The importance of communications in delivering successful digital transformation

Effective communication and engagement are critical to any change programme.

What does that mean in practice? And how do we make that happen on large, complex and lengthy change programmes? Here are 5 key steps to ensuring your communications contributes to a successful change programme.

1. Make use of ADKAR

Communications should be delivered in support of transformation – to shape this over the life of a change programme Ideal recommend using the Prosci ADKAR Model.

The Prosci ADKAR Model is an internationally recognised framework for understanding and managing individual change. The elements of the ADKAR Model align well with the phases of a change programme. It suggests that “Change happens at the individual level. In order for a group or organisation to change, all individuals within that group or organisation must change.”

It works well in reminding us how we should begin by raising Awareness of a change, then increasing Desire and Knowledge of the change, finishing off with creating Ability and then, in a post-Go-Live world, we talk about Reinforcing that change.

The ADKAR methodology is fundamental to delivering successful transformation and should underpin all change interventions, including training, change management and communication.

2. Start with a Communications and Engagement Strategy

Clear, consistent, targeted communication is vital to enabling change. When starting a large change programme, start by developing a communications and engagement strategy and make this an integral part of the programme. If staff don’t understand and embrace the change, they are unlikely to alter behaviour and adoption will be low.

The Comms and Engagement Strategy should be built upon the following:

• Objectives the strategy is seeking to achieve
• Guiding principles of the programme
• The use of frameworks like ADKAR
• Taking learning from other organisations; a lot of organisations have gone through change and it is helpful to share best practice

Key elements to think about when pulling together a communications and engagement strategy:

• Key messages
• A strong narrative
• A robust stakeholder map
• Mix of communications channels
• Communications plans
• Governance
• Evaluation mechanisms

3. Engage with key people to inform your approach

It is helpful to hold early workshops with key people involved in the programme to get the communications strategy underway. Collectively agreeing your key messages and key stakeholder groups at an early stage is vitally important.

It is also important to decide who is going to lead and deliver the communications messages throughout the programme. This shouldn’t be the communications team. The key influencers need to lead your communications, as they will have the most impact.

The governance structure needs to be set up as soon as possible. An Oversight Group is needed to sign off messages in a timely way and to continually review the communications approach and plan throughout the life of the programme. As the programme moves towards Go-Live, the frequency of important messaging becomes higher, and quick sign off is essential to keep everything on track.

4. Identify stakeholders and how to communicate with them

A stakeholder mapping exercise is a useful tool to force the Programme team to think about where it needs to put most communications effort and the frequency of engagement .

It can also change over the lifecycle of the programme so needs to be regularly reviewed and updated.

There are a few key stakeholder groups to consider:

• External organisations are important. These include other hospitals, GPs, MPs, patients, local media and anybody who may have an interest in the change. All these groups need to be factored into plans and a lead communicator identified.
• The members of the programme team can often be overlooked. It is important that they know what is going on, what progress is being made, key milestones delivered and any issues. Putting in place regular updates and briefings is essential.
• Focus on those groups that may need extra support, such as administration teams. Create opportunities to communicate with and get feedback from groups with the biggest impact.
• Ensure that you are engaging with your Superuser and Change Agents, and getting them on board. They will play such an important role especially during G-Llive.

5. Share the change narrative

The Case for Change is a clearly articulated rationale for the change, creating a sense of urgency, feeling of passion, optimism and belief in the future.

Define the change story using the 5Ws framework, to identify key themes that will be used across the organisation to communicate the change vision with one voice:

• Why is something changing?
• What is happening?
• How is it changing?
• Who is it impacting?
• When is it happening?

It is important that managers and the programme team can tell the story of the change so that staff understand it and buy into it. They need to own the story and be confident about sharing it with their teams in a consistent way.

Every time someone on the programme has a chat with someone about the change, whether formally or informally, they are communicating about the programme. Every member of the programme is a communicator in their own right and everybody has a responsibility to communicate.

It follows that everyone needs to be on message, on the same page and saying the same things. What is the case for change? Why are we doing this? 

Communications teams can help by providing an elevator pitch to explain the benefits, followed by a five-minute catch-up chat, or a more detailed 10-minute chat for those heavily involved. Also provide managers with FAQs to support discussions with their teams.

Narrative tips

The programme can last for a long time, so it a challenge to maintain interest.

Use senior clinical colleagues as key communicators, introduce videos and animations to bring change to life, celebrate staff stories and successes, use virtual platforms for people to ask questions, use feedback, and countdown mechanics to create urgency.

Communication is everybody’s responsibility. It is not possible for the comms team to manage every single communication that comes out of the programme.

6. Create a communications plan

• Begin by reviewing all the different communication channels available and use the full channel mix – there is a lot of information to communicate
• Understand what works best for the audience, as one size doesn’t fit all
• Use a combination of face-to-face meetings, Teams sessions, intranet, emails, video and print communications like leaflets, posters, lift stickers, banners, and briefing packs
• Use existing channels where you can, such as Trust updates and CEO briefings, and introduce new channels where there are gaps
• Create checklists to make it easy for staff to understand what they need to do
• Increase visibility across the Trust as you get nearer to G- Live to create momentum for the change

A cycle of communication will be created where all the various teams are feeding in updates, issues and requirements which need to be included in the communication outputs. It can become quite complicated to manage as so much is going on.

It is really important that, in the middle of it all, the communications and programme teams are working together to agree what needs to be communicated and when. Everyone needs to pull together to keep the messaging relevant and timely whether it’s training, testing or Go-Live activities.

Create your communications plan early and socialise it with key stakeholders. Frame the conversation with who, what, when, why, how. The plan will need to be flexible and adapt to changes in the programme.

7. Evaluate and review

Regular evaluation and feedback will steer the communications content and approach.

Use a combination of surveys, focus groups, 1-2-1 interviews, data and anecdotal evidence to assess the progress of Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement, from the start of the programme through to Go-Live and beyond.

At regular agreed intervals throughout the programme, further surveys and 1-2-1s should be conducted to review progress.

Summary

The communication approach needs to be at the heart of the programme. The role of communications is to help to connect the activity together to tell the story of the change, but everyone in the programme team and organisation also have a role to play in telling this story.

Consistent targeted and engaging comms are vital to enabling change. If staff don’t understand why change is happening and embrace it, they are unlikely to alter behaviour and adopt new ways of working.