Managing transformation & change across borders


The biggest election year in history, 2024, is over. The new year and 2025 promise fresh agendas, policy frameworks and therefore more change as businesses capitalise. What does this mean for adapting to and navigating complexity in multinational teams and organisations? Ruth Holmes reports.


D uncertain,


ecember 2024 offered a moment to take stock of the likely changes ahead after half the


world’s population had the chance to vote in national elections. As 2025 gets underway, commentators, professional services firms and consultancies all published their predictions for the new year. Notable among all of them was that change – and equipping ourselves and preparing our organisations for it. Living in VUCA (volatile, complex


and


ambiguous) times is demanding. It is why wellbeing support is key for businesses to attract, recruit, retain and develop employees. Supporting people to maintain and build resilience and psychological capital to achieve both personal goals and align with the organisation’s


objectives is a significant competitive advantage. Constant evolution is also about communicating and recognising change as a trust and human ‘hearts and mind’ challenge – not a resource reallocation issue.


INTERNAL COMMUNICATION BUILDS TRUST Around 70% of organisational changes fail to meet their objectives [see box on next page]. Trust is underpinned by the


belief that


people understand how they personally contribute to achieving the strategy, what it is, and the progress being made. Articulating the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of change therefore makes internal communication fundamental when it comes to change management, navigating complexity and framing uncertainty.


The Institute for Internal


Communication’s ‘2024 IC Index’ links excellent internal communication with high levels of trust in leadership and retention rates. Trust is also retained after significant change, which means new strategies are more likely to be successful. “The extent to which communication is integral to trust comes through loud and clear in our findings,” say the authors of the ‘2024 IC Index’. “Open and honest communication appears in the top four factors that drive trust in all levels of leader. The only other factor that features in this way is empathy – that leaders understand the challenges employees face.” Angela Ryan, CHRO of the


SGX Group and an Asia-based HR practitioner-scholar, agrees it is important to recognise what


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GLOBAL LEADERSHIP SUPPLEMENT


GLOBAL MOBILITY


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