COMMUNICATION AND FEEDBACK STRATEGY

Resistance is a natural part of the change process and there would be challenges in
communicating the change during the process. Similar challenges is faced by Bima, and it
requires effective communication to drive change in the company and reduce resistance.

CONFRONT ARTICULATE DEMONSTRATE

REALITY VISION FAITH

Rational individuals will question the change need and process, but here the role of senior
management becomes very vital to tackle resistance. They need to confront the reality,
articulate a compelling need for change and demonstrate faith. Leadership team of Bima,
should first identify people who can drive a change and have a positive impact on the people.
Then the identifies people have to come up with a strong and honest business case that
change is the only way to keep the business viable. They then need to craft a compelling
vision to give direction to the company. By confronting reality and helping employees,
leadership team can motivate employees to follow new direction in the midst of delayering
and other transformational processes. This case for change and vision should be developed by
the top management, but they need to identify change agents in the middle management, who
will design company wide change programs.
Communication challenge can be handled in a better way, if the company does contextual
analysis and audience analysis. Contextual analysis is important to understand the history of
past internal communications, readiness etc. On the other hand, programs should be
customised as per audiences and for that the company needs to do audience analysis.
Company should follow simple, clear and consistent mechanism to communicate change to
customers and shareholders. Multiple forums should be used to communicate and more
formal forums like webinars, meetings and newsletters etc must be used for shareholders.
Following communication strategy should also be adopted
1) Communicate 2) Communicate as early as 3) Reinforce and build upon
frequently possible the trust
- Repetition will reduce - Early communication to - Employees trust their
resistance and increase the provide relevant information direct heads more, leverage
likelihood of retention and and reduce uncertainty as this relationship to
demonstrate importance of early as possible. communicate change.
change to all stakeholders. - Formal dialogue is vital, - Focus on reducing
- Take time to communicate and grapevine information uncertainty and
how the change will benefit sharing must be reduced for communicate on facts
stakeholders change information - Speak the truth and change
- What’s in it for me factor - Rumours need to be agents must design
must be explained stopped customised communication
programs
After implementing plans, company should collect feedbacks to validate that messages are
received and understood by stakeholders. Feedback supports 2-way communication and
increases effectiveness. Feedback can be collected through small online surveys and special
review measures must be developed as per programs. Exchange of dialogues is vital.
Company should use a community discussion group for customers to share all the relevant
information about the change and invite customer feedback if any. The views can be positive
or negative but company should take all the points into consideration. Meetings can be held
and also surveys can be conducted so that the information is passed onto the shareholders,
and their feedback can be taken. The communication with all the stakeholders must be
constant, so that change communication progress can be monitored.
Thus a proactive communication and feedback strategy should be adopted by the company
and they should also keep in mind the emotional state of stakeholders like anger, stability,
denial, depression etc.