We Love Customers Like Syngenta Seeds
There are projects that go well and there are those that deliver such excellent results that you want to shout about them. This is the case with Syngenta Seeds. Syngenta recently enlisted Herman Miller’s Consulting team to orchestrate a change management and communications program to support its move into a new headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Syngenta did everything right. It began the change efforts before construction and it frequently communicated with its 300 employees along the way. Budget and timing issues often force compromises onto change management plans. Not here. Syngenta took our advice, worked with us to develop a plan, and together we ran with it.
Syngenta realized the benefits of tapping into proven best practices. And, its willingness to apply its resources to the full execution of the plan paved the way for successful change–the kind everyone could get behind.
The energy and time it invested in change management made a huge difference in the response from employees and success of the move.
One of the top benefits of communicating during a big change is that it lets you stay in control of the message. Looking at the modifications from a very closed in office environment with the high cubicle walls to the more open spaces with lower panels, employees could easily find stuff to be unhappy with if left out of the loop (such as a perceived loss of privacy).
Having a good communication program in place allows an employer to “brand” a change as being one that brings the workspace more in line with existing company values (teamwork, open door management policies, etc).
People tend to build a narrative about events in their lives based on stories they hear over and over. Telling employees the story you want them to be thinking about is a powerful way to boost positive responses to change.
Daisy McCarty
http://www.sandiegocubicles.com/blog/