Stop Changing Your Story During Organizational Change

One of the mistakes I see nonprofit leadership teams making during times of ongoing change is developing new “messaging” when new concerns arise.

Change can be confusing. People will have questions.

Resistance, concerns, frustrations – they’re all a normal part of the process of saying goodbye to an old way of working and embracing something new.

In an effort to be responsive, leaders can think they need to create new messaging or change what they’ve been saying to better address these concerns.

But when you change your story each time team members push back – creating new messaging, offering different reasoning, etc. – you’re making it harder to make sense of what’s happening.

This can erode trust and confidence in the leadership team, and in the larger change you’re trying to bring about.

There is always room for meaningful discussions and answering questions, but providing clarity doesn’t mean flipping the script.

If you’ve already defined and shared:
→ The purpose of the change – why it’s happening and what it’s trying to accomplish
→ A picture of what it will look – and feel – like when the change has taken hold
→ The plan for how the organization will get there, and
→ The part each person will play in the change

Then your team doesn’t need a new story – what they need is reinforcement, reassurance, and a few more details based on the stage of the plan you’re in.

The next time someone on your leadership team introduces “new messaging” as a solve for the change resistance you’re observing, remember:

The story is the same, you’re just in a different chapter now.