Communication
Communication is the most important of the six change factors. All the other factors depend on effective communication. It didn’t take long for Fellowship Technologies to realize that some of our early implementations faltered largely because of poor communication. At least 8 key groups of people must communicate well in a successful implementation:
• Fellowship Technologies (the company: product development, support, testing etc.)
• Fellowship Technologies Field Consultants
• Church Project Manager
• Church Leaders
• Church Staff
• Church Volunteers
• Church Congregation
• Other Church Vendors (web designers, Internet service providers, hardware vendors, etc.)
Successful implementations depend on far more than flawlessly executing tasks like data conversion, system configuration, hardware installation, etc. Our rollouts are most effective in churches where project leaders and church leaders communicate well and set appropriate expectations with the staff and congregation. Switching to a system like Fellowship One without effectively explaining the need for change, the implications of the change, or the benefits of the change, can lead to all the classic signs of poor communication, including suspicion, fear, confusion, distrust and rumor.
Communicating with your people about the change to Fellowship One is so important because many of them won’t know the most basic facts related to the change decision and how it will affect them. Many times, resistance stems from simple questions or concerns that aren’t heard. Taking the time to listen to your people and develop an effective communication plan will reap great rewards in a successful implementation.
Fellowship Technologies has a number of resources available to help you develop a plan to effectively communicate with your staff and congregation about the system change. Sample communication plans are available from Fellowship Technologies. Your communication plan should contain four simple components.
• Who to tell
• What to tell them
• When to tell them
• How to tell them
A good communication plan that is well-executed is the salve that smoothes any rough zones in the implementation process.
Communication seems to be key of any healthy relationship. So as we communicate let’s remember to commutate with heart, which by the way is the next letter of the acronym. We’ll look at that topic in more detail next.