Change communication FAQs

 LSE’s Internal Communications team can support you in an advisory capacity. This might include:

• Co-facilitating stakeholder analysis sessions
• Reviewing communications strategies and plans
• Reviewing and editing content
• Running communications training for members of your team, such as the ABCs of good communication
• Running bespoke workshops to help you define your project narrative.

You should identify the key considerations for audiences at the early stages of your project – before you start planning any communications. You need to be able to do the following: 

• Summarise your project in a few sentences – think of this as your ‘elevator pitch’ 
• Identify the benefits of the project for the School and for the users 
• Have a clear timeline of phases of delivery and any key milestones 
• Explain the impact of the change for users and the School as a business 
• Identify and connect with any other projects that are linked to your delivery 
• Know how much time / budget your communications needs will require 
• Map out any risks to be considered in developing communications 
• Analyse your project stakeholders and end users. What are their motivations and fears relating to the change you’re introducing?  

You can use this template to help you answer these questions. The Internal Communications team can help you with this process – contact communications.internal@lse.ac.uk. 

You should have conducted a thorough stakeholder and user analysis to understand who you need to communicate and engage with. A useful way of thinking about your audience is to group them by level of engagement: 

• People you need to engage closely, e.g. subject matter experts 
• People you need to keep satisfied, e.g. relevant leadership 
• People you need to keep informed, e.g. user base 

You will have already identified the impact of the change for your users and the benefits to their experience. Your stakeholder and user analysis will tell you what the change looks like from their perspective. This information provides the building blocks for your key messages.  

For example, I am introducing a new technological solution. My users anticipate that it will take effort to get to know the new system, so they might be resistant. So, what do I need them to think, feel and do? 

I need them to know why the system is changing, feel confident to use the new system, and carry out an action – start using it from Autumn Term. 

My messaging will focus on how they will benefit from the new system and how they will be supported to adopt it, e.g. 

• This system will reduce the time you spend manually inputting data, freeing your day up for more interesting work.  
• It’s more intuitive to use than the previous system, so no more looking through user guides to complete your tasks.  
• You can start using it in Autumn Term, while we transition from the old system – we’ll be visiting your office then to provide a demonstration and answer any questions. 

You should use your project timeline to identify timings for communication.  

Certain milestones, e.g. consultation, testing and launch, will require greater communications effort.  

You can build credibility by providing regular and consistent messaging, for example, a clearly formatted monthly email update to key stakeholders. 

Now you know who you are communicating with and what you need to say, you can select the most appropriate channels to get your message across. Here is an overview of some of the main channels available at LSE: 

Digital 

• LSE website – creating an internal webpage provides a ‘single source of truth’ for the project where you can lay out your aims, timeline, FAQs and any updates. 
• Microsoft Teams – there are a range of Teams channels for staff networks which can be used for posting updates and generating engagement with your project. 
• Specialised newsletters – if your project impacts a particular area of the School, you might consider communicating in their newsletter. 
• General newsletters such as Staff or Student News – reach all staff or students with a message that impacts everyone. 

Face-to-face 

Never underestimate the impact of face-to-face engagement. 

• Regular forums – depending on your project, you might consider presenting at the PMA forum or the COO briefings. 
• Departmental or divisional meetings – most areas have a regular staff meeting. Contact them and ask to attend. 

Once you have identified the key considerations for your audience using this template, you can start developing your communications plan in consultation with the Internal Communications team. Please get in touch with us at communications.internal@lse.ac.uk.