Brain Savvy Communication - Leading Your Team Through Change With the Brain in Mind
Powerful insights from neuroscience offer a new lens for understanding why so many change and improvement efforts fail to achieve or sustain their intended results, why change is so hard and how people change. Neuroscienceis shaping our understanding of how the brain perceives, learns, adapts and responds to workplace change and what we can do to enable our brains to work at their best, in times of disruption, nonstop change and uncertainty.
We know successful, sustainable change requires change ready people, committed to continuous learning and improvement. Most leaders have come to realize the importance of good communication to build change ready individuals and teams. Many of us have come to this realization because of the pain and chaos created in the absence of communication or when traditional communications have not worked in our previous change experiences.
We know that how change leaders communicate with their teams about change has significant impact on people’s understanding of the need for change and their attitudes toward change. Neuroscience helps to explain why some approaches to engaging and influencing people are successful and others aren’t. Skillful communicators challenge dated assumptions about change communication and adopt brain savvy communication practices and tools.
Yes, brain savvy change leaders communicate why change is necessary and why it is necessary now. They identify the problems that must be solved and the opportunities that will be pursued. They tell a logical story that demonstrates the purpose and value of change efforts to the people who will be involved in carrying out the change. They identify the intended benefits of the change and the risks of not changing.
Yes, brain savvy change leaders describe how the change will be carried out while maintaining current operations; how changerelated decisions will be made; how people will be engaged in the planning, tests of change, implementation and integration of the change; how people will be supported throughout the change process; how the change process will be monitored and how success will be measured.
The key differentiator is that brain savvy change leaders communicate these change messages with the brain in mind. Brain savvy change leaders apply neuroscience findings and insights to communicate and translate change messages and enroll and empower people in the change process.
Brain savvy change leaders understand: the brain’s overarching focus on survival; how people take in and process information; what drives people toward or away from organizational change; why people resist change; the impact of stress (short term and long term) on learning and performance and how to optimize the brain’s capacity for change.
Brain savvy change leaders apply an understanding of the brain and change to the development and delivery of change messages to:
· Identify who should deliver change messages
· Avoid triggering a threat response or generating fear when communicating about the need for change and the risks of not changing
· Encourage and prime a positive response to change and the possibilities within the change
· Acknowledge and respect existing culture and people’s connection to the past while still communicating an imperative for change and improvement
· Monitor emotional reactions, their own and other people’s, during the communication process
· Effectively work with resistance
· Avoid overwhelming or overloading people with information
· Connect the change to what is relevant and meaningful to the whole team and individuals on the team
· Address peoples’ personal filters (does this make sense to me; does thismatter to me; what will this mean for me; where do I fit into this change; canI do this and do I want to do this)
· Build individual, team andorganizational change readiness
Understanding how the brain actually works and reacts to change and messages about change increases a leader’s confidence and competence in leading change and leading people through change with the brain in mind.
We work with change leaders at the top and leadership teams to harness the brain savvy advantage and apply brain-based practices for building organizational change readiness, capability and sustainability. We help leaders transform performance, lead successful, sustainable change and develop agile and high performing teams.
