​Hey Reader,​

If things are feeling a little hectic right now, you're definitely not alone. Whether you've had a slow start to the year and things are just picking up or you've been racing through 2024 (and are wondering how you're going to make it through the next eight months at this pace), you're not the only one who might feel a little frazzled by the amount of changes going on.

Even my inbox is all over the place. AI. Is DEI dead? Burnout. AI. TikTok. Climate risks at work. AI. The economy. The election. AI AI AI.

One thing I know for certain is that this year, the pace of change is not going to slow down. On the personal side of things, I set boundaries (be gone, phone, with your endless attention-seeking!). At work, I strategize. Even as a party of one. Because it's not just external changes I have to deal with; it's changes going on in my business as well. No matter how small I am!

See, designing strategies for change isn't just for big companies. The change strategies I use for my clients are the same strategies I use for my own business, just scaled down and tailored to Commcoterie.

And when I don't strategize? Well, burnout is a buzzword for a reason.

There are plenty of misconceptions about how to manage organizational change, but there are three big ones that I think do a huge disservice to the types of smaller organizations I work with:

1. It’s only for “big” changes
2. It’s only for big companies
3. It’s too expensive

Let’s tackle the first two misconceptions first: managing organizational change is only for “big” changes and big companies.

We can all probably agree that a Fortune 500 is a (really) big company, but I put the first “big” in quotes because what constitutes a “big” change varies from organization to organization, and even from person to person within the same organization. A tech rollout can seem trivial to the team planning and implementing it, but have a big impact on the users. An M&A can seem huge to a leadership team, but not actually matter at all to frontline workers (as far as their day-to-day is concerned). But an M&A will have major resources thrown behind it, while more "day-to-day" changes often don't — because the top dogs call the shots and don't understand the impact that different types of changes have on their people.

And the smaller companies (which make up the vast majority of the businesses in the US, by the way)? They don't think change management is meant for them at all.

The truth is, there isn't any hard-and-fast cutoff for what size of organization or change requires a strategy. These decisions are made based on the misconceptions around what is "big" enough to merit strategic focus and resources. But I'll argue that every size of an organization and every size of change needs a strategy.

If you wouldn't tackle sales, marketing, finance, operations, or any other business area without a strategy, no matter how small your company is or how small those business areas are, why would you approach change without a strategy?

Now wait, I can hear you say, my company is small. We don’t have a dedicated change team or a cushy budget. Now we’re supposed to have a strategy every time we change?

Yup.

Approaching change strategically increases change readiness, stakeholder engagement, and the chances that the change will achieve and sustain its intended outcome. Navigating change without a strategy can cause more extensive declines in productivity and performance, a steeper learning curve and slower behavior adoption, and an organization that is less adaptable and flexible when it comes to future changes.

Navigating change of any size, at any size organization, without a strategy = chaos.

The objective of change management is to move an organization and its stakeholders from a current state to a future state. That's it! So why should the size of a change or organization matter?

But...!

I get it. And remember, I'm a party of one, and I strategize for change.

You need a strategy too — you just have to scale it. Here’s a easy way to start doing that.

Ask: What — Why — Who

As in, what is this change? Why are we doing it? Who is impacted? What is the timeline? Why are we addressing this now? Who might be the most disrupted?

Ask questions until you run out, the answers become super obvious, or you have a solid strategy outlined.

The more complex the set of answers, the more complex the strategy needs to be.

This brings us to #3. Is managing organizational change too expensive?

To me, that’s also a personal perception based on what you value.

If you decide to research change management and design a strategy yourself, your biggest investment is time.

If you hire someone, your biggest investment money.

So leaders have to ask themselves: What is most effective for my organization at this moment? What is the best allocation of our resources? What change challenges are we facing and would it be better in the long run to get strategic when we tackle them?

The biggest takeaway is this: Change with no strategy is a risk with potentially long-term negative impacts. Designing a strategy for anything, whether it’s marketing, business development, product delivery, or change is an up-front investment of time and money with a big ROI.

When it comes to change, scale the strategy, don’t choose no strategy at all.

Talk soon,

Caitlin Founder, Commcoterie

P.S. — I’m passionate about the purpose-driven companies and nonprofits I work with, so I care about access; access to resources, access to information, and access to support.

Because of this (and speaking of scale), our offers are priced based on organization size. Over the years, that has helped us most effectively achieve our mission: helping the purpose-driven companies and nonprofits we work with create, navigate, and communicate change so that they can achieve their missions.

If you need support with change, don’t hesitate to reply here so we can set up a time for you to tell me about your team. If now’s not the right time to work together, I can still help you make sure your next step is a good one.

What we're into right now: Web accessibility & our community

Mangrove's awesome blog Mangrove is a woman-owned website design and development company with a diverse, talented team distributed around the globe. They’ve been building websites since 2009 that amplify the work of change-making organizations and increase the competitive power of businesses owned by historically marginalized people. I love their blog, especially the collection of posts they have about digital accessibility. As someone with a disability, accessibility is personally important to me, but it should be an essential component of designing everything we do — and it's something I'm committed to constantly learning about. Check out the blogs

Commcoterie's next Office Hours At our organizational change office hours, leaders of purpose-driven companies and nonprofits have the space and opportunity to: assess how their organizations stack up when it comes to navigating change start to create a roadmap for how they can create more effective, inclusive, and engaging strategies that result in more sustainable, impactful change ask their burning questions about navigating change so that they can design people-centered strategies and build restorative cultures Join us for our next Office Hours on May 16th — and check out our next newsletter where we'll reveal the topic! Register here

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