Liberty

After 20 years with one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, I was accustomed to restructuring, acquisitions and their difficult decisions. I have learned how deeply culture influences an acquisition’s success, and how quickly uncertainty can undermine trust.

Nearly a decade ago, I moved into the regulated and unregulated utility sector where the regulated utility, stability was woven into the employee experience. People built careers measured in decades. For many leaders and employees, workforce restructuring was unfamiliar territory.

I would come to appreciate how differently people experience change when continuity has shaped their expectations.

The Legacy We Were Asking People to Change

The utility organization grew through multiple acquisitions over approximately 13 years, bringing together different utility businesses, multiple commodities and a broad geographic footprint.

Each business brought expertise, community relationships and its own ways of working. Acquired workforces have also received assurances of stability and continuity. Those commitments became part of employees’ understanding of their future.

We were asking people to move toward a more integrated enterprise after years of considerable local independence. Practices that served individual businesses well needed to support the scale, discipline and governance of a publicly traded utility.

The business case could be explained in a presentation. Its implications for identity, autonomy and trust require much more work.

Technology Changed the Expectations of Leadership

Growth, data center demands, customer affordability and operating efficiency sharpened the need to evolve.

Technology investments created opportunities to connect financial and operational information across jurisdictions. Capturing those benefits required different processes, stronger capabilities and difficult decisions about how work was organized.

“Providing a communication package does not prepare someone to lead change. We need to show them how and coach them through it.”

Operational leaders were being asked to show up differently. Greater visibility brought greater accountability. Enterprise standards have changed to decision-making authority. Experienced leaders needed preparation for a substantially different mandate.

Workforce reductions made the transformation especially personal. Employees were processing colleagues’ departures while questioning their own futures. Leaders were delivering messages they had never expected to deliver, at an unprecedented pace for our organization.

HR had to become the Teacher and Coach

In an organization unfamiliar with transformation, HR must help build the capability to deliver it.

That requires strong partnerships with business leaders and communications colleagues, alongside a deep understanding of stakeholder management, project management and change logistics. Who needs to know what, and when? Which decisions depend on others? Who is influential beyond the organizational chart?

The saying “the devil is in the detail” takes on greater significance during organizational change. HR leaders must pivot between strategy and being in the weeds, checking the sequence of conversations, timing of communications and readiness of support. One wrong move at the wrong time can create a deeply damaging employee experience.

HR also must teach without diminishing a leader’s confidence. Sometimes that means a gentle nudge, a practical tool or rehearsing a difficult conversation. Sometimes it means challenging the timing or highlighting an overlooked impact.

Providing a communication package does not prepare someone to lead change. We need to show them how and coach them through it.

The Preparation behind a Seamless Outcome

Following the largest operational change in our organization’s history, a former COO described  the first ever transformation I led for the enterprise as “brilliant.”  That was a knee jerk reaction after much anxiety was built up over this bold move.

I had told the HR team that, during change of this magnitude, one indicator of success is silence. Noise, the confusion, unanswered questions and avoidable escalation that poor planning creates, is the enemy. When people feel able to speak up, yet you can hear a pin drop because their questions have been anticipated and addressed, the preparation has made a difference. That quiet reflects the care behind the execution.

I appreciated the recognition. I also knew what sat behind it: sleepless nights and the personal responsibility of creating the change plan myself, even at a senior level.

This work was new to my team and the business. I had to create the playbook, work through dependencies and bring executives, HR colleagues and operational leaders along.

That came at a personal cost. It also established a foundation. Today, that playbook informs changes both small and significant, providing practical tools and clearer leadership expectations.

For HR leaders, the responsibility is to turn our expertise into organizational capability. The planning we personally carry through one transformation should equip others to lead the next.

Transformation is inevitable, and its reach is global. I rarely see a job opportunity today without any expectation of leading or supporting change. Deepening our expertise in transformation is vital to HR’s ability to prepare leaders and guide organizations through what comes next.

When stability has been part of the promise, HR must help leaders understand the weight of asking people to embrace a different future and teach them vital skills on how to lead people through it.