/p>

2. Regularly - understand they don’t come for the pizza; they come to hear a status report on the changes taking place. Schedule them, make them important and say what you mean and mean what you say, as scheduled.

3. Truthfully - do we need explanation? Don’t BS them, they know it. Tell them straight up what is going to happen.

The group I mentioned in the beginning weren’t referring to my wor

"We're not going to that stupid meeting! They'll just feed us more BS." That was the overwhelming sentiment at a recent workshop I conducted for a worldwide company doing around $8 billion is sales. It was one colossal problem they had on their hands.

You see about a year ago now the folks from the parent company came in and surprised even the VPGM of this division with the news they were moving the operation to Europe. What you have to know is that this division is the core of the manufacturing business and has employees ranging in tenure from ten on the low side to thirty plus years with the company. It was a shock.

What happened since the announcement was well, exactly, nothing. They hired a new staff overseas and they were moving along but these folks based in the states were left hanging out to dry. They were originally told they'd all have jobs at local subsidiaries ... but no information was forthcoming. Oh, they'd had meetings and HR was calling them 'Roundtables' but nothing was coming out.

You see they were having 'get togethers' with pizza but they weren’t telling the troops anything. You can’t do that if you're going to succeed at change. You have to communicate clearly, regularly and most importantly, truthfully. If you don’t know then tell them you don’t know. When there is a communication void it will be filled with something. If not from you, then the resisters will fill it up in a heartbeat.

So remember ... when leading change you must communicate and you must include these three elements.

1. Clearly - that means in simple straightforward terms tell them what you know and what you don’t.

2. Regularly - understand they don’t come for the pizza; they come to hear a status report on the changes taking place. Schedule them, make them important and say what you mean and mean what you say, as scheduled.

3. Truthfully - do we need explanation? Don’t BS them, they know it. Tell them straight up what is going to happen.

The group I mentioned in the beginning weren’t referring to my work

ion to Europe. What you have to know is that this division is the core of the manufacturing business and has employees ranging in tenure from ten on the low side to thirty plus years with the company. It was a shock.

What happened since the announcement was well, exactly, nothing. They hired a new staff overseas and they were moving along but these folks based in the states were left hanging out to dry. They were originally told they'd all have jobs at local subsidiaries ... but no information was forthcoming. Oh, they'd had meetings and HR was calling them 'Roundtables' but nothing was coming out.

You see they were having 'get togethers' with pizza but they weren’t telling the troops anything. You can’t do that if you're going to succeed at change. You have to communicate clearly, regularly and most importantly, truthfully. If you don’t know then tell them you don’t know. When there is a communication void it will be filled with something. If not from you, then the resisters will fill it up in a heartbeat.

So remember ... when leading change you must communicate and you must include these three elements.

1. Clearly - that means in simple straightforward terms tell them what you know and what you don’t.

2. Regularly - understand they don’t come for the pizza; they come to hear a status report on the changes taking place. Schedule them, make them important and say what you mean and mean what you say, as scheduled.

3. Truthfully - do we need explanation? Don’t BS them, they know it. Tell them straight up what is going to happen.

The group I mentioned in the beginning weren’t referring to my wor

y were originally told they'd all have jobs at local subsidiaries ... but no information was forthcoming. Oh, they'd had meetings and HR was calling them 'Roundtables' but nothing was coming out.

You see they were having 'get togethers' with pizza but they weren’t telling the troops anything. You can’t do that if you're going to succeed at change. You have to communicate clearly, regularly and most importantly, truthfully. If you don’t know then tell them you don’t know. When there is a communication void it will be filled with something. If not from you, then the resisters will fill it up in a heartbeat.

So remember ... when leading change you must communicate and you must include these three elements.

1. Clearly - that means in simple straightforward terms tell them what you know and what you don’t.

2. Regularly - understand they don’t come for the pizza; they come to hear a status report on the changes taking place. Schedule them, make them important and say what you mean and mean what you say, as scheduled.

3. Truthfully - do we need explanation? Don’t BS them, they know it. Tell them straight up what is going to happen.

The group I mentioned in the beginning weren’t referring to my wor

ntly, truthfully. If you don’t know then tell them you don’t know. When there is a communication void it will be filled with something. If not from you, then the resisters will fill it up in a heartbeat.

So remember ... when leading change you must communicate and you must include these three elements.

1. Clearly - that means in simple straightforward terms tell them what you know and what you don’t.

2. Regularly - understand they don’t come for the pizza; they come to hear a status report on the changes taking place. Schedule them, make them important and say what you mean and mean what you say, as scheduled.

3. Truthfully - do we need explanation? Don’t BS them, they know it. Tell them straight up what is going to happen.

The group I mentioned in the beginning weren’t referring to my wor

/p>

2. Regularly - understand they don’t come for the pizza; they come to hear a status report on the changes taking place. Schedule them, make them important and say what you mean and mean what you say, as scheduled.

3. Truthfully - do we need explanation? Don’t BS them, they know it. Tell them straight up what is going to happen.

The group I mentioned in the beginning weren’t referring to my workshop they were referring to the next 'Pizza Luncheon' on Monday after I left. They hadn’t heard anything straight for months. That's all they wanted, to hear the truth.

I had to conclude my week with them by meeting with the Director of Human Resources.

He said, "Tell me straight up, how the people are doing?"

I started with this one. "Do you know that 100% of your people do not want to come to your communications meeting on Monday?" He was flabbergasted. "Well, uh, why would they feel that way?"

Now that is how far removed he was from reality.

"Well, Jose, let me break it to you ... all you ever tell them is BS and they know it."

Well, this guy was breathing that really thin air at the top and never quite got it ... don’t let that be you. Communicate clearly, regularly and truthfully.