Let’s talk about the middle man (and woman), communication gaps, and the awkwardness we create when we don’t cascade information down the line.

Let’s start by painting a picture, shall we? Brushes out, people 🖌️

A change is coming to your organization. It’s not earth-shattering, but it’s big enough to require some adjustment, and all staff are impacted in some way.

Executive leadership is the only group to know at first, but they’ve come to you to share that all staff will need to be informed in the next month. They ask for an email that communicates the changes and encourages people to go to their people leader with questions.

Sounds easy enough—right?

🤚 Hold up 🤚

If this sounds too easy, you’re tracking.

There are layers being totally missed in this scenario, and they might be the most important ones.

Between executive leadership and your most entry-level staff lie your largest audiences—your senior leadership, people leaders, and middle managers. If they don’t receive information in advance of the rest of the organization, how will they address questions and support change management with their teams? The reality is, they can’t. And organizations can’t afford that without the threat of lost trust and a good old-fashioned game of telephone.

Here’s the reality: Tiered communication is one of the most effective things you can use to intentionally cascade information down through relevant audiences.

Before big news is shared internally, here are three things you should ask (and why):

❓ How will this impact individual contributors, people leaders, and senior leadership (in that order)? Before anything is announced, you have to know how this will affect the individual contributors (think front-line staff) who don’t lead people. Why? Because you need to know the questions they will ask their people leaders so you can equip that group. Then you need to know how it will affect people leaders and which questions senior leadership will need to be prepared to answer from them…and so on and so forth.

❓ Which questions can you proactively anticipate and address? Best case scenario: You get ahead of the game. Figure out which questions can be answered ahead of time, and then create FAQs around those that can be shared with staff at all levels. Sometimes there are questions you don’t necessarily want to explicitly address in FAQs, but you know they’ll come up and you want to be prepared. Make special FAQs for your people leaders and senior leadership so those groups are equipped to answer specific questions from their direct reports if they come up.

❓ How far out does each tier of staff need to know about the change? The kindest thing you can do for your people is communicate with the appropriate amount of notice. That might mean staggering communications to different audiences with a week in between each, or it might mean giving leaders a one-day heads up because the information is just that sensitive. Always account for the time certain groups might need to digest the information or follow through on any action items needed, balanced with the reality that information will get ahead of you if you let it.

Once you’ve answered these questions, base your communication plan off of them. Stagger the information-sharing so each tier learns about the change at the appropriate time—a time that allows them to soak in the information and prepare to answer questions when their teams are brought into the fold.

Remember, change is change—but it can be done well.