The Secret to Leading Organizational Change Is Empathy

by?Patti Sanchez

I'm working with a CEO who’s in the midst of rethinking her company's strategy so it can better meet customer demands and thrive financially. These are major changes that will affect every aspect of how the firm operates — from the services it offers to the structure of her organization.

最近我與一位重新思考公司戰(zhàn)略的CEO合作，希望更好地滿足客戶需求，并實(shí)現(xiàn)財務(wù)成功。這些都是重大變化，將影響從提供服務(wù)到組織架構(gòu)的公司經(jīng)營的方方面面。

When I sat down with the CEO and her executive team to think through their communication plan, I asked not about the change itself, but about how her employees might feel about what's ahead. We started with her team because, in my work as a communication consultant, I've observed the same thing time and time again:?how?information is communicated?to employees during a change matters more than?what?information is communicated. A lack of audience empathy when conveying news about an organizational transformation can cause it to fail.

我跟CEO和執(zhí)行團(tuán)隊(duì)坐下來思考溝通計劃時，并沒有問具體如何變，而是問員工對變化可能怎樣感受。我們從她的團(tuán)隊(duì)開始，因?yàn)槲覐氖聹贤檰枙r一次又一次地觀察到同樣的情況，即變動過程中如何向員工傳達(dá)信息比信息內(nèi)容本身更重要。傳達(dá)有關(guān)公司轉(zhuǎn)型的消息時如果缺乏同理心，會導(dǎo)致失敗。

Studies on organizational change?show that leaders across the board agree: if you want to lead a successful transformation, communicating empathetically is critical. But the truth is that most leaders don't actually know how to do it. In fact, at Duarte, the communication consultancy where I'm Chief Strategy Officer, we conducted a survey of over 200 leading company executives and found that 69% of respondents said that they were planning to launch or are currently conducting a change effort. Unfortunately, 50% of these same execs said they hadn’t fully considered their team’s sentiment about the change. Worse, about half said they were just approaching the change “going on gut.”

對公司變革的研究表明，所有領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者都認(rèn)為，如果想轉(zhuǎn)型成功，認(rèn)真溝通至關(guān)重要。但事實(shí)上，大多數(shù)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者并不清楚該怎么做。我在溝通咨詢公司Duarte擔(dān)任首席戰(zhàn)略官，公司調(diào)研200多位知名公司高管后發(fā)現(xiàn)，69%的受訪者表示計劃啟動或正經(jīng)歷變革。不幸的是，50%的高管表示沒有充分考慮團(tuán)隊(duì)對變革的看法。更糟糕的是，近一半人表示變革時基本“靠直覺”。

If you are a company leader hoping to undertake a successful organizational change, you need to make sure your team is onboard and motivated to help make it happen. The following strategies can you help you better understand your employees'perspectives.

如果領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者希望成功實(shí)現(xiàn)公司變革，就要確保團(tuán)隊(duì)充分了解情況并積極協(xié)助實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)。可以通過以下策略更好地了解員工的看法。

Profile Your Audience at Every Stage
每個階段都要明確受眾

精通變革的顧問通常會建議，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者啟動變革計劃時想好各種受眾的角色。不過，考慮到整個過程中人們的需求會隨之發(fā)展，應(yīng)在每個階段重新評估對象情況。

Change consultants typically advise leaders to create personas of various audiences when they kick-off a change initiative. But, considering that people’s wants and needs will evolve throughout the process, you should reevaluate these personas during?every phase of the journey.

With the CEO I mentioned earlier, we first created audience personas that mapped to key employee segments in the company by level and function. Then we interviewed individual employees in each segment to get a sample perspective on typical mindsets. During the interviews, we asked questions designed to uncover beliefs, feelings, questions, and concerns about the company’s current strategy. We also asked if there were specific changes they hoped management would (or would not) make.?

之前提到的CEO案例中，我們首先按層級和職能了解公司關(guān)鍵員工的分布。隨后我們采訪每個領(lǐng)域的員工，了解典型的思維模式。訪談中我們會問及員工對公司當(dāng)前戰(zhàn)略的信任程度、感受、問題和擔(dān)憂等等，還問他們希不希望管理層做出具體改變。

Using the insights from these interviews, we were able to identify how each employee segment felt about the change effort, and planned communications based on whether they were excited, frightened, or frustrated. Employees who were excited about the change, for example, received communication that encouraged them to?motivate their reluctant peers.

利用訪談中收集到的意見，我們可以了解各員工群體對工作變動的感受，根據(jù)具體興奮、害怕或沮喪情況安排溝通情況。例如，與對變革感到興奮的員工溝通時，會鼓勵他們帶動不太積極的同事們。

As your organizational transformation unfolds and you enter new phases of the change, make sure you repeat the interviewing and?empathetic listening?process. That way, you can gauge how people are feeling over time, and tailor your communication to match their mood.

隨著公司開展轉(zhuǎn)型并進(jìn)入變革新階段，請重復(fù)訪談過程并認(rèn)真傾聽。如此便可了解人們的感受如何隨時間變化，并根據(jù)當(dāng)前情緒確定溝通方式。

Tell People What to Expect

描繪未來場景
While you may need to keep some facts private during a transition, the general rule is that the more informed your people are, the more they’ll be able to deal with discomfort. So, learn about your team’s specific fears, then acknowledge them openly.?

雖然過渡期間有必要對一些情況保密，但一般來說，員工了解得越多，就越能應(yīng)對變動過程中的不適。所以要了解團(tuán)隊(duì)里的恐懼情緒，然后公開答復(fù)。

While working with the CEO who was making strategic shifts in her company, we talked about how she could acknowledge some of the fears revealed in a company-wide survey. One employee had expressed concern that the changes would cause talented employees to leave, which would lead to a greater burden on remaining employees.

與領(lǐng)導(dǎo)公司戰(zhàn)略變革的CEO合作時，我們討論了調(diào)查中發(fā)現(xiàn)擔(dān)心情緒后如何應(yīng)對。一名員工擔(dān)心變動將導(dǎo)致有才能的員工離職，留下的員工負(fù)擔(dān)加重。

In the next company-wide meeting, the CEO acknowledged there was worry about brain drain, then shared statistics about how the recent company turnover was designed to reduce the number of low performers and alleviate resulting drag on other employees. She also explained how the HR department was redoubling its efforts to speed up the recruiting process and add more rigor to interviews to ensure new hires were more likely to be high performers.

之后一次全公司會議上，CEO承認(rèn)擔(dān)心人才流失，隨后介紹了一些數(shù)據(jù)，內(nèi)容是近期公司人員流轉(zhuǎn)主要是減少績效一般的員工數(shù)量，從而降低對其他員工造成的拖累。她還解釋說人力資源部門正加倍努力加快招聘，面試時遵守嚴(yán)格的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，確保新入員工素質(zhì)優(yōu)秀。

Having the CEO talk about the departures in an open company forum might seem like a dicey proposition when HR usually prefers to keep exit details private. But feedback from employees afterward showed that the CEO was able to build credibility and trust by addressing the fear of talent loss head-on.

人力資源部門往往對離職的細(xì)節(jié)保密，此時CEO公開談?wù)撾x職話題可能有些冒險。但事后員工的反饋表明，如果CEO敢于正面應(yīng)對人才流失導(dǎo)致的恐懼，就可以建立信任。

Involve Individuals at All Levels

要確保各級員工均知情

A transformation won’t succeed without broad involvement.?A large European retail bank modeled this well during an organizational overhaul. Following a “dialogue-based planning” model, the CEO created a top-level story for the bank, then asked his executive directors to add a “chapter,” sharing details relevant to their departments. Each director then asked their own team to add to the chapter, incorporating ideas about how a change would impact them and their unique responsibilities. This continued down five levels, all the way to branch managers, and helped every impacted individual understand their part.

沒有廣泛的參與，轉(zhuǎn)型就無法成功。一家大型歐洲零售銀行在大型變革期間就做了成功的嘗試。采用“基于對話的規(guī)劃”后，CEO先從頂層角度講述了銀行未來發(fā)展的故事，再要求執(zhí)行董事添加“章節(jié)”，分享與其部門相關(guān)的詳細(xì)信息，隨后每位董事要求自己的團(tuán)隊(duì)各自添加章節(jié)，包括變動對其職責(zé)將產(chǎn)生何種影響。這一過程持續(xù)向下囊括了五個級別，一直到分公司經(jīng)理，確保受影響的人們都了解變革對自身的影響。

An exercise like this can help everyone feel like an active participant with something valuable to add. At that same bank, the director of retail operations wrote about how customers wanted the banking process to be faster. When members of the branch staff read this, they added that document imagers broke down frequently, which was a major headache and caused regular slowdowns. In the end, these frontline employees ended up bringing about a practical, useful change at the organization — one that improved things for all parties.

類似行動可讓身處其中的每個人都覺得自己是積極參與者，可以貢獻(xiàn)一些價值。在同一家銀行，零售業(yè)務(wù)總監(jiān)寫到客戶希望銀行業(yè)務(wù)流程加快。支行員工讀到后補(bǔ)充說，文檔成像器經(jīng)常發(fā)生故障，是個很頭疼的問題，而且經(jīng)常導(dǎo)致業(yè)務(wù)處理速度下降。最后，一線員工想出了實(shí)際且有用的調(diào)整方式，結(jié)果各方都很滿意。

Business practices evolve rapidly, but there’s one technique business leaders should always rely on to effectively motivate and lead: empathic communication. Develop and show empathy for everyone involved in your corporate transition, and you’ll lead a team that feels valued, included, and driven to help your initiative succeed.

商業(yè)行為發(fā)展迅速，但企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者應(yīng)時刻不忘懷有同理心，實(shí)現(xiàn)有效激勵和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)。要對參與公司轉(zhuǎn)型的每個人表現(xiàn)出同理心，如此一來團(tuán)隊(duì)會感受到重視和包容，也充滿動力，團(tuán)結(jié)推動公司成功。

Patti Sanchez?is chief strategy officer at Duarte, Inc., where she creates persuasive presentations for global brands and causes. She is also a coauthor, with Nancy Duarte, of?Illuminate.?

巴蒂·桑切斯是Duarte，Inc首席戰(zhàn)略官，為全球品牌和事業(yè)介紹很多有說服力的案例。她還曾與南?！ざ磐咛兀∟ancy Duarte）合著有《啟發(fā)》一書。