My first speech class in college taught me the following simple lesson…Whenever you are talking to an audience, make sure you structure your message in this way…Part 1) Tell them what you are going to tell them, 2) Tell them and 3) Tell them what you told them. Applied to organizations that are in the midst of a transformation, this pretty much sums up the CEO’s role. 

Tell them about the upcoming transformation….the WHY?

Early on, your message to the organization needs to be about WHY does the organization need to “transform” in the first place? What is changing in the external environment, the industry, or the competition that requires an internal change? Or what is not happening that needs to happen. Or what is happening that needs to stop. Or what is going wrong that needs to go right.  There is a reason for the change, likely many reasons. This is the “burning platform” that provides the momentum for changing the status quo. If YOU don’t give a WHY that makes sense from an employee’s point of view, they will make up a WHY. And, frankly, the WHY will not be flattering to you or the organization. People are also masters at detecting the mismatch between your words and your actions/body-language/tone of voice and they will believe the non-verbals most of the time. So, do a gut check and be real.

Tell them about the transformation that is occurring…the WHAT

Weekly, or every other week, you will need to talk about the actual changes happening now.  Tell them the big things, the little things, the obvious and the subtle. Name it all. Repeat it often. And, before you do, repeat the first message about the WHY each and every time….Remind people AGAIN why is the organization doing what it is doing? Keep it simple and say it over and over and over again. Until you are sick of it.