In this blog, we\u2019ll review the benefits and structure of the change story and best practices that will help you effectively collaborate and connect with your audience.<\/p>\n
Incorporating Perspectives of Those Impacted into Your Collaborative Change Story<\/h2>\n
A change story is an easily understandable narrative that conveys the need for change, paints a picture of your desired future state, inspires action, and warns of the risks if people do not adopt the new processes.<\/p>\n
Aside from being the foundational messaging platform for the OCM team, it is also a great tool for leaders and key stakeholders as it empowers them to speak with authority on the vision for change<\/a>, how their teams and direct reports fit into that vision, and what\u2019s in it for them if they adopt. Collaborating on your story helps ensure key stakeholders are aligned and support the vision for change. When stakeholders feel included in the plan and understand how they fit into the big picture, they feel agency in joining and taking ownership of their part in the journey.<\/strong><\/p>\n Put simply, what makes a collaborative change story different is that you create it with consensus from both the change leaders\u2019 voices and those impacted by it reflected in the solution, making the change more likely to stick. Ask yourself these questions to start thinking about ensuring everyone sees how they can benefit:<\/p>\n Note: these will be your talking points and should be short sound-bites employees can easily latch onto.<\/em><\/p>\n A change story is broken out into four sections, answering the primary questions:<\/p>\n When possible, include the benefits the employees, company and their clients will receive if they support and adopt the change. When you lay out the benefits, stakeholders will understand the impact at multiple levels and recognize their role as beneficiaries of the change. Ideally, they will feel compelled to evangelize the change<\/a> with their teams and become a change agent.<\/p>\n Always be mindful of your target audience. For example, it could be risky to include \u201ccost savings\u201d as a benefit to the company when that translates into layoffs for the employee. Tailor the story to your audience as change will look and feel differently across departments and teams in the organization.<\/strong><\/p>\n For large initiatives, it is common to have a program-level change story to facilitate executive alignment and a project-level change story that speaks to each workstream to inspire change at an individual level.<\/p>\n Start with the \u201cWhy.\u201d People need to connect with and see themselves reflected in the \u201cwhy\u201d to feel motivated to change. To summarize the book Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action<\/a>, by Simon Sinek, people do not buy into \u201cwhat\u201d you are changing \u2014 they buy into \u201cwhy\u201d you are doing it.<\/p>\n Use the below outline to organize your thoughts and facilitate a healthy discussion around your change story. Again, you should tailor this to your audience and what they will care about knowing.<\/p>\n\n
Stories Are How Humans Share, Connect and Easily Process Information<\/h2>\n
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