Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Whenever there is change in your company the key component to it is to make sure the various communication tools at your disposal are used. Here is a list of things that you can make use of throughout the process.

Face-to-face:

To me this is by far the most effective tool in regard to change within a company. The personal touch does more to create acceptance than anything else. The way to do it is to be informal and relaxed in your communications. The idea of the hammer coming down from on high, doesn't help the process at all.

Make sure all people in responsibility are talked with at every level you have.

Interestingly enough, there aren't very many managers or executives that want to interact with their employees on an informal level. I think one of the main reasons is that when the attempt is main, the employee looks at it as an opportunity to throw their gripes out, thus making it hard to communicate what is needed at the time.

If there is an overall commitment to walking around and talking to your workers on a continuous basis, this does a lot to alleviate this from happening.

Small Group Meetings:

These are a good tool if, again, it is informal, everyone is free to speak on topic and issues are made clear and understood.

Large Group Meetings:

While these are never as effective as face-to-face and small group meetings, they do give a stress on the commitment of management to the change that is happening and the need for it to happen.

Managing change throughout the whole process is making communication the top priority. All the above can be used to make the process go as smooth as possible and to stop the rumers that will go viral on the first hint that change is coming. Then you don't have to spend valuable time quelching rumors and calming everybody down, rather than implementing the process and changes.