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Navigating Change with Effective Communication With Janet Uhrig · Speak In Flow

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  Melinda Lee: Welcome, dear listeners to the Speak In Flow
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  podcast where we share unique experiences to help you unlock
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  and unleash your leadership voice. Today we have Janet
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  Uhrig, who is an HR director at Pima Community College, she has
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  over 20 years in human resources. So glad you're here.
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  Hi, Janet.
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  Janet Uhrig: Hi, Melinda, so lovely to be with you today.
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  Melinda Lee: Thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited
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  about this topic. So let's dive in. Because you pride yourself
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  in change and helping organisations move through
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  change. And I mean, this is if there's change, there's nothing
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  constant change is constant, right? And probably even more so
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  with all the technology happening. And so organisations
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  really need and leaders need to perk up their ears on how do we
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  effectively manage this. And you've done this quite a bit
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  within organisations to help leaders. Yes,
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  Janet Uhrig: that with certified senior professional and human
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  resources, like you mentioned, with over 20 years of experience
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  in currently, my role really encompasses some strategic
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  leadership policy, talent management, employee relations,
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  and making sure that our strategic goals are aligned with
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  the college. And so and really just fostering a positive,
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  productive
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  Melinda Lee: workplace. Yeah, building that productive
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  positive culture within the organisations, the public
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  sector. And so with all the change that's going on, what do
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  you think is one of the most challenging things that leaders
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  have around communication?
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  Janet Uhrig: That's a good question. What are some of the
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  major challenges I've seen across my career has really been
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  ensuring clear communication between departments and across
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  the organisation. A lot of times, organisations will even
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  within their own departments or divisions have its own jargon
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  and priorities, right, sometimes can be competing. So some, some
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  instances of misunderstanding or misaligned expectations can
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  have, you know, hinder dynamics. And so really making sure that
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  you're developing communication strength like standardising
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  communication, travel channels, even within the organisation,
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  and of course, active listening is one of my favourite tools.
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah, so they're having challenges with clear
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  communication. Because there's so much going on and different
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  priorities and people. There's misunderstandings. Yeah, so how
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  do we develop those clear communication channels? And then
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  what about the transparency? You know, when things are happening,
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  having authentic transparent conversations? What do you what
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  do you think about that?
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  Janet Uhrig: Absolutely. But it's especially important when
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  it can be shared, I know you and I had previously talked about
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  what's appropriate to share in HR. And it's, it's interesting,
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  because a lot more than you think in terms of, of course,
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  the opportunity to be transparent. So some of that
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  starts the very beginning with communicating your vision and
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  mission of the organisation making sure that you're having
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  specially managers are having regular checks and check ins
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  with their employees, making sure that you provide open
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  forums where employees can voice their concerns and creating that
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  psychologically safe environment. So that really
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  encourages two way communication. How to start
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  that.
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  Melinda Lee: And how do you is so let's say I'm a leader, and
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  there's a change about to happen? What is the best way to
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  go about doing that? And
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  Janet Uhrig: initially, right, there's going to be some what's
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  widespread concern about job security and changes in roles?
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  So the initial communication if you're going through a
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  reorganisation, or, or the opportunity to, to shift or any
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  kind of change is to make sure you're dedicating Communication
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  Task Force. And that can include folks with from different
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  departments and different levels, so that you are ensuring
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  that kind of transparent, timely, empathetic communication
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  throughout the process of change. Sorry,
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  Melinda Lee: yeah, what happens? I mean, I love the idea of a
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  taskforce, right, the more people with you in your team
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  that can share the information appropriately, the better. And
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  what happens? How can I know what to share and what I mean?
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  What if there are like, Yeah, I'm doing a reorg. And I have to
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  there are some employees I'm about to lay off. I can't share
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  that. How would I as a leader know what to share and what not
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  to share?
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  Janet Uhrig: I think early and often communication is
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  important, especially when you're talking about budget,
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  right? The the opportunity to partner with in human resources,
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  a lot of times when Not Matt are daft to ensure that we control
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  the budget. And so working with your financial team to make sure
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  that you're transparent about where the status and where the
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  projections are, because then the organisation will know oh,
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  we're going to have to look at what we can do together and that
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  planning ahead so that you're not waiting last minute to kind
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  of encourage kind of fear and confusion about job security. A
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  lot of times in organisations, we route especially at Pima we
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  really try to make sure that there's regular updates were a
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  little bit different in terms of organisation because we have a
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  publicly elected board. And so making sure it's required of us
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  at the state level to make sure we are having transparent, open
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  communication through those meetings. But many
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  organisations, even without that kind of oversight can do that
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  through regular updates about through either emails, or I know
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  a lot of organisations like townhall meetings, question and
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  answer sessions, the opportunity to keep everyone informed about
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  the progress and what to expect next.
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  Melinda Lee: And how have you seen the companies actually be
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  successful at this?
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  Janet Uhrig: I have, there's a couple of different
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  organisations, right, I've seen a lot of opportunities where
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  where you, you kind of go down the wrong turn, where you're not
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  regularly updating, and it feels like a surprise to individuals.
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  And so that's hard, harder to control, right? The best people
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  will often leave those organisations and then you're
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  left with the opportunity to figure out how am I going to
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  staff in addition to, you know, keep and retain folks. And so
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  that can be challenging, and one of the ways especially managers
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  can have an impact is to make sure that they are having those
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  one on one discussions with their team and members
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  addressing those individual concerns. And a lot of times
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  it's providing, you know, personalised support. And as it
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  relates to leading that team,
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  Melinda Lee: again, you said, being curious and willing to
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  listen and what it's like you've done that, have you listened,
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  and they still don't want to do that the change their resistance
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  to the change? Have you seen leaders be really successful to
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  helping people overcome the resistance? I like to say
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  Janet Uhrig: that you're engaging your ostriches, right,
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  right, change is gonna happen, whether they like it or not,
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  right, the opportunity for for folks to stick their head in the
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  sand and say, no, no, I don't want to do this. You you have to
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  then be more intentional and provide some of those feedback
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  loops, right? Especially when we're talking about
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  communication. A lot of times engaging those surgeons to make
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  sure that you what are their concerns? How can an engaging
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  them to help problem solve that? A lot of times working with your
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  the harshest critics in the organisations can be helpful,
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  right? Because that feedback is important. So how do we address
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  feedback? How do we address those subsequent subsequent
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  communications to ensure that you can alleviate and then those
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  folks can become your biggest agents. And so I've seen success
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  and really engaging instead of leaving them off on the side of
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  the road, if you will, really engaging them and bringing them
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  along to help you solve those problems, I found has been
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  really helpful for organisational change.
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  Interesting,
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  Melinda Lee: interesting, because I would have thought
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  that it would be Hey, get the Allies get the people that are
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  at the tipping point, the people that are really resistance,
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  spending so much time on them, that could be quite daunting.
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  Janet Uhrig: It can I think the opportunity, right? The nice
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  thing about folks who are ready and willing to change is they're
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  gonna, they're gonna make it happen. And so sharing the
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  information freely explaining those decisions is easy. But
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  when those decisions, a lot of times, folks are the uncertainty
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  of why those decisions are being made, and so helping explain the
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  reasoning behind them. And maybe they're hearing it in a way that
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  you hadn't thought about it. So right neurodiversity can can be
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  maybe that's an issue for some of the communication and so
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  thinking about well, if I explain it in a different way,
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  what are some of the contexts that helps reduce the
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  speculation that maybe is really the stomach problem that folks
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  are having with it? Right,
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  Melinda Lee: right. So digging real deep about what is the
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  resistance out there? Because I think a lot of times when
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  leaders communicate change, they have, oh, here are the key five
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  things that you're concerned about. And that's everybody. And
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  even if it's something similar, it's really listening to the
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  person's story. What is where's it coming from? Giving them the
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  opportunity to to express it? And then and then seeing how,
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  like you said, maybe there's ways that they we can problem
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  solve often gather.
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  Janet Uhrig: Yeah, especially encouraging that two way
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  communication. Not only are is the manager or the employee, you
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  know, active listening, right, they're able to, like you said,
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  share their thoughts share their concerns, but you're then
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  showing them that you value their input and the opportunity
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  then to be another way to enact that as that open that typical
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  open door policy, right, if they are going to feel comfortable
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  expressing their concerns, that you'll be able to engage their
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  issues and questions. And so the other piece of that is making
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  sure you're having consistent communication. Right. It's, it's
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  one thing I think you mentioned a little bit earlier to have
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  that kind of deep dive, but that can be applicable across the
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  organisation and regular updates, right, can help
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  mitigate some of those, those change fears?
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  Melinda Lee: Yeah, so whenever an organisation or team is going
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  through any change, you got to triple your communication. I
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  mean, you thought you're already communicating.
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  Janet Uhrig: It's the I think that's the biggest thing,
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  organisations will feel oh, well, we've already told them,
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  right, the average human needs to hear something three to seven
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  times I think that the research says And so yeah, communicating
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  is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to change.
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  Melinda Lee: Right? Right now it's not in communicating a
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  different perspectives, different store their stories,
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  statistics, visuals, different modes, email, townhall meetings,
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  one to ones,
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  Janet Uhrig: right. And like you mentioned earlier, the
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  transparency and challenge. So really, when you're, when the
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  organisation is facing that challenge, be upfront about it.
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  Make sure that you you know, and if you can explain what's
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  happening, why it's happening, and then how you plan to address
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  it. And if you're open to suggestions, getting those
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  suggestions from the team and saying, Well, what, yeah, let's
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  get the suggestions. We'll talk about what does that really mean
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  in implementation. And then thinking about, well, here's
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  what we can do. Often organisations will be stuck in
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  terms of funding or, or the opportunity to, to create
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  change, right? If there's something that if there's a
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  move, that's has to happen, a lot of times those are going to
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  be the standardised kind of things that you have to do, but
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  then how you address it and how you work through it together.
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  can do some trust with employees?
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  Melinda Lee: Right, right. So I'm sorry that the audio the
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  last statement that you said, working through together is what
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  you said, though, how do you went in and out a little bit,
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  but that's okay. For you can hear most of it? Oh, does that
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  what you said that you're working together on this? And
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  and so my last question is before is this so juicy? We can
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  go on for probably five episodes. You mentioned that
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  you're involved with DEI efforts. How has that been? How
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  do people I mean, we're still rolling out a lot of dei and BD
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  IB. I hear nowadays, diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging,
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  which is awesome. How has that changed been like for
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  organisations?
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  Janet Uhrig: Well, even across the country, I think that that
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  are having some, some challenges in those areas, our organisation
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  and institution is is one that is committed to that engagement
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  and importance, right? The opportunity for not just our
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  student population, but our employee populations to show up
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  and be seen and, and feel like they belong. And so the
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  opportunity to really, I think it's really leading by example,
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  and demonstrating transparency and the communication is, is
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  what helps that belonging and the opportunity to have folks be
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  able to show up and be seen for who they are and what they
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  contribute to the organisation is important. And so in terms of
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  belonging, diversity, equity inclusion initiatives, I think
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  in terms of organisational rights, so much of Human
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  Resources has been gatekeeping. And so sometimes that can be
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  helpful in organisations something sometimes it can be
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  harmful in communities. And so thinking about ways to create
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  systemic change around diversifying the workplace,
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  providing training and resources, the opportunity to
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  have transparent processes, those are all ways that human
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  resource professionals can can help in those areas of
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  diversity, equity and inclusion.
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  Melinda Lee: Wow, you have a lot. You have a big role and
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  it's such an important one, especially in our communities
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  and our colleges today. I mean, you I did say that you're an HR
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  director, but you like to hear how you do so much more in terms
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  of talent management and employee retention. And so
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  really kudos to you for doing all that. It's a lot of effort,
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  but I think it's paying off. I know it's paying off with all
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  the students and the staff and the faculty and the families. So
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  thank you so much for sharing that Janet.
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  Janet Uhrig: I appreciate your time Melinda, I love your your
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  the work that you do and, and all of your web webinars and
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  podcasts and training. So thank you for all that you do. It's
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  really important work.
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  Melinda Lee: Let's continue to do it. Let's continue to raise
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  our leaders bring people together and yes, celebrate our
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  unique differences celebrate all of our special strengths that
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  each of us have. So thank you so much, Janet. And I trust the
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  listeners got so much out of this episode. I know that
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  there's a lot more that we can cover. Maybe someday I'll Jenny
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  can come back and dive deep deeper into change management.
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  But until then, take care all much love to you. See you soon.
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  Bye Janet. Thank you so much.
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  Janet Uhrig: Thank you, Melinda