In the last decade, leaders have come to realize the importance of good communications during organizational change. Now more than ever, communication strategies are incorporated as an expected component of most organizational change management plans, which is a step in the right direction.
That said, there is still a rarely acknowledged vehicle for change communications that can either make or break the success of transformational change initiatives. This vehicle is communication through example.
Many leaders assume that their "talk" will speak louder than their "walk" (but it never does!) By communicating one expectation for change and then continuing to behave in the "old state" ways, leaders create a double standard that not only diminishes the trust people have in them but also casts a shadow of doubt over the organizational change initiative being rolled out.
To illustrate the impact a "do as I say, not as I do" attitude can have on transformational change, consider what would have happened if Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. had engaged in acts of physical violence while evangelizing cultural change through non-violent protests and civil disobedience. In all likelihood, the very ideas they were trying to communicate would have been undermined by their actions and their credibility as leaders lost.
When leaders, be they cultural visionaries or organizational leaders, don't practice what they preach, it can be nearly impossible for any group to work together to bring about necessary and desired change. When people perceive a double standard within the message being sent and the actions of the message sender, their willingness to get on board and do the work needed or expected of them will wane, placing the change project in jeopardy.
Leo Tolstoy once noted, "Everyone dreams of changing humanity, but no one dreams of changing themselves." However, in order to deliver one of the most impact change communications available, leaders must do just that: embrace the message of transformational change and demonstrate, through their actions, that the change is worthwhile and meaningful for all....even themselves.
When leaders walk the talk of the new organizational direction, first, and continue over time to consistently do so, people know that organizational change is real. By nature, organizational change is unsettling for everyone, but by projecting confidence through actions, others will see that as a leader you have faith in the new organizational direction. This in itself can go along way in propelling everyone forward with excitement and trust toward successful transformational change.
