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Exercises
The distinction is important in this sense. When we talk of the need to com-
municate during a period of change we often argue that communication must be
two-way. In practice this is often not the reality because we provide little real
opportunity for the feedback process. However, modern practice increasingly
provides for feedback (e-mail ‘speak-ups’, ‘town meetings’, etc.). Thus, we suggest
that one can think of communication as a process for cascading messages about
vision, objectives, plans and progress. Engagement refers to attempts to get either
feedback or ideas, i.e. we seek to stimulate thinking about the changes.
Involvement relates to bringing people into task forces, working groups, focus
groups and the like. Ghosal (2002) captures the difference in discussing turn-
around at Nissan. They did so via the work of some cross-functional teams devel-
oping a revival plan. But crucial to success was ‘building trust through
transparency’. Every number was to be thoroughly checked. All accountabilities
were to be clear to everyone. Everyone was to know how everyone was involved.
Thus, via transparency everyone was to be engaged so that confidence and trust
could be built. There lies the real difference.

EXERCISES

1 Apply the various methods introduced in this chapter to change situations with
which you are familiar.
2 Apply them to the BBC case study.

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