Health care reform through the lens of Change Communication

Many of us who are graduates of the communication field can look back upon those college days when we were taught the many different theories in communication, be it interpersonal or organizational, and back then we wondered, “Do we really have to know all this theory stuff?” I can remember sitting in a class one day during the introductory class titled “Strategic Communication Theory” and as I listened to the professor, everything seemed puzzling and it seemed the world was just one orderly place until language was invented and things became chaotic. The chaos developed further as civilizations developed, cultures emerged and each saw, described and interpreted the world and human behavior through their own terministic screens. Hence today, communication is no small feat and today, as I look back to those graduate classes, I now value the theories I learned because now they make all the sense in helping me to organize and understand human communication and more so to drive effective communication.

So how does all this apply to Change Communication, you may ask? Look around you and examine all the instances where you were involved in or simply observed communications on change? How many times was the desired outcome achieved in a clear, coherent and inclusive manner? How many times did a stakeholder or an impacted group be brought into the communication loop too late or too early or did some group fall totally out of the process? How many times were there opposing views and misinterpretations or just simply bad explanations? These have happened time and time again because planning and understanding are two key elements of the communication process. Having a background in communication theory and putting the respective theory into practice is what can help us communicators to be successful and always vigilant in covering all the bases.

Driving change means understanding what you want to change and why you want that change; who gets affected and what will that affected group have to change or adapt. Has the affected group been engaged in conversations for their feedback and input? What is the breath and depth of the change and who are all the key stakeholders. Do these stakeholders change along the communication process and do we have a stakeholder map that guides us – that plan that we should have at the beginning of the process?

A great example of change communication failure and one that we can all identify with or at least know about is the current health care reform. Applying all the above questions to this situation, I am sure you can see the problem. So the president proposes health care reform and the public agrees that the health care system needs improving. That’s all good. But did that give the president and his policy makers the green light to simply go ahead, decide what the best solution is, write it up in a volume of more than a thousand pages and then they all take turn at trying to communicate what they have proposed? No wonder the outrage of the affected group is so dominant. The affected group cannot clearly or concisely tell what the proposed reform really is. There are distorted messages from different angles, and the affected group (the population) now feels that their health care is threatened. This is just one good reason why change communication is a delicate matter that needs its experts to guide it. How we drive change and how we communicate it go hand in hand, and first we must seek to understand the problem, its pros and cons, who are the affected parties, who are the major stakeholders and how would change be perceived at all levels. Engagement of stakeholders and affected groups are key. Most of all we must determine whether we are conducting a transformational or a radical change – which best fits the situation.

Stepping back to my opening on theories, if the Obama administration had any really good communication strategists and policy change specialists who understood the theories And dynamics of communication, perhaps they would have handled the whole health care reform differently and perhaps they would have taken a more transformational rather than a radical, time pressed approach; and not with the thinking that they can write the edict of health care reform in their high chambers and then announce it to the poor peasants who will be ever so grateful!!

Hurray to the population for standing up and seeking to understand what exactly it is they are being told and how exactly all of this will be sustained. Let the debate continue for this issue is not a one sided rhetoric; the affected group needs to be heard as well.

Unfolding before us in all these debates are the empty, non-directional government rhetoric and misunderstanding of the complex health care issue that the government pretends can be solved rather easily with a plan that did not involve perhaps some of the key stakeholders! Health care reform on such a grand scale, unless this is a dictatorship, cannot be radical and simply handed down. Like communication, change is also a two way conduit.

Establishing A New Communications Role

So you have been given the opportunity to establish a new role as a Communications Manager for part of a large organization – how do you begin?

Of course you take a look at the job description and you have many conversations with your manager and other senior leaders to understand what are their objectives and the expectations for your role. But as the days go by, you find that what really gives you the best window into your new world is getting a good understanding of the organization, it’s goals, people, culture and past attempts at communications. And how do you begin to do that?

I have been there – it is fascinating, energizing and most importantly it gave me the chance to breathe new life – to bring that breath of fresh air, to excite leaders on how to make everyone be part of what is happening. To make everyone understand that communications play a key role in building success and organizational culture.

On day one, I felt like an artist sitting in front of a large blank canvass with my palette of colors and brush in hand. What do I paint and what do I want my final painting to look like?

So I began talking with everyone around me to get a sense of how I could support their projects and each one had his own idea of what the communications role should be so that did not make my job any easier. There was a mix of marketing and organizational needs, it seemed. Further there was nothing to benchmark against since the position was now being established. As the days went by, the only thing I knew is that I wanted to make this my own. I wanted to maneuver my ship safely over the high and unpredictable seas! I was going to create that benchmark for which all future incumbents will be measured against. That was itself exciting enough to drive my passion for the job.

As a child, I hugged story books and my parents gave me them by the dozens. In high school I began writing poetry. In college I wrote short stories. My first job was in radio where I worked with clients to schedule air time. I sat in the console room with the technical operators; I recorded some of my stories for broadcast and I even played the main character in one of my stories! During graduate school, I was always excited to write and research on organizational communication. I was captivated by the many facets of human behavior seen in multicultural and gendered communications. Ultimately, my passion has always been and will always be communications.

So with this reflection, I knew that establishing and proving the worth of communications could not be such a hard task. With time I became the “go-to person” for the organization. I was the conduit between corporate and affiliates; I counseled the supporting business partners and I took incentive programs to a whole new level.

When it was time to shift the mindset and operational paradigm of the business, I was behind the branding and cascading of the new vision. I worked passionately with the executive leaders to create a brand, run the campaign and build materials that not only drove home the new messages and direction of the business, but everyone got involved. With one simple logo and consistency across all messages, employees were engaged. Everyone was excited about the new momentum. Everyone – from top to the guy in the plant could eloquently speak of the business objective in five words – yes that was the elevator pitch and it was what the logo expressed symbolically.

When people are excited and feel part of the business, and when messages are coined for every level to easily understand and relate to, there could be nothing more satisfying than success and return on investment. This is the value-added component of having a communications role.

Ultimately, it was neither the job description nor the expectations of my business associates that justified the communications role - it was the many ways I worked communications into supporting the business. The results were tangible and measurable.

So today, four years later, I can see what I started to paint on that blank canvass! And I will paint many more whenever I have that chance.

Introduction

This first post is to introduce myself very briefly while I work on my first official post. I have been in the field of communication for many years now and my passion for this area has only grown stronger. I started working in radio many years ago when I graduated high school, back in Georgetown, Guyana. Then, I was also a young writer of poetry and short stories - so what I do today has really always been what I would have wanted to do!

I graduated from the University of Guyana then migrated to Venezuela and eventually to the United States where I obtained my Masters Degree in Strategic Communication from Villanova University.

Communication is no easy task - it's not just about words and people - it is so much more... the spectrum of communication is broad and each one, be it interpersonal or organizational, is pivotal for success, harmony and the advancement of our world.

Presently, I work as a Communications Consultant in a large pharmaceutical company and I love writing on the subject!