Smooth transitions: when you're communicating organizational changes, job No. 1 is allaying employees' fears.

Your manager may be asking you to change, but it's not because he wants you to, it's because the customer demands it. Change is "rooted in the marketplace," explains Roger D'Aprix in his book "Communicating for Change: Connecting the Workplace with the Marketplace." According to D'Aprix, "If the customer insists on change, we have no alternative. To ignore the customer's demands is to make the business irrelevant and eventually insolvent."

When the market dictates that a company or organization must change, it's up to the leadership to create and communicate a vision of what the organization will be like after the process is complete. Maybe it's a bigger company, or perhaps a much smaller organization. No matter what shape the transformation will take, communicators play a critical role in helping leaders convey the change to employees, says Angelo Iofredda, a communication consultant in northern Virginia who served as director of internal communication for AOL when it acquired Time Warner.

Before a communicator can step in and create a plan, management first needs to determine what is changing in the marketplace and how the company will respond.

"The first step toward change is awareness," says Nathaniel Branden, psychologist and author of "The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem." The second step, he says, is acceptance. But the most important step is communication.

COMMUNICATING CHANGE

All leaders and communicators are challenged when it comes to crafting and conveying a message explaining organizational changes. What should be said, how should it be stated and when should it be shared?

For the most part, says PR practitioner Rica Guarnieri, in times of turmoil, management wants to clam up and communicate less. "Management says, 'We don't want to start a panic.' Then they seem shocked that there are rumors floating around the office about more layoffs, pending closure, Chapter 11 filings or alien sightings." Leadership can make a difference by remaining visible, she adds. "You need more meetings, not fewer. Be visible, because actions speak louder than words."

In her 11 years of working with government and corporate agencies and not-for-profit organizations, Guarnieri has seen leaders demonstrate their skills during times of change. "It's easy to lead when times are good. Some leaders are meant for transition. But you can really tell a leader when times are bad--that's when they have a clear vision. They communicate to their people and aren't afraid to face the staff that depends on them," she says.

Richmond, Va.-based consultant Robert Holland, ABC, says companies should facilitate a free flow of ideas.

"To make your communication truly two-way and symmetrical (as most excellent organizations do), find opportunities for employees to initiate communication about this change. This is where your use of the [company] intranet or face-to-face communication can come into play. Perhaps a special page on your intranet site could include an interactive forum, message board or electronic suggestion box to keep the dialogue going. I've found that giving audiences the opportunity to initiate communication not only allows you to capture their ideas, but also gives the audience a place to vent or blow off steam if necessary," he says.

"Resistance to change is greater when people don't feel they've been given an opportunity to be heard," Holland continues. "It's OK and natural for people to resist and feel conflicted about change. If they don't have a sanctioned outlet for those emotions, they'll find less productive ways to express them."

EDUCATING EMPLOYEES

Employees are concerned about change, to be sure. When staff hear about the need for change, they wonder what it means for them personally--how it will affect their job, work place, hours, job description or paycheck.

Many employees fight change with cynicism, others with ambivalence. Some will do all they can to thwart change and preserve the status quo, if only until they can execute an exit strategy. Some, sadly, cannot change. They are too entrenched in doing things the old way.

"A very slight change of our habits is sufficient to destroy our sense of our daily reality and the reality of the world around us," wrote George Moore (1852-1933), an Irish author, poet and dramatist.

But on the whole, people are smart. Employees are bright and dedicated to the customer. If they are aware of how the customer's needs are changing, and understand the implications of the changes that affect the customer, then they can see how the organization of which they are a part needs to adapt to meet the changing or growing needs of the marketplace. According to author D'Aprix, the only way to discourage people from backward glances is to educate employees to marketplace realities. "Look to the marketplace, read its demands and urgings accurately and then use your common sense to address what it is telling you to do," he writes.

The challenge for leadership is to see where the organization needs to go and why. That vision must be communicated to employees with sound and rational reasoning so that staff will ardently want to move the organization--transform it if need be--from where it is today to what it needs to be to serve the customer best.

To ignore the needs of the customer is to bring about peril, according to D'Aprix. "The trick is to take this reality and convert it into an exciting vision of what together we can become."

Edward Lundquist, ABC, is communication director for the Center for Security Strategies and Operations with the Anteon Corp. in Arlington, Va.; IABC U.S. District 3 director; and publisher of the Job of the Week free e-mail networking newsletter for communication professionals.