Communicate progress
Your effort to involve certain employees in change teams can multiply across the rest of the organization. Group members can serve as missionaries, passing their passion to other employees. But for that to take root, you have to communicate transparently.
“We can reiterate a sense of urgency to meet financial goals, but it requires more than that to achieve a change-driven mindset across the organization,” Horne says. “In the face of adversity, we’ve improved interactions with one another to help reach a collective goal.”
Horne holds five town-hall meetings every month or two to keep the company updated on the progress of the transformation teams. Encourage the teams to do their own presentations so employees can hear success stories straight from their peers. You can also use those settings as a stage to reward players who have been pivotal to the plan’s success.
Solidify their testimonies with hard facts, sharing financial information to show effects objectively. For example, one change the teams instigated was a redesign of the Register’s Web site that lets readers customize their content. While print readership stayed flat this year with the previous year, the number of unique online users increased 92 percent.
In 2008, the teams helped Orange County Register Communications Inc. reduce expenses by $22 million, and the company is tracking to meet its goal of eliminating another $40 million this year. The company achieved operating profit margin every month for the first half of 2009, exceeding their six-month profit goal by 25 percent.
As other employees hear accounts of change transpiring, more of them will buy in.
“When actual change happens, people see they’re empowered because they see they’re doing it, not me,” Horne says. “People begin to believe that real change is happening when it’s coming from within the organization as opposed to coming from the CEO.”
To totally drive the change, you should also take the message outside to customers. Regardless of the audience, Horne says he’s trying to send the same message about why the company does what it does and why it is changing what it does.
For each group, you should focus on how the changes affect that group specifically, rather than bogging all groups down with unnecessary details. Show employees how the company will be more effective and poised for growth, and provide evidence of that along the way. For the end users, explain the changes they’ll see in products and why those are occurring.
“Talking directly to customers is still the most effective way to communicate, and I’m very comfortable doing that,” says Horne, who holds open houses for advertisers and readers to explain changes and answer questions. “If you’re doing things to customers that you don’t feel comfortable enough to stand in front of them and talk about, you might be doing the wrong things.”
Just like your cross-functional teams can be ambassadors to other employees, educated customers can carry your message further than you alone could. But for the message to take hold, you must consistently provide proof of your success.
“[Change] doesn’t happen with the flip of a switch,” Horne says. “It’s definitely not a matter of just talking differently. It’s a matter of walking the talk, doing business differently.”
How to reach: Orange County Register Communications Inc., (877) 469-7344 or www.ocregister.com