What’s the connection between Change Management and PR and communication and what challenges does it bring to PR Directors and Managers and those who specialise in corporate public relations?

That’s what I wanted more insight into when I took myself off to a one day forum in Sydney this week (May 25) called ‘Change Management – achieving organisational development during times of transition’, run by Ark Group.

I’ve had quite a bit of exposure to corporate PR and communications around change in organisations and as this has involved working cooperatively with HR and various operational people, who invariably have ‘ownership’ of the project, I wanted to understand better their perspective.

In particular I wanted to see how where they saw the fit with PR and communication.  I also wanted to better appreciate their motivations and understand the issues and challenges they faced.  And, because I am sometimes called in by PR Directors and Managers, to provide an external perspective (and an additional pair of hands!) when a large project involving change is happening, I wantged to better understand the internal dynamics bvetwen Change Managers, HR Managers and internal PR and communication professionals.

Why? Because, in my experience during the corporate PR and communication to stakeholders and audiences that I’ve done – around mergers and acquisitions, factory closures, introduction of new systems, processes and technology, and redundancies (to name a few)– too often communications is seen simply as the delivery mechanism.

In fact, often there are flaws – or gaps- in the communication strategy around change and its impact on stakeholders and audiences – both internal and external. Usually these would have been overcome simply by including the PR or communications professional in the early stages of the project.

But I was pleasantly surprised – and reassured – that the Change Management experts are well aware – sometimes as result of bitter experience – not only of the role of PR and communication, but how critical it can often be to the success of any change management program.

In theory at least there seemed to be a realisation from those who presented that communication was an integral part of the process. And in setting up Steering Committees or Project teams the need for a PR or communications representative was recognised – and valued!

Good practical working examples of Change Management programs at the forum included ING  (soon to change its name) introducing new work practices for its front line telephone staff, Fonterra Australia introducing a new SAP system across four separate business units in two countries, Medibank Australia changing its whole modus operandi and eBay managing its business through the GFC.

One piece of interesting research which showed why communication must be geographically audience centric came from Rich Atkinson, eBay Human Resources Director for Australia and New Zealand.

Rich produced research from Kouzes Posner (The Leadership Challenge 2002) which showed that Australians expected/valued honesty (93%) rather than inspiration (73%) from their organisation and their leaders. Contrast that with Singaporeans who expected/valued inspiration (94%) over honesty  (65%). That says something about different cultural values!

As well the Fonterra example showed very different attitudes between Australians and New Zealanders!

Bridget Sebire, Communication and Change Management Consultant at Mercer, produced research to demonstrate the critical role communication plays during major change.

This showed that 87% of employees felt a strong sense of commitment to their organisation when senior management took the time to explain the reasons behind change. That fell to 41% when management failed to give an explanation.

And my overall take from the forum?

That organisational development, culture, Change Management and communication are all intertwined. Like a good potpourri  the amount of each ingredient depends very much on the type of organisation and the nature of the change that is taking place.

Also that the role of communication, and the contribution PR and communications professionals, whether internal or external, is well respected and valued.

WIth these fresh insights, and a better appreciation of the whole Change Management process, I’m looking forward to my next Change Management consulting assignment!

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The two-day forum ‘Strategic Communication for Professional Services’ that I attended in Sydney this week (May 19/20) provided a lot of food for thought for those PR Directors and Managers who could afford the time to get there.  Above all it showed that this specialised area of PR and corporate communication, long regarded as not that interesting, is growing in its sophistication.

Run by Ark Group the forum had a dozen formal presentations from leading professional service firms and groups such as Allens Arthur Robinson, Deloitte, CPA Australia, Maddocks, Mercer, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Henry Davis York.

As well there were fascinating insights into how other professional service firms are handling their corporate PR and communications with two firms – Woods Bagot a global architectural firm based out of Adelaide and Cardno a Brisbane-based firm with 100 offices worldwide delivering a diverse range of infrastructure services – giving excellent case studies as to how they re-organised (and re-energised!) their internal communications.

I took three major themes from the forum:

1. PR and communication, while growing as a management or corporate support function within professional service firms, is still struggling to the recognition it deserves for the contribution its makes to the businesses.

2. A big focus for the PR and communication expert inside professional service firms is still internal communications. It’s the foundation from which everything else flows. It’s a ‘must get right’ proposition.

3. Professional service firms are more progressive in their adoption of new media channels that many might think. Some are doing some innovative work in the use of technology and social media channels to communicate both internally and externally.

On the social media front it was clear from Louise Denver, Director Corporate Affairs and Communciation at Deloitte that this firm is pushing the social media boundaries as far, if not further, than most in the professional service firms in Australia.

Importantly they are using social media as much for listening as for communicating!

Katie Reid, National Communications Manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers, as part of her presentation gave her guidelines for getting buy-in for PR and communication projects.

Her fundamentals to influencing partners were:
1) Don’t forget the numbers
2) Acknowledge the true issues
3) Include input from other leaders
4) Demonstrate understanding of the market
5) Always align with the firm’s strategy
6) Provide a practical solution 

Not surprisingly considerable insight was given to how some of Australia’s largest professional service firms coped through the GFC and how they handled their corporate PR and communication during those challenging times.

So what was the most courageous PR or communication effort that came out during the two days?

It went to Deloitte. They ran an online internal program encouraging their 4000+ Australian staff to tell management “the dumbest things we do”. Run over just two weeks it resulted in 390 blogs, 500 comments and over 41,000 hits.  And contrary to initial management fears of its being seen as negative because of the way it was handled it ended up being positive. Most importantly it led to some real streamlining of systems and procedures and better client service.

PricewaterhouseCoopers also deserve credit for producing an Annual Review that is more outward looking and transparent than many would expect from the country’s largest accounting firm. It even goes so far as to publish internal PWC employee morale statistics for the world to see!

What I found really interesting was the really great stuff being done by these professionals in internal communications. That’s not my area of expertise . I’m strictly an external communicator, so it was enlightening to see the other side of the fence.

As I said in previous blog those who work in PR and communication within this sector have a tough job. But if the Ark Group conference did anything it surely gave those present confidence that the corporate PR and communications function within Australian professional service firms is coming of age. The challenge for those working within it is to promote themselves, and their work, a little better to their bosses!

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