, likely there are team meetings or one-on-one conversations, and managers and others can now have a conversation on your behalf. Communication is broken down if your managers or others have to always call you into the room to be the one to communicate the thing. So you want to make sure that at the very start you give that time and space. Even if it's something that's urgent and it has to be done quickly, a Slack message, whatever it takes to give someone a heads up. It's worth it, it's worth it.

Make the call to action explicit

[00:18:26] And then, I think the term call to action gets thrown around a lot, but it is critical for outlining what needs to be done and by when. I used to be the type of manager that would have a direct report and I'd say, okay great, we're aligned, you're going to deliver on this thing, and that's okay, see you soon. And I would not specify to them my expectation that it maybe be done by the end of the day or the week or the month, whatever it may be. So this person takes their time, and I come to them and say, hey, where's the thing? And they're like, well, I didn't prioritize it yet, I have all these other things in my mind. I'm like, what do you mean, we talked about it, it should be done by now. I failed as a manager to communicate when I was expecting the thing to be done by, the timeline.

[00:19:11] In this world it's the same sort of thinking. It's critical for people to know if there is a thing that they are working towards here. This change is going to take place by this date, so we have to have these major milestones hit. Communicate it. If it's a bulleted list, if you want to bold out fonts because you have a presentation, whatever it takes, you want to make sure that there's an essential step here. I would also say that even if there isn't a necessary strong call to action, I would try to create something so that teams feel like they are involved and engaged in the transition, they understand, they feel like they're making value towards the path of the transition, and they're just not bystanders who things are just happening to. So if you don't have one, I would consider creating one.

Cascading the message

[00:20:09] And then cascading. All the things I've talked about, all my references from my personal experiences. I mentioned about not speaking to managers. Really, when you're thinking about communication, it's best delivered from the top, so it could be your CEO, it could be a VP, whoever it is, your director. You want to make sure that you all have the same messaging, you're saying the same thing. So when you're now communicating, one person may communicate it in a town hall, then someone else may follow up with an email, you might be in a Slack message or whatever messaging app you may have. But you're going to have to do it in more than one place, and likely it may be more than one person communicating it, so you need to think about the plan here. It needs to cascade in a meaningful way, so people aren't confused by different words or different messages that are coming through by whomever is saying it.

[00:21:08] You also want to make sure that as you start to cascade it down, there's a two-way opportunity here for communication. So you want to think about, how are teams going to ask questions, how are they going to express concerns, how are they going to get answers? These things help to build trust further. You want to be personal, you want it to feel like it's executed correctly, you want them to feel like, hey, we're all in this together. So allow your team to ask questions, you want to address them clearly and honestly. You want to really just come across as authentic. And so as you have different leaders, or if it's you, and you're using different mediums, make sure there's consistency, but that it matches the medium you're communicating to.

Keep communicating

[00:22:00] And with that, we all acknowledge that change is hard, but even harder is developing the plan on how to communicate the change so as not to overwhelm or discourage your teams. After the initial communication of change, you want to make sure that you keep communicating. Be prepared to communicate it not just once but again and again and again throughout the process. You want to restate the vision, you want to retell the story. I have learned multiple times over that people oftentimes won't get it the first time, and the more you communicate it, the more they hear or see something that could be interesting or different to them that they may want to ask you about.

[00:22:37] So make the time and space for your team to digest it in a meaningful way, because once everyone's aligned you can do exciting things. Your organization will be motivated, they're equipped to help you effect that change. I think individuals make change every day, organizations shift gears and become increasingly successful as a result, and your communication strategy can play an important role in enabling that transformation for a lasting impact. I hope you're able to take some of these nuggets and apply them to your own skills today. Thank you.