20 Insights from the 2018 Change Communication Seminar

Our Privacy Policy has been updated! The Conference Board uses cookies to improve our website, enhance your experience, and deliver relevant messages and offers about our products. Detailed information on the use of cookies on this site is provided in our cookie policy. For more information on how The Conference Board collects and uses personal data, please visit our privacy policy. By continuing to use this Site or by clicking "OK", you acknowledge our privacy policy and consent to the use of cookies.

20 Insights from the 2018 Change Communication Seminar

January 14, 2019 | Article

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead

Change is the Only Constant: How to Communicate It and Win

In a business environment where change is a constant, companies must adopt change as an ethos in culture and strategy. That requires managing not just the financial and structural elements of change, but also the human ones, through committed leaders, strong communication that defines and explains the change, and a roadmap that allows for continued management past the change launch.

When more than 40 change experts met to discuss communicating change in business, we took notes. Here are highlights.

Change is ubiquitous but not easy. It simultaneously requires and depletes the energy of leaders, employees, and companies. Change fatigue is real.

While 96 percent of executives say their organizations are currently undergoing some form of business transformation, fewer than half of those same executives have confidence that the transformations will deliver value.1
What are we talking about when we talk about change? Practitioners attending the seminar offered these examples of current change challenges:

“My company was bought and sold twice in two years.”

“My office is going remote.”

“The Navy is transforming IT and HR systems for sm