REVISTA DIRECCIÓN DE PROYECTOS Revista Programa Congreso 2018_V4 | Page 4

What must we do to bring about a Change initiative as
smoothly as possible? Communicate! Communicate!
Communicate! How much, and for how long do we do
this? Until we get sick and tired of the sound of our own
voice – then we take a deep breath and a drink of water
and we start all over again. Communication isn’t
something that stops and starts; it’s a constant activity
before, during and after any Change initiative.
This isn’t exactly news. We sort of get this. I can ask any
audience in the world to tell me the ‘secret’ to good
Change and they repeat back “Communicate,
Communicate and Communicate some more!” as if it’s
been forcefully injected into their cerebellum. The
problem arises when the questioning becomes a bit
more detailed, “What exactly should we communicate?”
The response to that question is usually either a blank
stare or the reasonable recitation of the reporter’s
standby; Who, What, Where, When, How and Why. Not
a bad start. If we’re writing a news article, then these are
good solid questions. The Change Management problem
requires all of those, and a few others besides. It’s not
that the reporter’s questions are a poor tool; it’s just
that they don’t address the peculiar psychology of the
Change challenge.
When faced with Change – here are the questions that
demand answers:
1. WHY? – Why is this particular Change necessary
now?
2. WIIFM? (What’s in it for me) – If we don’t address
this? They’ll listen to nothing else.
3. MONDAY? – What exactly will we be doing
differently tomorrow?
4. WON’T? – What won’t Change?
5. MIGHT? – What might go wrong, and what are
our plans to mitigate that?
6. WILL? – What will be difficult and what will we do
to make that easier?
7. SIGNPOSTS? – How will we know we’re making
progress?