Seven headline themes from our expert panel discussion
We’re hugely grateful to our invited panel of experts who shared their experiences and insight about communications for transformation programmes in our recent Tackling transformation fatigue webinar. The topic is front of mind for many of our pharma and healthcare clients just now: some of the takes that emerged challenged received wisdom and delved into the deeper causes of common issues that leadership and communications teams grapple with.
The webinar focused on the challenges of communicating about strategic change. But many of the points made by our experts also apply to a wider range of healthcare communications projects, where effecting change in behaviours and mindsets is key to achieving critical long-term commercial, scientific and ESG goals that affect stakeholders, patients, communities and our world.
In this article for communications professionals and leaders, we’ve summarised seven key findings and perspectives from the webinar. If you’re interested in more depth on any of these points, please get in touch: we’d love to understand your experiences and share more insights.
1. Moderation matters: too much communication is overwhelming
We all recognise that the amount and scope of change and associated communication has increased massively in the last decade, driven by external factors including markets, competition, politics, legislation, scientific advances and the pandemic. This makes it more important than ever before to break down widescale change into manageable chunks.
Part of the communications remit should be to highlight milestones and quick wins that people can relate to, to avoid them becoming fatigued with a relentless process. Our new mantra is ‘transformation temperance’ – taking into account the cadence and intensity of communication just as much as the content, channels and positioning.
“Some changes come about as a result of opportunity, but many more arise in response to threats. For example, performance is dropping off, or there’s a high-profile failure in the R&D pipeline. That can drive an urgency that means the transformation programme isn’t well enough considered. Everything is delivered at once, so it is overwhelming and confusing. People can’t or won’t engage with it and they don’t make the change happen.”
Andrew Thomas, Transformation communications specialist
2. Nurturing key leadership behaviours for effective change
Our panellists agreed that one of the most important success factors in transformation and major project communications is the capability and involvement of the leaders who are fronting announcements and campaigns.
“The leaders who initiate the change still have to carry out their everyday responsibilities as the transformation programme unfolds. But it’s really important that they don’t step back – they must be seen to be still closely engaged with progress, listening and collaborating. They need to remember that the process of transformation has a daily, constant impact on the workforce.”
Julie Saunders, Change and transformation communications specialist
As comms specialists, we need to understand their strengths, weaknesses and priorities and harness these to optimise impact. For instance, if a leader always champions a certain delivery capability or value, make this the starting point for your strategy, so the leader never loses sight of the need for active participation.
Leaders who are most comfortable behind a corporate PowerPoint may need coaching to help with grass roots engagement with employees and stakeholders. These audiences will experience the change we’re asking them to make in a very personal and visceral way: they may react and question in unexpected ways.
“Leaders may be in a completely different place from their colleagues in the organisation in terms of wanting and accepting the need for change. They have been living and breathing the change they are planning, probably for six months at least prior to the announcement. They need to appreciate that the people they are starting to talk to are in a completely different space and time. They are at the beginning of the change curve, while the leader is far along it.”
Maria Potter, Transformation communications consultant
3. The challenge of balancing content for diverse audiences
Transformation and internal communications programmes usually focus on a cascade of information to audiences by business, division, function, management level, team and role. In all these groups, there are diverse practical and psychological propensities, which affect your choice of channel and the tone and style of the communication.
Pharma manufacturing teams don’t usually have on-demand access to digital channels. Home working and Teams calls are not ubiquitous in every region. Some people tend to respond to a more nurturing approach, others prefer strictly fact-based and rational messaging. The challenge is to get a balance in your comms programme that ensures no-one is excluded.
Realistically, in a company-wide communications programme, you won’t have the time nor resources to create a personalised communications campaign for every micro-segment in your audience. But you will need to segment and customise to some degree. The alternative is a single, monolithic narrative that attempts to address everyone and ends up feeling depersonalised and bland.
4. Understanding practical empathy vs emotional empathy
74% of our webinar attendees agreed in a live poll that change communications in their organisation would benefit from greater empathy in planning and delivery.
But that doesn’t mean a sugar-coated approach. Practical empathy is particularly relevant in communications. It means listening to colleagues and audiences throughout the process and making in-flight adjustments to comms where needed. It means thinking about how the change programme affects everyone, from the people delivering it to the people who will have to embrace radical change. This will help with controlling the volume of information shared at any one time, crafting messages in a way that people can absorb, and recognising the limitations and motivations of people who play a key part in driving the change.
Emotional empathy is also very important, particularly at the point of communication delivery. But it’s not just about sensitive phrasing. Empathy must be integral to the overarching design of the change programme.
“Empathy is key in the way your change project is designed. It needs to be built into the objectives and what you are trying to achieve. In pharma, there are three centricities that we’re working with – customer, patient and employee. They all require empathy and yet sometimes we use them as buzzwords and don’t actually adapt communications and programmes in a human enough way.”
Rob Gallo, Corporate transformation communications consultant
5. Be self-aware, as a leader or communicator in an intense situation
At the same time as planning and delivering transformation communication, you’re also experiencing the transformation yourself. The changes we’re supporting very likely have an impact on our own roles, careers and morale. Even if our own responsibilities and prospects are steady, we are affected by the experiences of our colleagues.
In extreme cases, comms people are the ones charged with locking up and turning the lights out before themselves exiting the building forever. Acknowledge that uncertainty and concern about the future is bound to affect your own perspective. Support from trusted third party communications consultants may help, because as external resources, it’s easier for them to remain objective. They may also be able to alleviate the intensity of your day-to-day work by supporting you with decision-making and delivery and providing an informed sounding board.
6. Transformation communications can be rewarding and positive
Our panellists identified positive aspects to specialising in transformation communications, despite the pressure of the work.
“Change is an opportunity. We need to keep in mind that we are supporting and driving transformation because it gives us the ability to do things differently. Whether that’s because we’ve identified a better way to work, we are embracing a new technology or we have found a better way to collaborate, it is positive.”
Julie Saunders, Change and transformation consultant
“As a communicator, I think this is an area where we can all learn a lot: it can be very beneficial to our careers and our professional development. Working in-house or as a consultant in transformation communications is an opportunity to develop our muscles and refine our skills in a challenging environment.”
Maria Potter, Transformation communications consultant
7. Frame change differently in different phases and contexts
When you have a large and diverse audience for change, it can be helpful to consider whether the most impactful approach for different cohorts is about improving on the past or about future potential. The language we use to frame change can help reflect this. There’s a tendency always to explain the need for change in terms of huge and long-term corporate goals, like adding billions in revenue over a number of years. Sometimes it’s more honest and relatable to talk about frustrating and unsuccessful processes or approaches that people have experienced and how the change will address these pains.
Although radical change programmes are hard for anyone to handle, rational change that’s well communicated is always connected to positive outcomes and future potential to look forward to. In some phases, it may not be appropriate to look too far ahead or to celebrate overtly, but as the change takes effect, it’s really important to share the upsides and show people what’s easier and better.
With thanks to our Difference Collective panellists Rob Gallo, Maria Potter, Andrew Thomas and Julie Saunders. They are all experienced, senior transformation and change communications consultants with a track record of effective delivery in a range of healthcare, pharma and corporate settings. We have many more change communications specialists in the team – get in touch if you need an individual expert or team to support communications for your organisation.
About The Difference Collective
We build bespoke, full-service teams to meet your healthcare consultancy, content and communications needs, delivering exceptional results for our clients’ strategic priorities and projects. We work for the best and most ambitious organisations in pharma and healthcare. We’re Different from traditional healthcare communications agencies because we have more experience, we offer better value and – most importantly – we achieve exceptional results.
