One of our jobs in leadership is to manage and communicate the continual change in every organization. Take a moment to think about how you communicate changes. Following a few simple steps can dramatically improve how your staff responds and reduces the stress on your organization.

Changes are constant in every organization, and your team looks to you as a leader to help them understand both what is happening and what it means. When left in the dark, the natural tendency of many individuals on your team will be to ascribe their own motivation to the changes. They will be wrong, and propagate stress and problems.

Typical organization changes include new staff, departing staff, changes in title or responsibility. Larger issues such as reorganizations, layoffs and mergers also require communication. All of these changes require you pay attention to whom you are communicating and when.

I recall a situation where a new contract staff member was joining our team, and the manager asked a leader on a related team to build an on-boarding plan for him. That leader assumed most others knew the new contractor was joining. The lack of communication created confusion and stress across the organization. Some believed there was a nefarious motive for the new consultant and his work. Instead of support, the new resource immediately caused stress over his joining the organization.

I always follow the same playbook when I am communicating a message. A good example is when I am the hiring manager and I have hired a new developer on my team. My playbook includes the following steps in this order:

Individual conversations with staff who are directly affected
A group conversation with everyone who is directly affected
A written communication to everyone who is affected
An organization-wide e-mail

First, I have an individual conversation with each person in my one-on-one (or some similar setting) where I communicate the news. I tell them that I haven’t announced it publicly, and because they are affected directly I wanted to tell them personally first. I then tell them what this means for them. This is important even if (especially if) I don’t think it will change anything about their role. Finally, I ask them if they have any questions.

Second, after talking to each person individually, I address the group. Often, this group meeting is my weekly staff meeting. I will communicate the news, and let them know that I’ve shared it with some folks individually who are directly affected. I tell them what it means for the group, and I ask them if they have any questions.

Third, immediately after my group conversation I send out a written e-mail that restates the news and the impact. I will have this email written prior to the staff meeting so I can hit “send” as soon as I leave the group meeting. This email reinforces the message for those that prefer to see it in writing, or may have missed a detail in the verbal communication. The message ends with “Please come to me if you have questions or concerns.”

Finally, within a day or two I send an email to a wider audience with the change and what it means to the organization. Use your judgement for your organization whether you send this email to your entire organization, just a department, or a smaller subset of affected people. I use criteria such as how wide the impact and how large the organization to decide to whom I send this email.

In this e-mail to a larger audience, I communicate the news. I also address whatever impact it will have on those outside the group. For example, “This new person will be the point person for all operations issues and increase our capacity to respond to customers quickly." The message ends with “Please come to me if you have questions or concerns.”

At each step of this process, you are expanding the circle of people who hear the news. Each person takes time and will have questions. Starting with the staff that are most impacted with personal conversations enlists them as supporting communicators of the message. Even though I ask people to come to me with questions, invariably they first go to their colleagues and friends who they think may know more about the change. When I follow these steps, I am increasing my ability to get a consistent message to the entire organization.

You may not be able to follow this exactly. The keys that make this a successful plan are important. You communicate the same message to the same people more than once. The most affected people will get this message at least four times. You vary the communication tool between written and oral communication to cover people who learn news better either way. You invest in the relationship of the individuals on your team by starting with a personal message to each of them. With all these tactics, you improve the effectiveness of your change communication.