If your company or organization wants to embark upon or has recently undergone a significant change, it is vital that you know how to make your employees become your best ambassadors and not your worst enemies through the process. Chicago communication consultants will tell you that the success and effectiveness with which you navigate your employees through new waters is crucial to how the business or organization will fare after the changes are implemented.
Change such as restructuring, rebranding, recovery from a crisis, preparing to enter a new market, a merger with another company, etc., can all be reasons that the leadership of a company may need to draw its workers back together and make sure everyone is on the same page for the new vision. This is Vision Engagement, and a good plan for it is crucial to maximizing positive results from such changes and new beginnings.
The reason communication consultants are often employed for such shifts in companies and organizations is because when you are at the threshold of a big change, there is so much potential that can be tapped into by having your employees on board and enthusiastic about it at that critical juncture – and so much momentum and gain that can be lost if you don’t know how.
One of your biggest goals for your organization when it is in a time of flux – whether for good reasons or bad – must be to inspire and engage your employees to become true believers in and supporters of the organization’s new vision, and active participants in driving your new message or mission forward. It is important to calibrate all employees and members of the organization to the same frequency, get them all on the same page with what is going on, and why, and make the changes really mean something.
Many times what happens is that these things are all very clear and discussed, agreed upon and embraced at the upper management level, behind big desks in important conference rooms. But often, except in truly exemplary companies – and you want yours to be one of them – that powerful, meaningful message and deep motivation is left somewhere up in the ivory towers of the upper echelon of the company. Then, by the time it trickles down to the “bottom-most” employees – incidentally, the ones who are likely to be interacting with the actual customers – those employees are often not adequately informed or effectively truly engaged in the company’s Larger Purpose, and quite frankly don’t really care about the “bigger picture” a company is loftily trying to portray or pursue.
In such cases, a company may have the most beautifully-crafted, high-fisted Mission Statement in the world, but it translates to little more than a plaque on the wall that few actually read and fewer still will truly champion. This disengagement results in inferior customer experiences, reduced performance, unmet performance goals, and a brand and image that is only a fraction of what it could be.
On the flip side, with a strong Vision Engagement strategy, whether you do it yourself or seek input from professional Chicago communication consultants, by informing and successfully engaging your employees with the new vision of the organization, you can ensure that your message is strong and clear to both internal and external audiences.
