90-Day Plan - Head of Internal Communication and Change Management - WTW

90-Day Entry Plan

Head of Internal Communication and Change Management

WTW · Sherita Grinter, PMP · July 2026

WTW is navigating AI, automation, and operating model transformation across 40,000+ colleagues globally. The Head of ICCM role is responsible for helping those colleagues understand what is changing, why it matters, and what it means for them — while building the infrastructure, team, and governance model that makes those communications trustworthy, consistent, and measurably effective. Month one is about understanding WTW's transformation agenda and colleague landscape well enough to build the right infrastructure rather than a fast one.

The change management principles embedded in this plan

Diagnose Before You Write

Understand what colleagues currently believe, what they need to believe differently, and where the resistance will come from before designing a single communication. The CCPA channel failure I prevented at Capital One happened because I diagnosed the problem before anyone asked me to.

Governance Is Not Housekeeping

Ungoverned internal content creates confused search results, contradictory information, and now inaccurate AI responses. Content governance and AI transformation performance are the same investment. This principle shapes every channel and content decision in this plan.

Behavior Change, Not Reach

Every communication has a defined behavioral outcome. Did colleagues understand what changed? Did leaders communicate more effectively? Did adoption actually happen? Measurement is built from day one, not added after the program runs.

Days 1–14 — Immediate Value. Before Anything Is Formally Assigned.

At CoStar Group, McKesson, and Capital One I identified the structural problems in the first week and started building prototypes before anyone asked. WTW will be no different. Here is what happens in the first two weeks — not as a plan, but as a documented pattern.

My two-week instinct is to observe, document, and build a prototype before proposing anything. I do not walk in and announce what is broken. I gather evidence, find the right stakeholder, take them on the journey of what I am seeing, and show them what the solution could look like. The prototype is what makes buy-in fast. The evidence is what makes the case credible. This is how I have operated at every organization I have joined — and it is why I have been able to add measurable value within the first two weeks each time.

Day 1–3: Observe and Document

Walk every internal communications channel with fresh eyes: the intranet, the content management system, Slack, email, digital signage if it exists, and any other surfaces where colleagues go to find information
Document what is outdated, conflicting, or missing without touching anything yet. At Homes.com I found digital signage with expired event dates on every sales floor on day one. At McKesson I found Highspot content that made the $900M initiative undiscoverable. At Capital One I found ungoverned asset records creating legal exposure. WTW will have its own version of this problem
Begin identifying who owns which content areas — and where there is content with no owner at all, which is usually where the governance has broken down

Day 3–7: Build the Prototype

Start building the prototype of what the solution looks like — not to present yet, but because showing is faster than describing. At CoStar I brought a working SharePoint prototype to the focus group. At McKesson I built a draft communication architecture before proposing a governance model. The prototype is what turns a conversation about a problem into a conversation about a solution
Pull unstructured colleague feedback from wherever it lives: Teams channels, email inboxes, survey responses, Slack threads. Find the themes. Those themes become the content roadmap. At CoStar this process directly produced the 80-page Copilot knowledge base
Identify the two or three content owners whose buy-in is essential before anything can be archived, restructured, or governed. Begin building those relationships

Day 7–10: Take Stakeholders on the Journey

Bring the observations and the prototype to the right stakeholders — not as a critique of what exists, but as a shared diagnosis of what is costing colleagues time and trust. Show them what I found. Show them what the solution could look like. Let them shape it
Begin archiving the most clearly outdated content with stakeholder agreement — the content with expired dates, superseded policies, or conflicting information that is actively confusing colleagues and corrupting AI search results. This is the fastest visible improvement that does not require a strategy document to justify
Identify the cascade sequence gaps: is there a pattern of announcements reaching front-line colleagues before their managers have been prepared to answer questions? If so, document it and propose the fix

Day 10–14: First Deliverable

Deliver the first tangible output: an AI-powered communications agent built on WTW’s most frequently asked internal questions. I have built both a Microsoft Copilot Studio enterprise agent and a Claude-powered agent in one to two days each, both in production. The agent is not the end goal — it is the proof of concept that shows colleagues and leadership what governed, AI-ready content can do
Present the two-week findings to the Head of Corporate Communication: what the content landscape looks like, what has already been improved, what the prototype shows, and what the 90-day plan will build from here
This is not a status update. It is evidence that the function already has a leader who acts before being asked and delivers before the onboarding is technically complete

⚡

Why this is possible in two weeks: I have done this three times before. The structural problems are always visible immediately to someone who knows what to look for. The prototype makes stakeholder buy-in fast. The AI agent can be built in a day or two because I have already built two of them in production. What takes time in most organizations is not the diagnosis or the build — it is the stakeholder alignment. That is why I start building relationships on day one and bring the prototype rather than the proposal.

Days 1–30 — Learn the Transformation Agenda. Audit the ICCM Landscape. Build the Team Foundation.

Understand WTW's transformation priorities, the current state of internal communications and change management across the enterprise, and the ICCM team's capabilities and gaps before designing the strategy.

At every organization I have joined, the communications problem was more structural than anyone had named. The right diagnosis changes the strategy. At Capital One I discovered that the content governance gap was the root cause of the channel trust problem. At McKesson I identified that the communications channel itself was limiting the SVP's reach before I proposed video. Month one at WTW finds the structural issues before month two builds on top of them.

Learn the Transformation Agenda

Get deeply fluent in WTW's transformation priorities: the AI and automation agenda, the operating model changes in flight, the M&A and integration activity, and the strategic initiatives that will require change communications in the next 12 months
Meet with the Head of Corporate Communication and executive leadership team to understand the narrative WTW needs its ICCM function to carry, the moments in the calendar that require strategic communications, and the colleague experience challenges that internal communications needs to address
Understand what WTW colleagues currently believe about the transformation and where the resistance, confusion, or disengagement is concentrated — this is the change management diagnosis that shapes everything else

Audit the ICCM Landscape

Audit the current state of internal communications across WTW: channels, content quality, governance standards, cadence, and colleague trust in what they find on internal platforms
Identify where content is outdated, contradictory, or creating noise — and assess how that content is affecting both colleague experience and AI-powered search accuracy
Map the change management frameworks and processes currently in use across the enterprise: where they are working, where they are inconsistent, and where colleague understanding of major transformation efforts has broken down

Build the Team Foundation

Meet individually with every ICCM team member: understand their strengths, their development goals, what they are proud of, and where they feel the function is falling short
Assess the team's current capabilities against what the transformation agenda requires — and identify the gaps between current state and the high-performing ICCM function WTW needs
Build the working relationships and trust that make it possible to give direct feedback, set high standards, and develop people without losing them

AI and Copilot Assessment

Assess how Microsoft Copilot and other AI tools are currently being used within the ICCM function and across WTW's internal communications channels: what has been deployed, what adoption looks like, and where AI is not yet being used to improve quality, efficiency, or colleague experience
Apply the deployment discipline from CoStar: audit the content that AI is drawing from before expanding AI-powered search or response capabilities, because ungoverned content produces inaccurate AI answers
Identify the highest-leverage AI workflow integrations for the ICCM team specifically: drafting, research, translation, personalization, and analytics

📋

30-Day Output: Transformation agenda fluency established. ICCM landscape audit delivered to the Head of Corporate Communication. Team capability assessment complete. AI and Copilot readiness assessed. The structural issues are visible before month two starts building solutions.

What success looks like at 30 days

Executive leadership sees a Head of ICCM who diagnoses before proposing — not arriving with a pre-built strategy

The ICCM team knows their new leader's standards, values, and approach to their development

The content governance and AI readiness gaps are mapped before any new AI capability is deployed

Days 31–60 — Set the Strategy. Fix the Governance Foundation. Lead the First Change Communication.

Define the ICCM strategy aligned to WTW's transformation priorities, implement the content governance model, equip executive leaders to communicate more effectively, and lead the first major change communication initiative.

The 230.96% email open rate I achieved at McKesson was not the result of better writing. It was the result of channel governance: every message had a defined purpose, audience, and shelf life. Colleagues learned the channel was trustworthy because it was never used for noise. The same principle applies across WTW's global internal communications ecosystem — governance produces trust, and trust produces the colleague engagement that drives transformation adoption.

ICCM Strategy

Define the internal communications and change management strategy aligned to WTW's transformation agenda: what the function will do, how it will be structured, what standards it will hold, and how it will measure success
Establish the ICCM operating model: service offerings, decision rights, escalation paths, and the cross-functional partnerships with Executive Leadership, the Office of the CEO, Investor Relations, Corporate Marketing, segments, and regions
Build the communications calendar and change portfolio that sequences enterprise initiatives, reduces duplication, and manages colleague capacity across the transformation agenda

Content Governance Model

Implement the content lifecycle governance model across WTW's internal channels: intake standards, shelf life definitions, retirement protocols, and the AI-ready content structure that makes internal search trustworthy and AI responses accurate
Establish the channel architecture that reduces noise and increases signal for 40,000+ colleagues across geographies: which content belongs where, what the update cadence is, and how colleagues in different regions and functions find what they need
Build the embedded digital content feed approach — the same strategic messages, imperatives, and priorities visible across every surface regardless of whether a colleague is in an office or working remotely

Executive Leader Enablement

Equip WTW's executive and senior leaders to communicate authentically and effectively through the transformation: messaging guides, talking points, format coaching, and the advisory relationship that makes leaders confident rather than scripted
Identify the leaders who are underusing the formats available to them — those communicating through channels that limit their reach or authenticity — and introduce the format changes that make their communications more human and more effective
Ghost-write executive communications that sound like the leader, not like a communications function

First Change Communication Initiative

Lead the highest-priority change communication initiative identified in month one: design the colleague journey, sequence the messaging cascade, build the manager toolkit, establish the feedback loop, and measure whether colleagues understand what is changing and what it means for them
Apply the full change management approach: pre-communication diagnosis, audience segmentation, channel selection, rollout sequencing, and post-communication behavior measurement
Demonstrate the ICCM function's value through a concrete, measurable change communication outcome in month two

⚡

60-Day Output: ICCM strategy defined and executive-aligned. Content governance model implemented. Executive leaders more effectively equipped. First change communication initiative delivered with measurement. AI and Copilot integration advancing in the ICCM team's own workflows. WTW colleagues are receiving higher-quality, more trustworthy internal communications than 60 days ago.

What success looks like at 60 days

The ICCM function has a clear strategy, operating model, and standards that the team and executive leadership understand

The first major change communication has been delivered, measured, and iterated

Executive leaders are communicating more effectively and with more confidence

Days 61–90 — Prove Business Impact. Develop the Team. Present the Forward Strategy.

Connect ICCM investments to measurable business and colleague experience outcomes. Report on AI integration impact. Demonstrate team development progress. Present the 12-month strategy.

The measure of an ICCM function at WTW is whether the 40,000+ colleagues navigating AI, automation, and operating model transformation feel informed, capable, and confident in their organization's direction. Not whether communications were sent. Whether understanding changed. Whether adoption happened. Whether leaders communicated authentically. Those are the outcomes worth reporting at 90 days.

Business Impact Reporting

Report the 90-day read on ICCM effectiveness: colleague understanding of transformation priorities, leader communications quality improvement, change initiative adoption rates, and content governance impact on search accuracy and colleague trust
Connect every ICCM investment to a specific business outcome: not "we published 40 communications" but "colleague understanding of the AI transformation increased from X to Y, and adoption of the pilot tool reached Z within 30 days of launch"
Establish the executive reporting framework that gives the Head of Corporate Communication and WTW leadership forward-looking insight into ICCM impact

Team Development

Report on the ICCM team's development: where individual capabilities have grown, where coaching has shifted performance, and where the team structure or resource mix needs to change to deliver the 12-month strategy
Establish the individual development plans, performance standards, and career paths that make the ICCM function a place where talented communications and change professionals want to build their careers
Identify the capability gaps that require hiring, training, or restructuring and bring a specific recommendation to the Head of Corporate Communication

AI Integration Impact

Report on the ICCM team's AI and Copilot integration: where AI has improved the quality, efficiency, or reach of internal communications, and where AI-powered colleague-facing tools are producing more accurate responses because the content governance is cleaner
Present the AI integration roadmap for the next 12 months: which capabilities to build, which to evaluate, and how to govern AI use in ICCM work so quality and authenticity are maintained

12-Month Forward Strategy

Present the 12-month ICCM strategy to the Head of Corporate Communication and executive leadership: the change communications calendar, the channel and governance roadmap, the team development plan, the AI integration strategy, and the measurement framework
Identify the organizational moments on the horizon requiring ICCM strategy now: major transformation milestones, potential M&A, operating model changes, and the AI adoption moments that will require the clearest, most carefully sequenced communications

📊

90-Day Output: Business impact report connected to colleague understanding and transformation adoption outcomes. AI integration impact documented. ICCM team development on track. 12-month strategy presented. WTW colleagues across 40,000+ people and multiple geographies are better informed, their leaders communicate more effectively, and the ICCM function is positioned as a strategic asset rather than a communications support service.

✨

The standard: A colleague in any of WTW's global offices or working remotely should be able to find accurate, current information about the company's transformation, understand what it means for their work, and trust that the communications they receive are designed around their experience rather than built for convenience. That standard requires governance, measurement, executive partnership, and a high-performing ICCM team. This 90 days builds all four.

What success looks like at 90 days

Colleagues describe internal communications as clearer, more trustworthy, and more relevant to their work than 90 days ago

Executive leaders are stronger communicators through the transformation than they were on day one

The ICCM team is higher-performing, better developed, and clearer on its standards than it was on day one