Change Communication – A Catalyst for Regenerative Transformation

The horseshoe crab lies at the bottom of the sea. It has remained largely unchanged for the past 400 million years. It is not the type that changes. This works for the horseshoe crab. The octopus, on the other hand, is equipped with a rather large brain – larger than that of a shark. It is quick to learn and adapt. It navigates according to its surroundings and is not afraid to fight back when necessary (quote from Dit personlige projektlederskab).

Both are part of our shared ecosystem. And both illustrate the two extremes of behavior you will encounter as a leader or project manager when transforming an existing organisational culture into a regenerative one that restores and renews the organisation’s ecosystem and challenges the existing structures, behavioral patterns, and habits in the organisation.

A leader who understands how to communicate this vision can inspire an entire organisation to embrace and promote regenerative processes. In this process, communication in a broad sense plays a central role. It acts as a catalyst for the organisation’s new DNA.

What is communication in a regenerative transformation?

Communication is everything you do – and do not do – and how it is interpreted by the outside world. You can say all you want about working regeneratively and empowering your employees to make professional decisions, but if what your employees experience are different, then that is what you are communicating. Words and actions must align.

In a regenerative transformation process, one of the first things you should practice is explaining what you mean when you say regenerative. What does it mean to you? If you can’t explain it to yourself without stumbling, it will only be more challenging when your communication reaches the many layers of the organisation. There are not many reference points for your employees, leadership colleagues, and partners to draw on to help form a picture of the regenerative organisation. While the reference to nature’s ecosystem might be immediately meaningful to some, you will encounter many who could use a bit of help with the translation.

So, what do you mean when you say regenerative? What does it mean to reconnect, rewild, create life, and promote life – giving conditions in the culture? What does liberated leadership look like – and why is it important? Which elements of the regenerative are particularly important to you – and why are they important?

Overall, you need to be able to clearly answer the following questions (at a minimum):

  • Why – and why now? When you say you want to strengthen the organisation – become more regenerative – what exactly do you mean? What future do you envision for the organisation? And why is it important?
  • How will the future organization look – and how will the process be approached?
  • What will happen specifically – for whom and when? How will I be supported in the process – and what should I stop doing?

Remember, you need to engage both the horseshoe crabs, who think things are working fine and do not see the need to rock the boat, and the octopuses, who see the potential and can act as drivers for the change process if they have a clear picture of where you are heading, as well as everyone in between.

Once that is in place, we can move forward in the process. What this entails and the foreseeable hurdles you will encounter along the way will be addressed in the next section.