Communicate and educate

The production and distribution of communications materials is an important and common task undertaken by most change agents. Included in this definition of communications materials is anything you create that aims to generate positive environmental change. The medium may be a presentation, email, poster, handout, report, etc.

In our role as change agents all opportunities to communicate with the subjects of our desired change should be taken. The manner in which this communication is framed and delivered should always be specifically designed to create change. It doesn't matter if you are simply advising staff of waste audit results - the question to ask is 'so what?'

Remember, an important skill of the change agent is to be able to think creatively and 'outside the box'. Don't be limited by what you have seen before - be creative and have a little fun with your communication materials. This will not only make the communication devices more effective in creating change, it will make your job a little easier and more enjoyable!

General tips

Things to remember before creating the communication

The aim of the exercise is to create change. The aim is not to generate a communications device - that is simply the method.

• Systems and infrastructure must be present and as perfect as possible to support the desired change.
• Write a list of all the excuses that you are likely to hear from people to get out of having to comply with the change. Address as many as practicable and have prepared answers for those that you have not been able to address.
• The effectiveness of communications materials relies heavily on prior research; this is why market research firms exist. As you are unlikely to have a budget to enable such detailed research, you will need to be a little more creative (see below).

Communications research ideas

• Talk to your OHS manager and find out what they think the most effective means of communications is.
• Talk to group secretaries or PAs and ask the same question.
• Run your communications assumptions (i.e. your first response to the table provided) past a group of people who have been in the organisation for extended periods - they will have an intuitive understanding of the culture and will have seen many communications attempts both work and fail.
• Ask members of your target audience what works for them (face-to-face conversation). This might seem a little unusual but what better way of finding out what buttons work than asking the people themselves.

General tips

Things to remember during the creation of the communication

• Your values, opinions, motivations, perceived barriers to and benefits of action, behaviours, level of education, understanding of the issues, attention span, etc, will probably be quite different to your audience. Solution: get together an informal reference group, representative of the diversity of your audience, to run your communication materials past prior to delivery.
• You may need to put together more than one communications device - would an IT department respond to messages in the same way that a facilities department would?

Things to remember after the creation of the communication

• You may want to pilot the communication on a small group (one floor, one office or region) before rolling it out to the whole organisation. Ask for feedback on the communication and re-work it to ensure success.
• Between 5-10% of people tend to be extremely resistant to change ('late adopters') and around the same number are very easy to change. You are not aiming to change the former - it is the mainstream that you're after. Once the majority has changed, the 'late adopters' will follow.
• Don't be put off by a vocal minority. Ensure that your management sponsor/s are ready for the easy to anticipate grumblings from these people.
• Ensure that you follow up by providing feedback on the attainment, or otherwise, of goals.

Education and training

Changing the culture of an organisation and requiring it to embrace new directions and strategies requires the education of all staff, both existing and new. For new staff, incorporating environmental targets and objectives into staff induction programs will ensure that they are aware of the requirements and directions of the organisation.
 
The training requirements for existing staff will need to be tailored to the culture of the organisation, and in some cases, the particular individuals receiving the training. The format can vary significantly, from face-to-face (one-on-one or group) or online. As far as practicable, the training should relate to the existing organisational processes and communicate the competencies required for particular activities. The training should be also designed such that existing staff understand the new processes and how they can be incorporated into existing activities.

Another important component of any training or induction process should be to receive some degree of feedback to gain an insight into the effectiveness of the training method and what the recipients have learned. This may take the format of a questionnaire or demonstration taken immediately or at some time after the training or induction has been conducted.

This information has been reproduced from the Communications Checklist with permission of Maunsell Australia Pty Ltd 2007