Organisational change — a restructure, a merger, a new strategy, a leadership transition — creates uncertainty. Uncertainty creates rumour. The role of communications in change is to fill the information vacuum before something worse does. Most change comms fails not because the message is wrong, but because it arrives too late, too infrequently, or from the wrong person.
Start earlier than feels comfortable
A common mistake is waiting until everything is decided before communicating. In practice, communicating early — even to say “we’re working through this and we’ll share more by [date]” — reduces anxiety and builds trust. Silence is interpreted as bad news.
Map your stakeholders carefully
Different people need to hear different things, at different times, from different sources. Staff need to hear it before external stakeholders. Senior leaders need to brief their own teams rather than letting a central message cascade impersonally. Your comms plan should map who hears what, when, and from whom.
Be honest about what you don’t know
Trying to appear fully in control when you’re not undermines trust faster than admitting uncertainty. “We don’t have the answer to that yet, but we’ll share it by [date]” is more credible than a vague reassurance. Build a FAQ into your comms plan and update it as decisions are made.
Plan for the questions, not just the messages
Think about what people will ask — and what you’re worried they’ll ask — and plan your communications to address those proactively. The questions you’re most reluctant to answer are usually the ones that matter most to your audience.
The change comms plan template below gives you a structure for planning and sequencing communications across a change programme, including stakeholder mapping and a message matrix.