Q. As a recent MIT Sloan article pointed out, “…while addressing cultural issues is a basic part of classic change management theory, it’s still too often overlooked in transformation initiatives.”[1] And as most consultants will attest to, change management and communications are often the first targets for proposal cuts during negotiations with clients. With Bain’s 2024 research findings that 88% of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions[2], what should workers be doing to create value for their employers and to build sustainable careers for themselves?
A. (Matt Abrahams)
Biopharma employees need to quickly build their personal skill sets given the projected $236 billion patent cliff which I believe started earlier this year and runs through 2030.[3] And as most biopharmas are doubling down on AI investments[4], employees need to figure out their evolving roles in the workplace. It is critical for all employees to constantly be working on their careers and figuring out how they add value for their employers. To do so, first and foremost, you have to clearly understand the long-term goals of your company as well as its mission, vision, and values. Then, you need to identify what your skills are and how they connect to the organization’s aspirations to not only survive but thrive.
So what is it that you add that differentiates you from others? And how can you communicate your personal value proposition clearly? Meaning, how do you connect what you say to the bottom line of the organization?
When it comes to the actual work of change management for business transformation, all of the research states that you must involve communication and expectation setting. As you perform change management, not actively planning for communication will result in failure. You need to be thinking about people, process, and infrastructure along with how your change management strategy is crucial to achieving the future state. Given the typical resistance to change, one needs to determine how to communicate clearly, concisely, and through multiple channels so that people see value in the future state and wish to attain it. While these efforts do take time, the good news as I shared during one of my Think Fast Talk Smart podcast episodes is that with evolving AI solutions, LLMs can serve as pre-editors to help refine our communication, ensure its relevance, and save time.[5]
Q. Given the various backgrounds of the readers (C-Suite executives, frontline sales force members, and students) for this MIT Sloan series, what advice would you recommend as they strive to build their communication skills?
A. (Matt Abrahams):
For those in the C-Suite, it really is about listening and modeling. You need to take the time to listen. It is crucial to understand where people are coming from and to be perspective-seeking. So it’s not about looking for solutions, it’s about understanding the problems and taking the time to listen and to make yourself available. In addition, you need to make sure that you’re modeling the behaviors that you want to see. Let me give you an example of an AI initiative that one leader was trying to roll out. He said, ”Hey, just go and build things with AI. We support you working with AI.” Well, that is not super motivational. What is much stronger is if the leader had said, “Here is something that I am building with AI that I will be using to help solve our C-Suite imperatives and I encourage all of you to do something similar.” So when you role model what you are asking for, and if you make mistakes, sharing those as well, you can truly build connections with your audience and make your communication clearer. So again, it’s about listening and role modeling.
As for the bio-pharma sales forces, I’ve heard their gauntlets of trying to promote their drugs to doctors in harried 60-second pitches.[6] When the HQ’s brand team wants you to convey their key selling messages very quickly, it’s all about relevance and focus. You need to make sure that whatever you’re saying is immediately relevant, which means you need to understand your audience. It’s about reconnaissance, reflection, and research. Additionally, you need to focus your message. You have to have a clear goal. What do you want them to know? How do you want them to feel? What do you want them to do? And then you have to structure that message clearly. One of my favorite structures for getting information across when selling is to finish these four sentence starters.
- What if you could…
- So that..
- For example…
- And that’s not all..
What if you could enables your audience to see what’s possible; it connects them and it’s relevant. So that drives the bottom line and enables the listener to understand what the value proposition is. For example makes it concrete so people understand specifically what it looks like. And that’s not all shows that whatever you’re promoting, there is more to it than just what you are saying.
At MIT Sloan and other top business schools, it is critical that you build your communication skills before those “fun” all-day interview sessions. You might have great ideas about your unique value proposition for a firm, but if you cannot communicate those points clearly, you will likely not advance to the second-round interviews.
Finally, for current students at MIT Sloan, I can’t stress enough the importance of building your communication skills. As I’ve shared in the past[7], speaking in the moment is a common pain point for MBA students as they argue their positions during case study discussions. Carve out time today to secure this competency that will support your immediate, near-term, and long-term career aspirations.
Matt Abrahams is a Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where he teaches popular classes in strategic communication and effective virtual presenting. He received Stanford GSB’s Alumni Teaching Award in recognition of his teaching students around the world. He hosts the award-winning top business podcast Think Fast Talk Smart. His new book Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot provides tangible, actionable skills to help even the most anxious of speakers succeed when speaking spontaneously, such as navigating Q&A sessions, shining in job interviews, providing effective feedback, making small talk, fixing faux pas, and persuading others. His previous book Speaking Up without Freaking Out: 50 Techniques for Confident and Compelling Presenting has helped thousands of people manage speaking anxiety and present more confidently and authentically. Matt received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his graduate degree from the University of California at Davis.
Partha Anbil is a Contributing Writer for the MIT Sloan Career Development Office and an alum of MIT Sloan. Besides being VP of Programs of the MIT Club of Delaware Valley, Partha is a long-time life sciences consulting industry veteran, currently with an NYSE-listed WNS, a digital-led business transformation company, as Senior Vice President and Practice Leader for their Life Sciences practice.
Michael Wong is a Contributing Writer for the MIT Sloan Career Development Office and an Emeritus Co-President and board member of the Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association. Michael is a Part-time Lecturer for the Wharton Communication Program at the University of Pennsylvania and his ideas have been shared in the MIT Sloan Management Review and Harvard Business Review.
[1] Tiwari, Akhilesh, Koehler, Bryson, Culture: The Engine of Transformation, MIT Sloan Management Review, September 19, 2022
[2] https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/2024/88-of-business-transformations-fail-to-achieve-their-original-ambitions-those-that-succeed-avoid-overloading-top-talent/
[3] Lottering, Bernice, Pharma Faces $236 Billion Patent Cliff by 2030: Key Drugs and Companies at Risk, Geneonline, March 7, 205
[4] https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/big-pharma-biotech-relations-wont-necessarily-be-symbiotic-future-ai-landscape-sp
[5] Communicating the Future: How to Define Where We Want AI to Take Us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psUxEj6dGhM
[6] https://www.pharmexec.com/view/effective-detailing-one-minute
[7] https://www.pharmexec.com/view/if-one-in-five-mbas-were-unemployed-months-after-graduating-from-a-premier-business-school-in-2023-what-new-skill-sets-should-people-pursue-in-2024-a-q-a-with-stanford-s-matt-abrahams
