By Lucy Hornsby
December 3, 2025
When initiating change and transformation initiatives, it is common to jump straight into discussing technology, specific frameworks, or streamlined processes. While these elements are crucial, they bypass the central question: How are you actually going to ensure this change lands? How will you make certain people know what is happening?
Change, by its inherent nature, is disruptive. Even when the initiative is a positive step forward, it breeds uncertainty. Employees will naturally ask, ‘What does this mean for me?’, or ‘How will it affect my team, my role, or my future?’ If these questions are left unanswered, the result will be silence, confusion, or outright resistance. The pathway to building momentum and trust, conversely, is answering those questions with unwavering clarity and honesty.
Why Communication is the Engine of Change
Effective communication is the engine that drives every successful transformation. It shapes how people understand change, how quickly they adopt it, and how confident they feel along the journey. When leaders communicate with clarity and purpose, they minimize uncertainty, create alignment, and strengthen trust across the organization. Strong communications create powerful organizational outcomes:
- It builds trust: Employees require openness, even if not every single answer is available on day one. Doubt is fostered by silence, whereas confidence is created by clear messaging.
- It actively reduces resistance: People are far more likely to embrace a change when they understand the fundamental ‘why’ behind it.
- It ensures alignment: By keeping the entire organization informed and moving in the same direction, communication prevents the distribution of mixed messages.
- It drives vital engagement: When individuals feel included in the process, they become motivated to contribute their best.
The Hallmarks of Effective Change Communication
Effective communication is not defined by overly designed slide decks or the shine of glossy emails. Instead, it must be human, consistent, and intentional, a requirement that is even more acute in a world powered by AI.
- Clarity over jargon: Keep your message simple. Avoid buzzwords and unnecessary complexity. Say exactly what you mean, plainly.
- Consistency is paramount: A single announcement is never enough. People must hear the core message multiple times and delivered in different ways—there is a sound reason for the marketing ‘rule of 7’.
- A true two-way conversation: Communication involves more than just telling people what to do. It requires active listening and creating necessary space for questions and dialogue.
- Tailored messaging: Not every audience needs identical information. The concerns and questions of a frontline employee will differ significantly from those of a senior leader, requiring messages to be adapted.
Concrete Actions You Can Implement Now
To ensure your communications resonate and stick, there are immediate steps you should take:
- Review your current landscape: Identify precisely where the gaps are in your existing communications and determine which key questions people are consistently asking.
- Develop integrated plans: Your communication plan must always be created and run in tandem with your main change plan.
- Strategically select the messenger: The person who delivers the message matters. Sometimes, the most trusted individual is not the CEO, but the employee’s direct line manager.
- Verify understanding: Never assume the message was received and understood. Actively check and test for comprehension.
It’s About People
Change and transformation are about much more than just strategy. They are fundamentally about people. People rely on effective communication to successfully navigate uncertainty, connect with the overall vision, and feel truly included in the journey ahead. When you successfully deploy the right communication strategy, change stops feeling like something being done to people, and starts feeling like something they are part of.
If you are leading a change program and require communications that genuinely land, build crucial engagement, and cut through the organizational noise, I am available to work freelance with organizations to design and deliver those results.
Lucy Hornsby
Lucy Hornsby leans into the future of work, positioning herself with a diverse portfolio career across the theme of Change and Transformation. She is a consultant, qualified coach, mentor, author as well as an experienced trainer and public speaker — providing guidance and skills for groups and individuals on subjects that include (but not limited to) change management, career development and personal &/ business transformation. Lucy’s passion and purpose in life is to help other people to reimagine their possibilities.
Connect with Lucy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucyhornsby/
