In every organisation, change is the only constant.

Examples of major positive changes include mergers and acquisitions or even launching a new product line.

And then there are negative changes such as redundancies, factory closures, discontinuing product lines, and more. If you are a leader managing these changes, you need to keep in mind five communications essentials.

One mistake some leadership team make is to leave your communications planning to the last minute. Sometime you're so busy working on the operational details that sometimes you put off developing your communications to the very last minute.

Ideally, you should bring your communications advisor into the planning at the start and develop your communications as you plan along the way. And, as you do so, there are five essential communications tips to remember as you do so.

The first essential to get right is to determine the important audiences you need to communicate the change.

Staff is also your most important audience. And you might have clients, you might have suppliers, and sometimes the change you’re announcing is a large enough change that it will affect your community or the public. So be thinking about who are your audiences that need to know about this change happening.

Once you determine your audiences, you've got to think about the timing of the first announcement.

There’s likely to be a certain date when you decide to announce the change. Who needs to hear first and second? Who do you want to hear directly from you? Who needs to get a phone call before seeing the news in the media? Get your timing right.

A third communications essential to get right is to be thinking about the public nature of what you're announcing. Is the media going to be interested in the change? Will people be talking about it on social media? If that’s the case, then you need to get ahead of the public chatter and you need to be thinking about how you're going to handle those public conversations.

The fourth essential to think about is: what are you going to say? Get your inner team around the table and really workshop your key messages to get them just right. Make sure your messages are accurate, they are simple and transparent and most importantly that they are truthful.

And finally, determine who's going to deliver that news? Normally you have a company spokesperson for announcing a big change. But remember just because it's just that one person being the official spokesperson, there are still many others – such as your executive team and board – who also need to be fully informed ahead of the announcement. They need to know what the key messages are because they will likely be asked a question or two from others at some point. So, make sure everybody's in the loop and the person that's delivering the message is really well prepared.

If you've got a change coming up in your organisation and need help with a communications plan, the HMC is happy to help.  Simply reach out: info@wearehmc.co.nz .