I love using an iceberg picture as a change tool. The metaphor of an iceberg is that only part of the picture is clear to us. There are many things that could impact us below the water that we cannot see.
I like talking with people that are impacted by organizational changes to better understand their feelings, emotions, and perceptions.
It’s helpful to then place their feedback on an iceberg as a way to navigate safely through the change process. This is a great way to direct change communications proactively.
There are four categories of feedback to map are:
Known/Knowns – Things we are aware of and understand, like what’s changing at a high level and to whom.
Known/Unknowns – Things we are aware of but don’t understand yet, like department X has provided the most concern about the changes.
Unknown/Knowns – Things we are not yet aware of but understand, like the reaction of an upcoming announcement about changes.
Unknown/Unknowns – Things we are not aware of and don’t understand yet, like how smoothly the cutover to the future state will go.
The iceberg tool is a useful way to map feedback and then watch to see which items need to move upward to known/knowns and which can stay where they are.
Have you used a tool similar to this to track feedback to changes?
