Episode 18: From Information to Engagement: Inside Human-Centric Change with Ella Malara

In this episode of the Share PLM Podcast, we are joined by Ella Malara, a communication expert and human behaviour specialist. Ella is the founder of Ella Malara Strategic Consulting, where she helps managers and organizational leaders boost productivity, reduce turnover, and strengthen engagement through communication strategies rooted in behavioural science. She empowers organizations to view communication not as a soft skill, but as a strategic driver of innovation, trust, and change. At the heart of her work is a simple belief: meaningful human connection is what unlocks real potential—because for Ella, good communication isn’t just about talking, it’s about transforming how people work, lead, and grow together.

In our conversation, Ella shares powerful insights on: 

⚉ Ella’s Nonlinear Journey from Arts to Organizational Change 
⚉ Redefining Communication: Beyond Words and Information
⚉ The Shift Toward Visual and Digital Communication
⚉ Common Communication Mistakes in Digital Transformations
⚉ Building Trust as the Foundation of Any Communication Strategy
⚉ Measuring Impact Through Behavioral Change (KBIs)
⚉ How Behavioral Science Shapes Ella’s Approach 


CONNECT WITH ELLA: 
⚉ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenamalara/ 

CONNECT WITH SHARE PLM:
Website: https://shareplm.com/ 


Join us every month to listen to fascinating interviews, where we cover a wide array of topics, from actionable tips, to personal experiences, to strategies that you can implement into your PLM strategy.

If you have an interesting story to share and want to join the conversation, contact us and let's chat. We can't wait to hear from you!

Transcript

[00:00:12] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Hello everyone and welcome to the Share PLM podcast. I'm Beatriz Gonzalez, CEO of Share PLM, and I'm very happy today because joining me as cohost is Maria Morris, our head of business development. Hello Maria. Welcome to the episode and let us know who is with us today.

[00:00:28] MARIA MORRIS:
Hi, Bea. Yes. I'm super excited to be joining another episode with you today. And today we have a really exciting guest joining us who was actually recommended to us by a mutual friend, Antonio Kasaski from ASSA ABLOY, and he told me that he had this person in mind who has a great background in organizational change management and sustainability, and that we have to get her onto the podcast.

And so with that, I would like to introduce Ella Malara to the episode. Ella, would you like to introduce yourself to our listeners?

[00:01:00] ELLA MALARA: 
Hello. Good morning. It's great to be here. Thank you for your in invitation Beatriz and Maria. So yes, actually I was really curious to be part of this conversation with you. What I'm bringing today is my experience in organizational change and sustainability, as you said.

I went through a sort of an unconventional path, nonlinear path, I would say, starting from the arts. I studied art and I started quite early organizing events and exhibitions where I felt like the connection with people was pretty important also for the good results of the exhibition and the art piece.

Then I started, you know, digging more into the mechanism of communication, digital communication, interpersonal communication between people and I felt like there was something very interesting there. I felt like when you engage people and you make them understand the meaning, know the importance of what you're doing for them, they give you a much powerful response and they participate more effectively, do the everything that you're organizing.

I was passed in working mostly in the arts field and I gradually moved into a corporate world. Also thanks to my experience in events management and communication, and I felt like I wanted to know more about other topics like employee engagement that was also connected to sustainability, communication, and everything was all about change back in the days, but it is also now.

And that's how I want to, I started working also on change programs. Of course on the communication side of things, so how to talk and connect with people in order to onboard them on change programs inside an organization.

[00:02:43] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
How would you define communication? What's communication for you, Ella?

[00:02:48] ELLA MALARA:
This is a good question. So, as I mentioned, coming from the art communication is a bit of a more complex concept because it involves, you know, also visual communication. It is not just only what you say and what you write, it's more about the meaning behind your message. So with this in mind, I've always approached communication in the corporate world as a tool to build bridges with people, right? Rather than just passing on informations.

And that's the key in my, in my job, in the strategies that I design. Now as a consultant, I'll try to find the right approach to connect with people and to have them being part. Of the process you are trying to, to convey to, deliver?

[00:03:34] MARIA MORRIS:
I think that's a really interesting point about using communication to actually engage people, because I think there's a big misconception that everybody is an expert in communication because you know, we talk every day with people in work, et cetera. But would you say there's a big difference between communication that informs people versus communication that actually engages people?

[00:03:56] ELLA MALARA:
So we can go a bit more technical here. We humans, we most classically use verbal communication. That's a given for us, right? We start talking since we are toddlers. So people give for granted the ability not only to convey an information, a message, but also to understand, to receive it. It is not that straightforward.

Communication, you know, involves way more sides. You know, how you use your body, your face, professional expressions, and also tone of your voice. And that's, let's say, the more mechanical part then there's also the intention. What are you actually conveying? What is that you actually saying? So I would say that the difference, the key difference between conveying information and communicating is intention and the, and how aware you are of the message you are sending and the way you're receiving the message.

So it is all about being aware of how you handle communication, interpersonal communication in the first place.

[00:04:57] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
And also, I suppose that is very connected to feelings, right? How you are feeling when you communicate is not only the intention, but what's your feeling about the intention and how the, the people receive that, and what is, is he or she feeling at that moment, right?

[00:05:14] ELLA MALARA:
Absolutely. This is the most fascinating part. When you are strategizing about a communication project, which is very, you know, practical. You have a target to reach, you have KPIs to meet. But then when you think about people, the first question I have in mind is like, how would they welcome this communication activity, would it be able to, to understand how it is, what intention behind it? Would it perceive it as, you know, as a style activity towards them? Because most often than never, when there's a new communication about change in a company being, you know, adopting a software or changing, you know, some key parts of the culture, people are feel it as something annoying 'cause they feel like it's something they've not looked for. They were not ready for that. They were not looking forward to it.

And this is because people mostly do not like when they feel like they are communicating something. So people, when there's a communication project in a company, classically, they are a bit of style towards the project. Not because they are necessarily against the message, but they are against the way it is conveyed. So if they feel like they are forced to listen and they're not asked to listen, it is radically different. And that is all about feelings. How do you feel about the news that people are telling you?

[00:06:38] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
And regarding corporate communication, do you see an evolution towards more visuals, videos, some kind of communication that is more personalized? Because before it was emails, it's more, it was more written communication. And nowadays in the social media, we are constantly seeing that people is recording videos and speaking and so in their face. Do you see this evolution also in the corporate communication?

[00:07:03] ELLA MALARA:
I've definitely seen it. This is more about tools. So what I will also add is that communication is not just the tools that you use. It entails a more complex environment around the person. So that is a topic in more or let's say classical organization can be a challenge.

So you want to adopt an internal social media platform and people are just not used to it and they will not necessarily adopt the tool.
Communication is getting more visual, less and less email based, less and less based on also sort of intranets, et cetera. But at the same time when you do this kind of, of communication activities, you need to keep in mind the different attitude of people towards this kind of communication.

One thing is for you, as a person, as an individual, to pick up your phone and look at social medias for your own leisure time and pleasure. Another thing is to connect this kind of experience to work commitments, no duties. When you do perceive this a new tool, like a new social media, web meetings, video calls as something annoying because it's work related, you will most likely not adopt that tool quickly and not happily. So, although it is more engaging, you see videos, you hear music, it is more visual appealing, people will also always connected to work new senses will most likely not be happy about receiving this kind of communication.

[00:08:32] MARIA MORRIS:
Yeah. And focusing on digital transformations more specifically, so when you are helping an organization no matter what change is coming to their organization, whether it's, you know, new leadership, a new system, or whatever it might be, what are some mistakes that you see organizations make when it comes to communicating change? And what strategies do you help companies implement to improve their communication?

[00:08:56] ELLA MALARA:
So the most classical mistakes, I would say, I've observe a bit of naivety sometimes, getting for granted the importance of the message for the receiver. So not questioning how this message, this information that is so pivotal for the organization can actually be perceived as equally important by the receiver.

So you have the employee that has, you know, his daily duties has problems that he needs to solve. Handicaps this top down communication about a very important thing that it doesn't care about because it doesn't affect his daily activities. So practically speaking I try to create space, create room for learning and adoption of the concepts before they get communicated.

Meaning before starting digital communication activity most classically meets people. Also, you know, respecting the organization. So meeting managers that they will meet with their team, but use more the human side. The one-to-one connection, the one to many connection person to person to pass the feeling of how important the change that is coming is for the people before the organization.

[00:10:12] MARIA MORRIS:
Mm-hmm.

[00:10:12] ELLA MALARA:
Because what also company miss sometime is that when they are changing something is because the goal is to make things better for the people that working in the organization. That would be also the ambition of the organization, making things run smoothly, help people working better, et cetera, et cetera. Most times this is not perceived by employees.  Employees see just the next problem that they have to deal with, that they have to solve things that they need to learn because the organization is asking them to. So you need to pass the message, this is for you and therefore for the benefit of the company.

And in person is best way to kickstart this kind of process. It takes time. That's the, the deal breaker. And then if you want to do a good communication project, you need to factor in time to, for it to develop. And it's not always the case, of course.

[00:11:06] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Yeah. What is the standard communication strategy that you would recommend for a company when they want to start a big transformation, a big change?

[00:11:16] ELLA MALARA: 
This is a really good question. Unfortunately, there's not a standard because it really depends on the kind of transformation you are managing. Transformation can be on so many levels from the most basic, which is tool adoption, to the most radical and deep that touches the identity and beliefs of people, which of course requires a more complex set of approaches, tools, and concepts to be, to be brought into the strategy plan. 

I would say, as I mentioned before, in general, not dismissing the human side of things, so not to focus too much on the information, but focus more on the relationship that you are building with people.

When you need to convey change the first thing people are scared about is they're scared of not understanding what is happening and maybe they do not feel confident or safe enough to come to you and say, could you please help me understand this? Could you please let help me handling this?

And this go down to trust. You need to have people trusting your ability to convey and monitor and deliver a change in the organization. So you need to build trust from people. How you do that talking to them, also activating bottom up processes, which is bottom up feedbacks through, you do have many tools to do that really.

Town halls is a way, with Q and A sessions. If you want to do also in person meeting, you can do early morning breakfast with feedback sessions. After you have center a first communication, you ask manager to do focus groups to discuss the topic. Of course, I'm all telling, saying all things that requires time. It is not just sending out an email.

[00:12:59] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
How do you measure that the communication strategy has been successful?

[00:13:04] ELLA MALARA:
So KPIs are the toughest parts of my job. That's also why I've started using a different metrics, which is KBIs, Key Behavioral Insights. Okay. So the success of our communication strategy, you can measure it by how people actually behave, how they change their behavior in the workplace, how they actually use their time to work on the giving tool adoption that they ask them to work on, or how they modify their behavior towards a collaborator. How they start being more proactive. It all depends.

The response that they give, the most trackable thing you have is their behaviors.

[00:13:54] MARIA MORRIS:
Mm-hmm.

[00:13:54] ELLA MALARA:
You need to track that down. The kind of behaviors, of course, is part of what the strategy itself. You target a behavior that you wanna change and you have a goal, a behavioral goal that you want to observe in space. And that also requires, you know, lots of strategies, understand which behavior is actually the one that I want to see, and if that behavior is the one that I need to observe to say that I've been successful in my communication strategy.

[00:15:04] MARIA MORRIS:
Yeah, I really like the idea of the key behavioral insights because as you mentioned measuring the effectiveness of a communication strategy really comes down to the behavioral changes of people.

And I know that you yourself have done quite a lot of research and study in the behavioral science field, and so I'm interested to know how has that, kind of deeper understanding of how people react to change and behave in certain situations affected or changed your way of approaching corporate communications?

[00:15:34] ELLA MALARA: 
Thanks for this question because I felt like I was missing something. So I've studied a great deal of communication styles, communication as a tool for connection with people outside and practice facilitation, group facilitation ,and also mediating, you know, constructive feedback and managing also discussion in, in a team. But I was feel, I always felt like I was missing something. 

And then I realized what I was missing was actually a better understanding of human behaviors. Why people act in a certain way, although you, you feel like everything is in line for them to give you a certain, you know, outcome. And they do not give you that outcome and do not understand why so you need to go down to the roots of behavior. 

And human behavior have been studied in the last 50 year with many studies and it has reached a really advanced development in the behavioral science fields. I personally stick more, what I adopt more is the latest discovers on the relation frame theory and all the tools connected to that research field where basically, which is also very much connected to the communication world that I, I've met before. Where we assume that people do not only use words and images to read the world, but they use words and images to create a world themselves, an image of what they are seeing, what they're perceiving, and it is contextual and it is also relational.

So you do create different versions of the reality you, you are perceiving and you're experiencing, depending also on how you connect with other people. And this is pivotal when you, when you apply this into an organization, go down to the practical side of things. It means creating a common language, a common attitude in a team, in an organization, in a function. 

So behavioral science helped me and better understanding the roots of people response to any form of change and to also take that into account when you are strategizing. That's why I was referring to, you know, target behaviors and goal behaviors.

I'm not a psychologist. That's not my goal, that's not my tension. I do not want to do psychology sessions, group psychology sessions. That's not my intention. What I work on is, is motivating people basically.

So it all goes down to motivating people, how you motivate them. You can design around that creating path for people to make a certain experience, to adopt a different behavior, which is also different mindset spontaneously and without forcing them into it.

[00:18:25] MARIA MORRIS:
Yeah.

[00:18:26] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
And when you start working with a new company supporting with the communication, what I suppose that you need to train the teams right? Or the functions to show them some tips or tricks because you are not the one providing communicating. So you are the one providing them the tools to communicate properly, right? So they are able to communicate. Also why they're, so what are the first steps you take there on coaching them?

[00:18:52] ELLA MALARA:
Exactly, you use a good term coaching. So coaching can take many forms, many shapes in the professional field. My title is Communication Coach, but I'm not a life coach, so I'm not a business coach.

[00:19:06] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Not yet.

[00:19:07] ELLA MALARA: 
Not yet, but possibly I might be considering this career. Communication coach is what I mean by that is to help people gain awareness on all the, the complexity of the communication mechanism and also gain awareness on their power towards it.

So what's in their hands to make things work differently. And that's the first thing that I try to pass on to people when I do training. Most likely, most classically when I start a project in a company, I always start with training. So giving them the basics, like what is it we are talking about? We are not just talking about writing emails, or smiling to people. It is more about other concepts that are way more important when you relate to your employees or when you relate to, to your team members.

And that triggers many questions that eventually bring people also to think about how they behave. But important part is to connect behavior to intention and awareness. So making them understand that each choice they make brings to a different behavior, to a different outcome, also of other people makes them more accountable towards the choices they make, and they also approach their choice and their attitudes toward people differently.

[00:20:32] MARIA MORRIS:
Mm-hmm.

[00:20:32] ELLA MALARA:
That’s the first step. Then you empower them with this mindset. So it's mostly, you know, a mindset shift, the first step. And then you talk about tools that's more technical. How do we accompany this change in the company? What kind of tools can we use more digital, more offline? For how long?

But the very first step is, is that training to raise awareness and empowerment and accountability from people towards the decision making process and the behaviors that they put in place when they deal with problems and challenges in the workplace.

[00:21:10] MARIA MORRIS:
So we've spoken a lot about the importance of both kind of top down and bottom up communication paths. And obviously with your experience in behavioral science, some people prefer to communicate in different ways. So how do you ensure that when it comes to bottom up communication, how do you ensure that different types of communication styles are taken into account to make sure everybody is able to have a space to provide feedback and their thoughts during a change?

[00:21:37] ELLA MALARA: 
That's a really good question also because it allows me to address another very interesting side of communication. When you talk about communication, you take into account many, many different aspects, cultural aspects. So what is your code, communication code? 

I'm Italian, so I communicate different from people from the UK, differently from people from India and and from the U.S. So I need to take into account this, and this is something that has been decoded and you can actually study that. And there's many books that they talk about, you know, dealing with cultural differences in communication and many experts in the field.

Then you do also have another aspect, which is a bit, it is less, let's say, famous and considered, which is neurodivergency. So I really like to take that into account when strategize, understanding the diversity inside in the company. If they are aware of any diversity they needs, you know, special attention, especially when you engage with people. When you engage people, when you try to connect with them to talk with them, you need to take into account their unique necessities. 

I found myself changing a very basic activity of an org of bottom up activation because I realized the team was mostly a neurodivergent, so they needed to be addressed differently.

But I was only able to do this because the HR department was particularly aware of this uniqueness of the team. If they were not aware, I wouldn't have not been able to factor that in my strategy, I would've possibly failed in the very first step of engaging these people.

So you need to consider these aspects apart from the most classical communication style that everyone knows, which is more being assertive, passive aggressive, et cetera. That's just, you know, a tiny bit of what communication is about. It is really just scratching the surface of the communication mechanism.

[00:23:40] MARIA MORRIS:
Yes.

[00:23:41] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Very interesting Ella. So thank you so much. We are approaching to the end of the episode and we always have our gold question that our other co-host, Jos Voskuil, usually makes, and it is experiences what you get when you don't get what you expected. So can you share a moment in your career that didn't go as you planned, but you learned something from that?

[00:24:04] ELLA MALARA:
Absolutely. That also connects to my, my, let's say, industry change. So, as I said, I started in the arts and I was very much into, you know, I was very convinced that I would've built my career in the art world. In fact, I worked a lot, but then I saw… I was kind of rejected from the art world because it has different logics. I won't dig too much into it, but I felt like my approach to also, my mindset in the art world was just not fitting.

And it felt like I was doing something wrong. I was like, maybe this is not the right environment for me to thrive. Maybe I need to, to look for something else. And I was deeply scared because I, I didn't know what else out there, right? You know, when you are specialized in a certain field and you feel like maybe you are too old or too, too experienced or too specialized to move elsewhere. But that really helped me also opening my mind to different opportunities, to different perspective, and also looking for and browsing other, other industries and other attitudes.

And there was also, there was actually a pivotal to moment for me, leaving the focus on the arts field and looking elsewhere for my hunger for, you know, bringing solutions and using a communication as an engagement tool to make a difference basically.

[00:25:24] MARIA MORRIS:
Yes. And I feel like we need a whole another episode with you to actually dive into also your expertise in sustainability. But just to maybe give a little teaser to our listeners, what is the, the main link between communication and your work and sustainability? What are your main focus areas there?

[00:25:43] ELLA MALARA:
So sustainability, it is, is change in the making. It is never completed, it always transforms and develops and pivots. So it is constantly a rework and also readjusting your ideas and your attitude towards what is actually sustainable? We could talk about environmental sustainability, the ESG basics now, Environmental, Social, and Governmental.

I've been mostly working on communication for social and environmental change. Also working in a manufacturing company and working in, in industry of manufacturing, that's really the focus. The challenge for me and what I sustained in it, was linking the practical information of emissions, waste, pollution to the experience of people connecting it to their vision of what kind of world they would like to live in, what kind of world they would like to live to their families and, and children.

And also the most challenging part was turning off the denial reaction from people. That's a very natural, very human thing. When you see something to scare you, you tend not to consider it. You tend to postpone, you know, thinking about problems that will not affect you immediately. That's a bias. We not talk about bias, of course. There's so much to say about biases in the human behavior.

But that was the most interesting part for me trying to take down the biases that prevent us from actually read our data as a resource for better planning, better design, and for a better future. And rather than read it as something scary that makes up powerless.

[00:27:29] MARIA MORRIS:
Mm-hmm. Very good.

[00:27:32] BEATRIZ GONZALEZ:
Thank you very much Ella and thank you to our listeners for tuning in. Thank you Maria for co-host this, this episode with us.

[00:27:39] MARIA MORRIS:
Thank you for having me, and thank you, Ella for joining us.

[00:27:42] ELLA MALARA:
Thank you for the invite. It was really great talking to you about these, so many complex things and I hope there will be a next time to discuss other interesting things with us, with you.