For all of us, this is a time like we have never experienced. It is challenging, filled with worry, fear and uncertainty. All parts of our lives have been impacted – our daily routines, social life, work – everything is different. The change can feel overwhelming, and as if it’s all beyond our control.
These are unprecedented times. The rapid changes in our world are upending our norms and making us rethink how we function under new constraints. My hope is that we will come out of this pandemic with new abilities, new solutions and new ideas that make us better.
In this issue, we are featuring additional tips from communications leaders who presented at the January Huddle.
For those who missed this session, we want to share some of our favorite take-aways from the evening.
Join us Tuesday, March 10 from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Located at 1330 Lagoon Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408. Listen and interact with our expert panel from Fairview Health Services, Medtronic, Coloplast and Pivot Strategies as they talk about the connection, partnership and differences between communications and change management. Where do these roles overlap? Learn about when each is needed, how to divvy up roles and the sweet spot for working together.
What makes goals achievable? Setting small daily priorities to make progress each day. Recently, at our very first Huddle, we discussed setting and protecting priorities. One of our panelists, Beth McGuire, vice president of provider marketing and communications at United Healthcare, provided some incredible insights on how she sets well-rounded priorities.
Training can be one of those overlooked parts of a project. But, if the project requires people to do their job differently in order to capture the value, then it is an essential part of your project. Training helps foster the change and allows users to strengthen their skills to succeed in their role.
In January, Pivot Strategies had the privilege of hosting our first Huddle. The Huddle is an opportunity for Internal Communications practitioners to come together to share best practices and network.
As a consultant, I’ve been asked to share tips from working with our various clients. What has worked well or what are the challenges? I often find that the challenges are the same and so I thought – what if we all got together and started to share, discuss and grow together? What if there was a place for corporate communicators to connect with each other, to share their strategies for creating magic or mitigating crises?
These conversations have inspired us to start The Huddle – a unique venue for corporate communicators to gather and discuss the questions and challenges that are keeping us up at night. We will bring together curated topics and speakers that will help us all feel re-ignited with new ideas to put into practice.
Generation Z and Generation Alpha (the children of Millennials) are poised to make the biggest impact on your organization’s future. Are you prepared to meet the communications needs of these next generations?
Clear, consistent messaging and effective organizational change management are integral to the success of any large-scale transformation.
With the majority of the world’s largest public companies, the Forbes Global 2000, using SAP in some capacity, organizational change leaders have likely fostered groups throughout an implementation. Companies may be centralizing their finance department, improving supply chain productivity, or SAP may be the system of choice as part of a merger or acquisition. There are many SAP applications, and the solution can be highly complex.
With any enterprise-wide change effort, it can be challenging to share a consistent message with all global stakeholders. As change managers know well, engaging leaders, facilitating site-level communications and engaging employees throughout the project are critical to its success.
