The Problem With Change Communication
This is the first article in a series exploring change management through a behavioral science lens using ADKAR as a framework.
One of the first goals of any change initiative is creating awareness. Most organizations respond by creating more communication. They send emails, hold town halls, create presentations, and share project updates.
Communication is important, but awareness is about more than delivering information.
People are constantly surrounded by competing priorities, deadlines, meetings, customer requests, and existing ways of working. Every day, these signals compete for attention.
Behavioral scientists refer to this as stimulus control.
While the term sounds technical, the idea is simple: the environment influences what people pay attention to and how they respond. Who delivers a message, where it's delivered, and how it's delivered can be just as important as the message itself.
A request from a manager often gets more attention than a project email. A discussion during a team meeting may have more impact than a newsletter. A demonstration can be more memorable than a slide deck.
That’s why awareness isn't just about what you communicate. It's also about who communicates it, where it's communicated, and how it's experienced.
A Common Mistake
I recently worked on a project where a bank was moving technology lifecycle management activities from spreadsheets into ServiceNow. Like many organizations, the initial assumption was that success would depend on making sure employees received enough information about the change.
Before developing a communication strategy, we did a series of change readiness workshops with different stakeholder groups. Participants responded to questions related to awareness, sponsorship, knowledge, resistance, and other factors that could affect adoption. We then analyzed the results to identify the greatest risks and understand what was driving them.
Only 43% of employees understood why now was the right time to move from spreadsheets to ServiceNow. And only 38% agreed they understood how the work they completed in spreadsheets today would be handled in the new system.
When we looked deeper into the results, we saw a pattern. Project updates were primarily being shared through email, but employees were turning to their managers with questions about the change. Managers reported feeling unprepared to answer those questions or explain how the change would affect day-to-day work.
Taken together, the results pointed to a gap between how information was being delivered and how employees were actually looking for it.
More Than a Message
From a behavioral science perspective, this is one example of stimulus control. Employees were receiving project communications, but their managers had a greater influence on how they interpreted and understood the change. So, instead of creating one communication plan for everyone, we focused on getting the right information to the right people through the people they were already turning to for answers.
Employees received demonstrations, process walkthroughs, and examples showing exactly how their work would be completed in ServiceNow. Rather than relying solely on project updates, we delivered most of this information through manager-led discussions and interactive sessions where employees could ask questions and see the future process in action.
Managers received talking points, FAQs, and discussion guides so they could confidently answer questions and reinforce key messages with their teams.
In other words, we didn't just tailor the message. We tailored who delivered it and how it was delivered.
What Really Creates Awareness?
Awareness isn't just about sending information. It's about intentionally designing how employees encounter it. The people, channels, and experiences surrounding a message influence whether it captures attention and how it's interpreted.
So, before you create another communication plan, consider this:
Are you communicating in the way employees are most likely to learn, or simply in the way that's easiest for you to communicate?