The CIRCLE Method
Before you explain the change, think about what it costs the person hearing it.
A new schedule is a line item on a corporate calendar. For the person on your team who picks up her kid at 3:15, it’s the whole week.
What it looks like: You say the hard part early. You name who it affects most. You don’t pretend it’s good news for everyone.
If you skip it: People stop listening at the first sentence that sounds like it was written for somebody else.
Make sure the people above you and next to you are saying the same thing you are.
Your team will compare notes. If the morning shift heard one thing and the evening shift heard another, the change is now a rumor.
What it looks like: Five minutes with your own leader before you talk to your team. Same reason. Same timeline. Same answer to “why now.”
If you skip it: Every gap between leaders turns into a question you can’t answer.
Understand how your people’s days actually work, then say what’s changing, including the parts that are worse.
People can handle hard news. What they don’t forgive is finding out later that you knew.
What it looks like: Walk through their day first. Then name what’s changing, what stays the same, what gets easier and what gets harder. That’s the free brief, one page.
If you skip it: You lose trust the first time something turns out harder than you said.
Find the people everyone else watches.
Every team has two or three. They aren’t always the leads. They’re the ones people glance at after the meeting to see what they really think.
What it looks like: Talk to them first, or right after. Ask what they’re hearing. Let them help.
If you skip it: They make up their minds without you, and the team follows them.
Watch for the first thing that works, and say it out loud.
The first week of anything new is mostly friction. If the only thing people hear about is what’s broken, that becomes the story.
What it looks like: “Lines moved faster Saturday.” “Two of you found the workaround before I did.” Small and specific.
If you skip it: The change gets judged by its worst day.
Hand it over.
There’s a point where people stop asking you how it works and start showing each other. That’s what you’re aiming for. Your job is to notice it and step back.
What it looks like: Asking the team what should change about the change. Letting the person who figured it out teach it.
If you skip it: It stays your change. On your day off, it stops.
The free CIRCLE Change Communication Brief gets you through the first conversation. The CIRCLE Change Communication Toolkit walks you through all six steps, with a worked example from start to finish.