A CTA is always better than an FYI

​Hey Reader,​

If you lead change, design change strategies, or communicate change, there’s a good chance you’ve had the experience I heard a leader talk about on a panel a few weeks ago.

Their company had just launched a major new initiative. Their executive leadership team had been working on it behind the scenes for months.

Before they were ready to talk about it externally in the press and on social, they knew they had to share the news with their employees. They crafted the perfect announcement and sent it out to everyone at the organization. Then they met with the wider senior leadership team to dig into details and answer any questions.

The main vibe: the senior leaders thought this new change sounded interesting, but they didn’t really understand it.

The executive leaders figured that if the senior leadership team didn't get it, the more general employee population wouldn't either, so they sent another email to all of the employees.

The main piece of feedback they heard?

People still didn't understand what the new initiative was, why it was happening, or what they were supposed to do about it.

How was that possible? The executive team had described the new initiative perfectly. They had even attached a detailed FAQ explaining exactly what was happening and why.

The initiative was so necessary. The need was so obvious. How was it possible that people didn’t understand what this new change even was?

The leader on the panel went on to explain everything they did next: two-way feedback to understand why people didn’t get it, audience segmentation to create more targeted messaging, storytelling, and more.

Those are all good tactics, but when I hear a leader say that their initiative or change is incredible but that their people immediately don’t understand it, it’s a red flag.

The clients I work with typically don’t have this problem because of the way we design our change strategies from the very start, but if it does happen, before we dive into tactics to do next, it's best to understand what went wrong first.

Mainly: If you shared something new or different with people, what did you want them to do?

Have you ever received an announcement, gotten to the end, and thought…okay…and...what?

That’s what happens when you get FYI communication.

We’re so happy to finally announce... or, just wanted to give you an update about…

Typically, this FYI communication doesn't land the way executives hope because it's not asking the audience to do anything.

But Caitlin, what if there isn't anything for the audience to do yet – we just need them to know what's going on?

Why do you need them to know what's going on?

Well, they know something is going on, so there have been questions, whisperings, and rumors. Or, we want to put out a press release, but we know the employees should know first. Or, we are going to ask them to do something big soon, so we need to give them a heads up now.

None of these are good reasons to communicate change to stakeholders. In each case, there are actually plenty of things your audience can do.

Things that will give them agency and autonomy and help them start to transition along their change journey to ownership.

Restructuring a team? Ask folks to ensure their SOPs are up to date to ensure a smoother transition.

Launching something? Provide a library of copy folks can use to do their own social posts about it to amplify the message.

Using a new tech platform? Provide the onboarding videos the platform has in its own library so that folks can get familiar with it before the company training begins.

In the very first announcement?

Yes, in the very first announcement.

People can't (or won't) get excited about, champion, pay attention to, react to, or take initiative on a change unless there is momentum; if you're entering someone's headspace, there had better be a reason, and the reason is to give them agency.

Bottom line: If there’s no CTA, don’t hit send.

Here's to action,

Caitlin Harper
​Founder, Commcoterie

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