Communicating Change

Effective communication has long been recognized as a vital factor in making change happen. However, despite the need for businesses to change in order to remain competitive, employees still complain about poor communication and managers still claim their people resist change. Communicating Change addresses these problems by providing a framework for deciding what communication is needed and then revealing how this can be achieved. It stresses the need to link a communications strategy to the objectives of a business and demonstrates how this can be done through a series of real examples taken from a wide variety of key businesses. The book also offers advice tips on how to identify the failure of a current strategy and how to make a new strategy work. Communicating Change is aimed at those people who want to improve communication in their company. Written in a clear and informal style, this is a thoroughly readable guide to facilitating change through improved internal communication.

When You Talk, Are People Changed? Whether you speak from the pulpit, podium, or the front of a classroom, you don’t need much more than blank stares and faraway looks to tell you you’re not connecting. Take heart before your audience takes leave! You can convey your message in the powerful, life-changing way it deserves to be told. An insightful, entertaining parable that’s an excellent guide for any speaker, Communicating for a Change takes a simple approach to delivering effectively. Join Pastor Ray as he discovers that the secrets to successful speaking are parallel to the lessons a trucker learns on the road. By knowing your destination before you leave (identifying the one basic premise of your message), using your blinkers (making transitions obvious), and implementing five other practical points, you’ll drive your message home every time! “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” “Once upon a time…” “In the beginning…” Great stories capture and hold an audience’s attention from start to finish. Why should it be any different when you stand up to speak? In Communicating for a Change, Andy Stanley and Lane Jones offer a unique strategy for communicators seeking to deliver captivating and practical messages. In this highly creative presentation, the authors unpack seven concepts that will empower you to engage and impact your audience in a way that leaves them wanting more. “Whether you are a senior pastor with weekly teaching responsibilities or a student pastor who has bern charged with engaging the hearts and minds of high school students, this book is a must-read.” -Bill Hybels, Senior pastor, Willow Creak Community Church “A very practical resource for every biblical communicator who wants to go from good to great.” -Ed Young, Senior pastor, Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas “To communicate effectively, you have to connect. Andy has been connecting with people for years, and now he’s sharing his insights with the rest of us.” -Jeff Foxworthy, Comedian Story Behind the Book Andy Stanley and Lane Jones are on staff at one of America ’s largest churches, North Point Community. Leaders of thousands of people, they regularly speak in front of large groups. They also listen to numerous speakers and know the disastrous effects of a poorly delivered message. This book is the result of their efforts to make public speaking—one of the most common fear-inducing activities known to mankind—simple, easy, and even enjoyable, so that God’s messages will readily produce the life-changing results they should.

Environmental educators face a formidable challenge when they approach climate change due to the complexity of the science and of the political and cultural contexts in which people live. There is a clear consensus among climate scientists that climate change is already occurring as a result of human activities, but high levels of climate change awareness and growing levels of concern have not translated into meaningful action. Communicating Climate Change provides environmental educators with an understanding of how their audiences engage with climate change information as well as with concrete, empirically tested communication tools they can use to enhance their climate change program. Starting with the basics of climate science and climate change public opinion, Armstrong, Krasny, and Schuldt synthesize research from environmental psychology and climate change communication, weaving in examples of environmental education applications throughout this practical book. Each chapter covers a separate topic, from how environmental psychology explains the complex ways in which people interact with climate change information to communication strategies with a focus on framing, metaphors, and messengers. This broad set of topics will aid educators in formulating program language for their classrooms at all levels. Communicating Climate Change uses fictional vignettes of climate change education programs and true stories from climate change educators working in the field to illustrate the possibilities of applying research to practice. Armstrong et al, ably demonstrate that environmental education is an important player in fostering positive climate change dialogue and subsequent climate change action. Thanks to generous funding from Cornell University, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other Open Access repositories.

Offers prescriptions for effecting successful change centered around three guiding principles: conveying the message through supervisors; communicating face-to-face; and, making the changes relevant to each work area

Communicating Social Change: Structure, Culture, and Agency explores the use of communication to transform global, national, and local structures of power that create and sustain oppressive conditions. Author Mohan J. Dutta describes the social challenges that exist in current globalization politics, and examines the communicative processes, strategies, and tactics through which social change interventions are constituted in response to the challenges. Using empirical evidence and case studies, he documents the ways through which those in power create conditions at the margins, and he provides a theoretical base for discussing the ways in which these positions of power are resisted through communication processes, strategies, and tactics. The interplay of power and control with resistance is woven through each of the chapters in the book. This exceptional volume highlights the points of intersection between the theory and praxis of social change communication, creating theoretical entry points for the praxis of social change. It is intended for communication scholars and students studying activism, social movements, and communication for social change, and it will also resonate in such disciplines such as development, sociology, and social work, with those who are studying social transformations.

A historic shift is occurring in the nature of management. Until recently, bosses could simply use the power of their positions to direct and order their subordinates. However, in today's workplace, which is significantly different from the remarkably homogenous and traditional business environment of just two decades ago, the approach of command authority no longer works effectively. Winning 'em Over chronicles a revolution. We are witnessing an ancient model of managing built around command and hierarchy give way to a new model built around persuasion and teamwork. Jay Conger demonstrates to managers on all levels how to thrive in the wake of this momentous transformation. Today we work in an environment where people don't just ask "What should I do?" but "Why should I do it?" To successfully answer this "why" question is to persuade. Yet many businesspeople misunderstand and still more make little use of persuasion. The problem? Persuasion is widely perceived as a skill reserved for selling products and closing deals. But in reality, good managers are persuading all day long. As Conger explains with insight and conviction, today's most effective managers are influencing others through constructive forms of persuasion -- and their employees give them levels of commitment and motivation that the managers of the last generation could only dream of. Conger illustrates how three important forces -- new generations of managers and executives, cross-functional teams, and unprecedented access to information that was once the privilege of the most senior levels of management -- are undermining the old Age of Command and ushering in the new Age of Persuasion. He exposes the most commonly held myths about the art of persuasion and shows how to influence others productively, without manipulation. Most important, he outlines the four crucial components of effective managing by persuasion: building one's credibility, finding common ground so that others have a stake in one's ideas, finding compelling positions and evidence, and emotionally connecting with coworkers so that solutions resonate with them on a personal level. In Winning 'em Over, Conger explains how to implement a management style that will succeed in what is becoming a fundamentally and radically different business environment, and he provides readers with all of the new tools they will need to become effective, constructive persuaders.

This book is a practical and theoretical discussion of how to effectively communicate organizational change to management, employees, stockholders, and customers.

Drawing together key frameworks and disciplines that illuminate the importance of communication around climate change, this Research Handbook offers a vital knowledge base to address the urgency of conveying climate issues to a variety of audiences.