Key Takeaways:
- The people closest to a change are often the ones who can make it real…or keep doing things the old way. Their response is shaped by whether they understand the reason for the change and the role they play in it.
- Involvement does not mean putting strategy up for a vote. It means getting a thoughtful pre-read from the people who will have to explain, model and carry the change forward.
- A broad vision only becomes actionable when people can see the next 10 feet of work in front of them. Clear expectations turn passive awareness into credible advocacy.
Picture a company with a signature annual event. It has been a major source of revenue, a way to bring an industry together and a familiar part of the organization’s identity for years.
Then the market changes.
To stay relevant, the event needs to evolve. Leadership decides on a new format, experience and value proposition. The decisions feel like a good way to make the event look and feel different.
The problem is the people who sell sponsorships, build partnerships, plan the program and talk with attendees continue to describe the event exactly as they always have.
They are likely not intentionally trying to undermine the change. They may just be missing the point of it. If a sponsorship salesperson doesn’t understand why the event is changing, they have no reason to change the conversation they have with prospective sponsors. If the event team cannot see what a new format is meant to accomplish, it’s easy to treat the shift as a cosmetic refresh rather than a different way of serving the market.
The organization announced a change. It did not create champions who could carry that change forward.
The difference matters in any significant transition: new ownership, a culture reset, a new business strategy, a market expansion, a product shift or a different way of working. The people who interact with employees, customers, partners and the public will make the change believable long before a formal communications plan does.
The People Closest to the Work Are Not an Afterthought
Change often begins at the top. It may be initiated by a board, executive team or a new owner responding to a strategic need. That’s appropriate. Most major business decisions cannot be made by committee.
But when the strategy is handed down fully formed, organizations can lose the people who would have been best positioned to pressure-test it, explain it and model it for others.
We’ve seen this go wrong in organizations where a change was communicated to employees as something happening to them. The team received the update, and they were expected to adapt.
The organization missed the chance to ask people closest to customers, operations and day-to-day work what they were seeing. They didn’t understand what the new direction would require in practice.
A better approach brings a cross-section of people into the process early enough to make their perspective matter. Not every decision is open for debate. Not every change can be shared before it’s public, especially in an acquisition or another confidential situation. There’s still usually a point where leaders can ask for a strategic pre-read.
Here is what we are planning. Here is why. Here is how we think it may affect your work, your team or the people you serve.
What questions would you have if this were announced tomorrow? What are we missing? What would make it easier, or harder, for you to carry this forward?
Those conversations offer something valuable in both directions. The organization gets a more honest view of how the change may land. The people being asked for input gain a stake in the work before they are expected to represent it to someone else.
That’s where a champion starts to emerge.
Ownership Has to be Earned Before Someone can Advocate
Most people don’t become passionate advocates because they received a polished announcement or were given a set of talking points. They become advocates when they can see their experience matters to the change and when the organization is clear about what it needs from them.
At Franco, we explain the difference between a change being done to someone and giving them a chance to be part of it. It often isn’t as complicated as most executives think. A person does not have to design the strategy to feel ownership. Sometimes that ownership comes from being asked a better question at the right time. Sometimes it comes from being invited to test a message, name a likely concern or show what the new expectation would look like in a customer conversation.
That involvement also helps the organization separate a sound idea from an incomplete plan.
McKinsey’s 2021 Global Survey of over 1,000 people found that successful transformations were more likely to involve influential people directly in the work. The research also found that when leaders ensured frontline staff felt a sense of ownership, reported transformation success was 70%; when frontline employees took initiative to drive change, it was 71%; when both occurred, it rose to 79%.
Those results reinforce something many leaders recognize from experience: When the people expected to carry a change feel disconnected from it, the work tends to lose momentum at the point where it needs to become real.
A 10,000-foot Vision Needs 10-foot Actions
Leaders are often good at describing the destination. They can explain the business case for entering a new market, changing an operating model, evolving a culture or rethinking a signature event.
The people expected to make the change real need a different kind of clarity.
A frontline customer service representative may understand the company is becoming more customer-centered. What does that mean in the next call they take?
A partnership lead may know an event is being redesigned. What should they say when a longtime sponsor asks why the package is different?
A manager may hear the organization is moving toward a new culture. What behavior should they reinforce in a team meeting next week?
You have to move from a 10,000-foot vision to 10-foot, everyday actions. Those actions are where the vision either gains momentum…or not. They are also where people decide whether they have a meaningful role in the change or are simply being asked to comply with it.
This is why a generic request to “champion the change” rarely works. People need to know who they should help, what they should explain or do differently and why that contribution matters to the larger direction of the organization.
Start With the People Who Will Have to Explain the Change Tomorrow
Before the next big rollout, choose a small group of people who will be asked questions about the change as soon as it becomes public. Include the obvious leaders, but don’t stop there. Think about the customer-service representative, the sales lead, the operational manager, the technical expert, the partner-facing team member or the employee others naturally turn to for an honest read.
For each person or group, complete this sentence:
We need you to help carry this change forward by ________, because ________.
The first blank should name a real contribution:
Explain the new value proposition to sponsors. Help customers understand a different process. Model the behavior the new culture calls for. Surface questions that leadership has not considered. Show peers what the change looks like in daily work.
The second blank should connect that contribution to the larger vision. If it cannot be completed clearly, the organization may be asking people to advocate before it has shown them what they are advocating for.
That is a useful gap to find before the change reaches everyone else.
Communicator takeaway:
The people who can make a change credible are often already inside the organization or close to it. Give them more than a message to repeat. Give them an informed role in making the change work.
If your organization is preparing for a change and needs the people closest to employees, customers and partners to carry it forward with confidence, we can help translate the vision into messages, messengers and meaningful roles. Reach out and let’s have a conversation.
Emily Hebert is a Strategic Growth Manager at Franco. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
