Graciousness in Corporate Change Management

Most companies know by now that when corporate or content strategic efforts fail, or fail miserably, it’s not the fault of the strategist or the strategy. It’s simply a matter of internal communication going awry.

Wait … what? Internal communication, huh?

Scratch aside the corporate veneer, and you’ll find anger, or fear. Or hate, maybe even rage. “Why doesn’t marketing ever talk to us? Huh? Don’t think we’re worthy of them? Dicks. Wait, this’ll show them.”

Problem is, this veneer is multi-layered, and each glistening layer is reflecting the light of those who try to look beneath. It takes time and effort to arrive at the core, and lasting change is only possible when starting from there.

This sounds daunting, and most of the time it is. But thankfully, the heyday of long-winded psychoanalysis are long past, and most change consultants know that that part of the core personality that matters is rather easy to reach and, given enough motivation and endurance, easy to change.

Tom Chiarella wrote a beautiful, highly compact piece on graciousness in the May issue of Esquire that is worth to be read by anyone in management, or really by anyone who is interacting with people.

You might want to read it now.

Remember that the only representation of you, no matter what your station, is you — your presentation, your demeanor.

Corporate Change Management is a strange beast; using capital-c Change makes it even more intimidating. At the core, any corporate change effort starts with a single person. Graciousness helps, and taking small steps at a time to become a better, updated version of yourself.

Lose the Corporate and the Management, and just stay with the change, because change itself is here to stay anyway.