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Managing Change

The success of a new or an amended policy, strategy or programme will require a positive response from everyone in your organisation. You will need to drive change that everyone buys into and takes on board. But in reality staff are busy and maybe you aren't even sure they are engaged or care.

If that sounds like the sort of challenge you frequently face, then hopefully our team at WSP can help change that for you.

We are experienced in designing and implementing well defined communication programmes that drive action through behavioural change. Our team includes occupational psychologists who understand why people act the way they do. We take time to understand the different drivers for people's attitudes towards change.

This ensures our change management programmes inform people clearly, succinctly and quickly. And motivate people to respond to change and take action. Traditional communications about polar bears and doom and gloom are rarely effective. Our approach considers all of the following nine points:

1. Be positive
2. Keep issues local and personal
3. Don't just inform - encourage change of action
4. Personal criticism is a turn-off
5. Change won't be driven by over-emphasising the monetary benefit to the organisation
6. Communication is an ongoing process
7. Link the message to people's day-to-day lives
8. Fresh and innovative communications inspire action
9. Less words, more clarity

We establish a sense of positive urgency and set out clearly why change is needed. For example: "we need to drive low energy consumption into new product design because our competitors are launching a new product range in eight months." This approach helps your staff to vision what the future will be like with and without the change, how it impacts them personally and how as individuals they fit into it.

We have created strategies that work on the ground within busy companies. We know that strategy is nothing without action, and action is nothing unless it is planned, directed and implemented in an effective change management programme.