Emirati poet Awad bin Hasoum Al Darmaki has highlighted the importance of building new channels of communication through innovative use of culture and social media at the 11th International Government Communication Forum (IGCF) that concludes today at Expo Centre Sharjah.
In a talk titled, ‘Creative Partnerships and the New Gatekeepers’, the Emirati author and lecturer stressed the need for leaders of organisations to build lasting connections with employees through constructive dialogue and underlined the implications of the five stages of change that humans go through while adapting to change: shock, anger, resistance, acceptance, and finally, recovery.
He said: “Change is scary, but it is the only constant in this world, and in my opinion, change is good when it is for a good cause.’’
A large number of managers apply the “sinking boat trap’’ to impose their choices on employees, leading to inevitable resistance from them, which often snowballs into a series of negative outcomes, he added.
Elaborating on the five stages of change, Al Darmaki said: “The ‘shock’ is absorbed easily when change is for a good cause, but in the second stage, people must not meet ‘anger’ with anger.”
He added: “External and internal communication is critical in the third phase of ‘resistance’ and if this is explained in the simplest of terms such as: ‘What is the benefit of this change and how do we become better?’ then people will start ‘accepting’ and welcoming it as they set themselves on the road to ‘recovery’, the final stage.”
Al Darmaki remarked that change, if late, serves little to no purpose, and communication must be made in an honest and clear manner.
