This post was first published in 2020 and has been updated in July 2025 with fresh content and the latest information.
Let’s face it—leading right now is harder than ever. It’s not just shifting business priorities; it’s navigating constant uncertainty, external pressures, on top of bracing for a new wave of technological disruption.
How we work, connect, and communicate is shifting.
It won’t come as a surprise, but humans don’t like change very much, even when it’s planned. Emotions are a big part of change; there may be confusion, an inability to focus, fear, or even excitement. The point is, as people look for ways to cope with large unexpected change, organizations find themselves at odds with the very people they depend on to adapt to change and push forward.
What Managers Might Observe
Three common “symptoms” or behaviors managers might observe during times of heightened uncertainty:
- Increased anxiety: Employees might be asking a lot more questions about the future of their role and seeking greater reassurance.
- Decision paralysis: Unable to rely on past patterns, employees might be hesitant to take proactive action or choose a path.
- Resistance to change or innovation: Increasingly reactive and craving stability, employees may present greater skepticism or pushback to even the smallest of changes.
Two Frameworks to Help Make Sense of Change
In times like these, clarity and steadiness are everything. The call to action for leaders today is to become a source of stability for their people. To do this successfully, leaders must 1) make sense of the change and understand its impact on the organization, 2) re-contextualize and reframe the change for the organization and its people, and 3) then communicate a path to steady or rebalance the organization with clarity.
Just like any living organism, organizations are complex and dynamic systems that need to be maintained, nurtured, and balanced, when there’s a shift in balance, there is disruption that echoes throughout the system. The THRiVE Model and the Eight Dimensions of Org are two frameworks that help leaders identify and articulate when any one component in the organization is thrown off balance and therefore warrants attention.
There are times when organizations might intentionally focus on certain dimensions of the organization to promote or sustain growth, and others when they shift to protect and stabilize the organization. To steady the ship, leaders can use these assessments to draw insights and build an action plan that will fortify and rebalance key areas that will be most impacted by change.
Two Frameworks to Reframe the Situation
Once you’ve identified where to focus attention, it’s equally important to reframe and communicate the new direction to your team. Use a proactive solution development process called rapid reframing to define key messages, and then organize by communication channels and audience.
With this process, you pull apart challenges by audience and put them back together in a communications plan that can be quickly understood and deployed by key leadership. How does this work?
Let’s assume for now that you have developed or are already developing an organizational strategy for this challenging time. Questions from your various audiences can probably be boiled down into four categories:
- Psychological well-being
- Organizational direction (strategy, mission, vision)
- Organizational structure and process
- Communication
Rapid Reframing
What are people hearing? You’ll first want to identify what people are hearing and who is saying or feeling it. After collecting inputs, you’ll theme and start brainstorming ideas for how to respond.
What do people need to hear? Boil the situation down to a current state and an ideal future state. For example, employees and clients want to move from anxiety (current state) to security (future state). Then put yourself in their shoes. What would you want to hear and have to feel more secure?
Who can help? Next, determine who can help with communications. Communication rarely comes from one person or channel or just once. You’ll need help carrying a message and doing it consistently. Executive leaders need to relay messages, for example, but people managers also need to know how to talk to their teams. Other staff might also be able to help communicate a message out to clients and customers.
How should you say it? In a situation such as we’re in today, clear, consistent, timely, and succinct messaging works best. Messaging should consider tone, messenger, as well as what the audience needs to hear, both factually and psychologically, to trust you—because this is now about trust. Your communicator may want to convey that the organization is solid, what you’re doing to be proactive, how people can help, and share that you’re all in this together.
Where should you say it? You’ll want to identify your communication approach or vehicle—perhaps an FAQ document or a CEO memo—for both internal and external audiences. You’ll also want to select communications channels for updates.
- Pro Tip: During a crisis or period of rapid change, narrow communication channels down so people know exactly where to go for the latest information.
Next summarize the information you’ve gathered and decisions you’ve made in a communications plan. The Rapid Reframing Communications tool, organizes key messages and communication channels by audience. Keep in mind that messages vary from audience to audience. Although internal messages can often be shared across multiple internal audiences, external messages are generally different.
- Pro tip: While you do not need to completely change your message for each audience, you might need to change the “flavor” or the tone of the communication.
For example, a virtual lunch and learn or the intranet might be where employees can go for the latest information. An FAQ or a CEO talk might be best for people managers, who need answers to their questions and also need to be equipped to speak to their teams. Remember that it’s important to keep messages aligned and not developed in separate vacuums. To achieve synergy between messages, you’ll want consistency between what your internal communications team, media relations, and sales and marketing teams communicate.
- Pro tip: “Synthesis down to clarity,” or pruning out non-essentials, is particularly important in developing effective messaging in times of crisis and fast-moving change.
Additional Tips
During times of rapid change, consider holding regular daily reviews to assimilate new information into your messaging. For larger organizations, be sure to involve people managers in deciding how to frame the messages they will need to share with staff. They need direction and can offer insights on how best to communicate with their staff.
Keep in mind that there’s a difference between creating a strategy and communicating a strategy. If your organization is going through a crisis, people want to know very quickly (within a week or less) that you’re addressing it and what’s going to change moving forward.
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To learn more on this topic, we invite you to view our Responding Effectively to Rapid (and Unexpected) Change webinar.
As always, if you have questions or comments, please reach out to XPLANE.
