Communicating for Change

Foreword

Change is good. Communication drives change.

One of the most critical aspects to drive performance in an organization is communications. The only way to move an idea from your mind into other people's minds is through communications. Yet very few of us understand or have been trained on how to communicate effectively. In this newsletter I will share with you the 3C's of communicating for change. You can become a powerful change agent, simply by mastering the 3C's.

The essence of communications for change is that the message must be Clear - so it is easily understood, Compelling - so it grabs peoples attention and finally Consequential - it means something to the person such that the person will act on it. And there you have it, the 3 C's in communicating for - Clear, Compelling and Consequential.

Clear

Clear simply means that the receiver understands the message exactly as you meant it to be. The clearest of messages are short, direct to the point, use simple words and presented in the most appropriate language. Clarity get the message from your mouth to the listeners ear.


Compelling

To get into peoples minds your message must be compelling. Your message must give the receiver a reason to think and reflect on it; if not the message is lost. Compelling is what get the message from the ear into the brain.

Consequential

For people to act on your message, the message must be consequential to them. "What's in it for me?" The consequence must be real and meaningful. Consequential is what gets the message from the brain into the heart. And once the message is in the heart - action will happen.

When you are communicating, you are competing against other messages and other communications channels to gain the attention of the listener. By communicating the same message many times over multiple channels - spoken, written, group, one on one, bulletin board, email, twitter etc. dramatically improve the chances of the message getting through.

Examples of Messages:
We often see vision / mission statements that say "We want to be the leading organization in this industry" or "We want to be the preferred supplier of choice.." How do you think these statement measure up to the 3C test? Not very good, in fact they are fairly meaningless.

Let me now give you a good example; "We want to be the most profitable company in this industry in order for us to pay our employees the best salaries to ensure the highest quality of life for their families." Now, I would be very attracted to a company like this, wouldn't you?

Clear states what you want (the most profitable) , Compelling is about importance and why you want it (so I can play my employees good salaries) and Consequential explains the motivation for wanting it (to ensure the highest quality of life for their families).

To master the 3C's, you need to just keep practicing and very soon you will be motivating your staff to move the world! What do you think?