S5 E2: Change Management and Leadership Communication with Marjaana Toiminen of Ellun Kanat
In the world of change management, having a well-crafted narrative is essential for guiding leaders and employees through times of transition.
Marjaana Toiminen, Head of Change Management at Ellun Kanat, emphasizes the importance of a change narrative that is aligned with the leadership team and resonates with all staff members. This narrative serves as a roadmap for understanding why change is necessary, what the current situation entails, and what the vision for the future looks like. It is a tool that helps leaders communicate effectively and provide a sense of empathy and hope during turbulent times.
Change cannot be dictated from the top down; it must involve input and participation from all levels of the organization. Managers play a crucial role in facilitating this process by engaging in dialogue, answering questions, and involving staff in the planning and implementation of change initiatives. Marjaana discusses the importance of creating opportunities for staff to have a say in their work environment and influence the changes that affect them.
Key Takeaways
- Leaders must prioritize communication skills and develop a cohesive change narrative to guide their teams through change initiatives.
- Effective change management involves proactive preparation, alignment among leadership, and authentic communication that resonates with employees.
- Involving managers in the change process, fostering dialogue, and showing empathy are key elements of successful change management efforts.
- Change management requires a strong, aligned narrative that is communicated effectively across all levels of an organization.
- A good change narrative should include background information, news about current happenings, authentic empathy, and a vision for the future.
About the Guest
Marjaana Toiminen is a partner and Head of Change Management at Ellun Kanat, a full service communications agency in Helsinki, Finland. Previously she worked as a managing director in a media company for 8 years. Prior to that she was an editor-in-chief for 10 years. Marjaana's main focus is facilitating strategies and change programs for companies and the public sector. She is interested in future foresight practices, companies' ability to change and adapt towards future as well as the possibility of individuals to find their potential in the disruption of work.
About the Host
Abbie Fink is president of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. Her marketing communications background includes skills in media relations, digital communications, social media strategies, special event management, crisis communications, community relations, issues management, and marketing promotions for both the private and public sectors, including such industries as healthcare, financial services, professional services, government affairs and tribal affairs, as well as not-for-profit organizations.
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Transcript
From the Public Relations Global Network, this is PRGN Presents. I’m Adrian McIntyre.
Abbie Fink:And I’m Abbie Fink, president of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. With public relations leaders embedded into the fabric of the communities we serve, clients hire our agencies for the local knowledge, expertise and connections in markets spanning six continents across the world.
Adrian McIntyre:Our guests on this biweekly podcast series are all members of the Public Relations Global Network. They will discuss such topics as workplace culture, creative compensation and succession planning, the importance of sustainability and environmental, social and governance programs, crisis communications, and outside of the box thinking for growing your business.
Abbie Fink:For more information about PRGN and our members, please visit prgn.com. And now let’s meet our guest for this episode.
Marjaana Toiminen:Hi, I am Mariana Toiminen, head of change management services here in Helsinki, Finland, at an agency called Ellunkanat. I serve mostly CEOs and top management in change occasions. That’s what I do.
Abbie Fink:Well, I’m so excited for this conversation and I need you to explain for us a little bit about change management and what that means. And especially when you’re talking about working with CEOs and executive leadership, the concept of change is probably a very complicated and difficult one. So can you kind of give me a little bit of background on what that means exactly and the type of work that you are doing in that role as a change manager?
Marjaana Toiminen:Well, let’s start from the fact that leaders deal with constant change. It’s not one change project that starts and ends. It’s multiple change projects happening, overlapping each other, starting, ending.
Marjaana Toiminen:It’s managing all that. We help leaders to prioritize, to enhance them, to promote them, to lead them. And also we help them to follow the results, to make U-turns do something better, to just sort of, keep on track of things and to enhance their own leadership skills at the same time. And especially communication skills, because change management is mostly, not all of it, but mostly it’s about communications. Change communications is so, so relevant that we spend a lot of time with leaders in their skills, in communication skills, in change management.
Abbie Fink:Are these businesses and clients that you’re consulting with, are they... In the process of going through some major transformation or are things happening in their industry, you know, what is the driver that says we need to embrace this idea of change and ultimately then the role of communicating that, I’m assuming, to their employees and their teams, their stakeholders, their consumers. But what starts that conversation that they come to and say, we need to invest in this effort?
Marjaana Toiminen:Well, it starts from several different reasons, but usually it’s an outside driver that sort of they need to react on. Or if they’re really good, they will proact on them. They will sort of get prepared, make a plan.
Marjaana Toiminen:They use foresight to react to changes ahead that they see. So and then, you know, these times are, you know, changes happen. Companies merge company companies need to do personnel reductions quite often this year we’ve had in finland in the nordic countries in europe it’s it’s a it’s a bad bad economic situation and, tens and hundreds of companies are going through personnel reductions and those are those are situations where where a change is a negative one and it needs to be communicated clearly communicated humanely and led sort of decisively, but with a humane component into them. So that’s where we start coaching leaders how to do that.
Abbie Fink:I’m interested in what the best practices are for going through change management. The reasons for an organization to consider this type of program may be a result of something negative or adverse that’s happening, but there can be successful outcomes, even when dealing with a more challenging situation. So what are some best practices then that businesses need to consider going through something like this?
Marjaana Toiminen:Well, I think it’s really important that there is a change narrative that is sort of aligned with the whole leadership, leader staff, that all the leaders share the same narrative. And the narrative is an important element, is an important tool in, I’ll just shut my, so a change narrative is an important tool for leaders to lead the change. and elements that has to have to be in the change narrative are, say, why are we here?
Marjaana Toiminen:What is happening next? What is happening now? And then some empathy has to be shown. And then there has to be a sort of some sort of vision for the future. So those are those kind of things we coach and teach leaders to use. And that’s a really, really important practice to have a change narrative that is constantly used in the process of change. Then.
Marjaana Toiminen:It’s important for managers to realize their role in that particular change. What kind of presence is needed? What kind of support is needed? How to communicate it? So it’s important to realize that change is a constant process where you always have to be present for your staff and you always have to be available for your staff. And then it’s also a very good practice to involve the staff in the planning of implementing this change. Those are some best practices we always coach managers to use.
Adrian McIntyre:Mariana, you talk about a change narrative and for professional communicators like all of us, it’s sort of obvious that a narrative, a story is the right thing to do. Do you have to sell that idea to the C-suite or do they intuitively know that they need to create such a narrative? In other words, is there a gap between what you understand needs to happen and what they’re thinking needs to happen? And how do you close that gap?
Marjaana Toiminen:It’s usually a surprise for CSIT leaders when we come and say that what you need here is a changed narrative. And when we explain what it’s used for and what it stands for, they say, aha, I didn’t realize, but that is actually what we need. So it is a big sort of gap in the understanding of leaders. They don’t really see the role of a communicator in their leadership. They often lack that awareness.
Abbie Fink:And potentially lacking an individual internally that is leading them on that way. And I was really interested in what you said about sort of involving others in this process, that it may fall to executive leadership in the beginning to determine that a change is coming and to help start and establish that narrative. But it’s so important to bring in others along the way that are going to help, you know, share that vision, but obviously implement whatever those changes are going to to be. So at what point do you start to expand that inner circle and bring in others to be part of this change conversation?
Marjaana Toiminen:Well, as soon as possible. At first, it’s about, of course, information, but it’s also a dialogue from the beginning. It has to be a dialogue. You know, communication is never one way. It’s always a dialogue, whether you realize it or not, or whether you use it or not. You might not just neglect that it’s a dialogue. So at first, of course, it’s about questions. It’s about answering questions, discussing what does it mean for us? What do we do first? But then it’s also about implementing the things together so that people have a say in what’s going to happen to them.
Marjaana Toiminen:We often tell managers that these days people don’t commit to anything they haven’t had a say in it. So that’s the way modern life is. People need to know that they can influence in their own jobs. They can have an influence in what’s happening in their workplaces. So it’s a priority that often is neglected, I must say.
Adrian McIntyre:You’re fond of saying that communication is leadership and leadership is communication. Can you say more about that?
Marjaana Toiminen:Sure, because everything a leader does is always under a magnifying glass. It’s all the energy a leader brings into the room, all the words he or she uses, and the tone of voice, even the expressions on his face are always being very closely looked at. So everything a leader does is leadership, and mostly it’s about communication. So that’s why I think a leader, a manager has to be really aware of his or hers own communication. How is he or she doing it? How is he using it? And many, many times that awareness is lacking.
Abbie Fink:Is change management something we should be regularly discussing or change communications that we should be regularly discussing? Not necessarily because it’s something is happening, but businesses go through growth cycles. They go through changes that don’t all necessarily have to be adverse situations. So is this something that it should be a regular part of? You know, a communications effort on behalf of organizations?
Marjaana Toiminen:Well, I’d have to tell you that most companies are facing changes all the time. So for most companies, it’s a constant thing. So it’s a luxury, not having to change. And most companies don’t have that luxury. So either if it’s only the customer values or the customer habits or customer preferences are changing or the whole industry is changing or the legislation is changing.
Marjaana Toiminen:So I think it’s something that’s a luxury to be able to say that there are no changes this season, dear staff. So no change management is needed. So I don’t think there is a company, a single company in the entire world that is able to say that. The preparedness is another thing. Change management should be something that’s planned and prepared. So it cannot be all reactive. It also has to be about risk management, about making plans in the case of this and that happens.
Adrian McIntyre:When you first started introducing the topic, you were talking about the C-suite, but in the last few minutes, you’ve been referring to managers as well.
Marjaana Toiminen:Yeah.
Adrian McIntyre:That’s two different levels of communication. Clearly, speaking from the top is sort of the authoritative word coming from the company leadership. But most of the workforce has daily interactions with their peers and with their managers, with department heads. So this has to work its way down through the whole organization. How does that happen?
Marjaana Toiminen:Well... We have been having the luxury of working with CEOs of large companies that actually want to bring in dialogue on all levels. They are CEOs who sort of themselves involve themselves into dialogue with the staff. They might visit different parts of the company and, you know, have a talk here and there. They might read daily feedback from feedback channels. So it’s not that clear up and down or downwards waterfall kind of model anymore. It’s actually about being able to create pockets of dialogue here and there within teams, within departments, within leaders, within, you know, CEO and the staff. So it’s a sort of rich environment these days.
Abbie Fink:And what are some elements of a successful narrative and some things that managers should really understand about their role in communicating that narrative?
Marjaana Toiminen:Well, first, I’d have to say it’s really important to be aligned. You know, we might see companies where this manager sort of brings in his own opinions and that manager leaves out some parts of the change ahead. So the whole.
Marjaana Toiminen:Manager of sort of staff has to be aligned and the top management as well. So that’s one thing that’s important. But then when we help managers and the top management build their own narrative, we want to bring in their words and their culture.
Marjaana Toiminen:But we always advise that a good narrative has four parts, which are usually in this order. First, there’s the background. You need to fill in the question, why? Why are we in this situation? What are the steps that have led us here? And then you have to tell the news. What is happening now? What are the next steps? And then if it’s dramatic, you have to give authentic empathy. You have to show that you understand the ramification it has on people. They might be brutal.
Marjaana Toiminen:Then it’s really good to show some sort of hope for the future, even though it might be harsh, but some optimism has to be there in a good narrative. So these four parts are something we always advise that the management builds in a good narrative. But then it has to be true. It has to be sincere. And also the words have to be understood by working class people. It cannot be business jargon. It cannot be a boss talk to another boss. It has to be true, authentic, concrete, clear, understandable words. That’s how we help them because that’s often very hard.
Adrian McIntyre:Thanks for listening to this episode of PRGN Presents, brought to you by the Public Relations Global Network.
Abbie Fink:Episodes are also available on our website, along with more information about PRGN and our members, at prgn.com.
