Marketing 911
Marketing 911, is the podcast where we tackle the toughest marketing challenges at the executive level.
Whether you're navigating complex strategies, trying to reach your target audience, or facing shifting market dynamics, we're here to provide you with actionable solutions.
From digital transformation to customer retention, if it's a marketing crisis, we're here to help you solve it—before it turns into a full-blown emergency.
Marketing 911
Part 3 - Days 61-100 of the new job and mastering change
Unlock the secrets to mastering a new role within your organization as we explore the nuanced journey from the honeymoon phase to the reality of a new job role. Imagine transitioning from excitement to the challenging grind, where understanding each team member's unique response to change becomes crucial. Join Brian Bakstran and Richard Bliss as they navigate these waters, revealing strategies to overcome resistance and effectively communicate the personal benefits of change. Discover how to identify and empower champions who will support you in building trust, ensuring a smoother transition and long-term success.
In this episode of Marketing 911, we emphasize the significance of the first 60 days in any organizational shift, focusing on nurturing trust and loyalty. Uncover how to maintain momentum and elevate morale through consistent communication and celebrating every success, big or small. The path to change is riddled with challenges, but with regular reinforcement and tailored strategies that respect individual preferences, akin to the five love languages in the workplace, you can achieve your strategic goals. We wrap up with heartfelt gratitude for our listeners' engagement and support, inviting you to connect with us on LinkedIn for ongoing insights and discussions.
This is Brian Backstrand, co-host of Marketing 911, joined today by my other co-host.
Speaker 2:Richard Bliss. Brian, great to be here again. What are we going to talk about today?
Speaker 1:So, what we're going to talk about today is in episode, or part one and two we're talking about you've landed a new job and what's your 90-day plan? So part one was all about listening, understanding, taking notes, getting a feel for the role and the people. Part two was take the next step, refine the plan, come up with training, et cetera, and maybe we're in step three, day 61 to 100. Honeymoon is kind of over Now. Here's where the rubber meets the road and it is time to begin executing that plan that you put in place. So what are the potential pitfalls that may raise their head during this time? So you know, as change, we all know it's difficult for everyone and people kind of view it as this may be good for the company. But is this change and the things we're being asked to do, what's it mean to me? So, richard, I want to ask you first we've all dealt with this. You've managed through change, etc. What are some of the things that you have found?
Speaker 2:One of the biggest ones because I have managed through change, particularly when you're at a startup or you're coming into an organization, and that is that you can generally.
Speaker 2:In my case, it got to the point where I could identify who was going to be resistant to change Now. Now they might not stand up, but you can tell they've got, they've leaned back, they've got their arms folded, they're not giving off the, they're giving the body signals off of yeah, right, okay, whatever. And then you know, I've had some, actually some terrible ones, where they said all the right things but then all of a sudden they laid in wait until they sprung the gotcha to try to tear you down, derail you take you off track, because they don't want to change. And so that was the biggest takeaway. That was one of the biggest takeaways, and the other one was to be aware that some people are going to feel threatened, but they want the change, but they still feel threatened. They want to know what it's about them. So those are the two things I always saw and took away from that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great point. I mean I think at this stage it all depends on the role you're going into. It could be some minor changes, maybe you need to make some tweaks to an organization, maybe you need to think about your strategy a little different, or it could be a pretty major change. Maybe the go-to-market has changed, maybe the sales organization is redesigned, maybe you've brought on new product lines. There's a lot of training that has to happen, maybe there's been a layoff and people need to change their roles in this new world.
Speaker 1:And what I've found is, you know, you've got 20 percent of the people who are certainly going to embrace change. They see the value. You've got 20 percent who, as you described, are kind of not happy that this is happening and are going to resist. And then you've got the 60 percent in the middle who are kind of waiting, you know, with their finger in the air to figure out which way the wind is going. Waiting with their finger in the air to figure out which way the wind is going.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I always do during these points of change is recognizing that when you're talking to an organization about change, people in their head are saying what does this mean to me? You're going to lay out why it's important to the company, why it's important to revenue, why it's important to the company, why it's important to revenue, why it's important to the marketing organization, but ultimately, everybody in their head thinks all right, what does this mean for me? Am I, is this good, is it bad, am I happy about it, et cetera. And so I've always viewed it as part of my role as a leader is to get with every person in the organization and make sure that I articulate why this is good for their career, why this is something that they will enjoy, why they can learn something new, putting it in the context of why they should come along for the ride.
Speaker 2:I like this. I got to tell you as I'm thinking about this, because sometimes you have those. The story that comes to mind for me is I can remember being at an organization I had come in and my role wasn't clearly defined, because it was my experience that had been brought in, but not necessarily a role, because there were some people who already were in the role that I traditionally would have held. But one day, on a Friday night, one of our employees comes to us and says I've got a client. I got a customer on the phone there's having some problems and they want to know if we were a small startup. They want to know if we would come to New York to solve their problem in person. It was a law firm Crevasse, swain, moore, big law firm. Right, I want to know how much we charge. Well, we're a tiny startup. So I threw out a number. So he goes back and he comes back and he says okay, now they want to know if I can come out. I said when do they want you to fly out? He said in the next two hours, right, and it was like oh sure, off, you go. Well, monday morning that guy's boss shows up. He's like hey, where's James? I said, oh, he's in New York. What do you mean? He's in New York.
Speaker 2:I changed the entire process of the company over the weekend and obviously this executive wasn't happy that I had stepped onto his turf, made a decision, and it was one of those places. Could I handle it? Yeah, much better. Did they resent it and then fight that decision? Yeah, was it ultimately one of the best things we ever did? Well, yeah, I'm tooting my own horn, but I can just remember the failure to communicate clearly and to set expectations and to work with that led to some challenges, ultimately that executive leaving because it became a power struggle and I didn't do well at the communication side of that. So I don't know how that story fits into what you're saying, but it certainly comes to mind, as you're talking about this approach that you have to go in with.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I think it fits perfectly well, because what you're describing is for people who their roles are changing, the go-to-market's changing. How they do their job is changing. If you're not clear with them what their role is and what their area of responsibility is, and how they'll be measured for success, then they could fall into a trap similar to what you did, which is start making decisions not knowing whether this is even within their realm of their new role.
Speaker 2:Well, and as we said at the beginning of this series, this three-part series, I didn't go in with those 30, 60, 90-day plans, and so part of that was rocking the boat, throwing things overboard and changing direction without necessarily finding that consensus and bringing people along for the ride. So I was younger, much less experienced at that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think the other piece is this is why finding champions is so important. It's one thing for the head of the organization to be telling folks why this is good for them, et cetera, but people look to their peers and this gets back to the 20, 60, 20, right, you need to find the 20%. The people who are really on board get it. They're in a position where they can influence others. And you need to find that 20 percent. The people who are really on board get it. They're in a, they're in a position where they can influence others, and you need to leverage those people to help bring along the 60 percent that are kind of waiting to see whether this is worth it or whether this is going to work or not. You absolutely need those champions to be to be part of your transition plan.
Speaker 2:You do. And I saw a disastrous way of this handling because I stepped into a role where I was part of to facilitate change and my manager communicated to the team that was being changed. This was the language that was used we're going to tear down your role. We're going to tear down everything you've been doing and we're going to build it up role. We're going to tear down everything you've been doing and we're going to build it up from the ground up.
Speaker 2:And I had to finally pull my manager aside and said look, that language to the existing team is alarming because you're basically saying everything they've been doing is wrong. You find no value in what they're doing and you have no clear role of what their new role is going to be. You're going to lose those people and that was a disastrous way of communicating. I mean, I knew what he was trying to do Aspirational goals, hey, we're going to build this thing, but you got to take into consideration the people themselves, what's in it for them? And he was basically saying look, it's nothing in it for you because everything you've been doing at this point is going to change and there's no value here. And that was not a good thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your words are so, so critical. That's an absolute. And they all left. They all left, yeah. And the alternative to that is they decide we're not going to leave but we're not putting the effort in. At least if they left you could replace them.
Speaker 1:But if you have a large part of your organization who are saying the right things but in reality they're not putting in the effort, because two episodes the first 60 days are so important to build trust, to listen, to not make any drastic changes, to over-communicate consistently around what you're thinking, to get people's input, because by day 61, if you don't have that trust and loyalty in the tank, it's going to be incredibly difficult to start executing the plan you spent 60 days working on. Incredibly difficult to get sales to stay on board with the change, because that's part of it as well, right? Sales, like every organization, wants change quick because they know that marketing, they can use marketing's help. By this time they're expecting you to start making changes that are going to help and impact them and you can't be spending days 61 to 100 trying to continue to get people on board because you made some mistakes in the first 60 days.
Speaker 2:Now you've told me a story about where you had some success with this, where you went in, the change had to happen and then you were able to convince them, to get them on board through your individual efforts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think part of it is. You know, it's always a team effort. I found champions right up front who saw the vision and recognized that we had to go the direction we were going in, and they helped drive it. You know, I would hold training for the whole team through, you know, day 30 through 60 in terms of hey, it's time to get on board and we're going to train you on how to do it. And I had the people who were champions do the training, so it wasn't me doing it again, tried to take myself out of it as much as possible, because the more that people saw their peers on board and the peers excited about the direction, the more opportunity we had to bring people along, which we did.
Speaker 2:Now you spent. I think what you were telling me is how much time you invested in those individual champions to help make that emotional connection and build that trust.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and again, I recognized a long time ago the importance of bringing people along and not just throwing a strategy at them, but having them provide input and recommendations and getting them excited about the direction and getting back to what I was saying before, telling them why this will be good for their career, why this will help them down the road.
Speaker 1:Help them down the road and then, once you get those people on board, they start bringing ideas along and they're the ones that bring to you hey, you know, if you've got 60, 80, 100 people in your organization, you need folks who are helping you understand how the organization's feeling, particularly through change, and these champions are good ones to say hey, generally speaking, I think people are okay, but they need they're worried about this or they're worried about that. And then you're able to put more training in place, like we introduced training in part two. But training doesn't stop and even as you're executing the plan, you need to make sure sometimes you have to do the training that you did the month earlier, do it again because people didn't get the constant learning and training to get them on board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the forgetting curve is what I refer to it as is finding ways to, to flatten the forgetting curve because, right, it's a, it's that there's that high, the training and what's been nice is I've been able to track this with a lot of the clients that I work with, where we can see the change in their behavior but then invariably after 30, 60 days, oh, it starts to drop off and then it just takes a small amount of reinforcement or reminder and up comes that and you just flatten that, so you don't have those peaks and lows of oh yeah, we're active for a week or two because we just had training and now suddenly 30, 60 days later, we're back to our old habits and keeping that consistent touch points. That certainly makes a big difference at keeping this plan going.
Speaker 1:You know one of the things I've done is we've talked about in a previous segment, a previous podcast you mentioned, of Tom Mendoza and catch somebody doing something great. Mendoza, and catch somebody doing something great. I've done that at companies where I've communicated out and promoted people in the organization who have done something great, and it wasn't necessarily hey, they handled the entire conference on their own. It could be something as simple as somebody in the organization needed some help. They dropped what they were doing and they helped them out. So how that helps is communicating out little wins, communicating out things that are changing, that are having a positive effect. Communicating out people within the organization. They love to see themselves promoted to executive leadership and others that they've done something you know in a positive way. And so over-communicating through this 61 to 100 days, promoting wins that could be wins that the new go-to-market's working. It could be wins that a new campaign just launched, whatever those things are and continuing training through this period is really, really important.
Speaker 1:And then the final thing I'll say about this is meetings and reviews. Right, meetings with sales, meetings with marketing. How are we doing? What does the data look like? We're executing a plan. Do we need to tweak it? How's the execution going? You're always going to have to make adjustments. So regularly scheduled meetings, beginning 61 through 100 and will continue afterwards, is critical.
Speaker 2:You know I like that and we're out of time here. As we wrap up with that, here's something I'd like to talk about in the future, because you've triggered something in my mind, and that is not everybody responds in the same way to reinforcement, and I come back to a book that I've used with my children, my five daughters the five love languages. All right, the five languages of love, the different ways that people show and express love. Well, there's one for the workplace too, because sometimes a word of encouragement, words of affirmation, or sometimes a small gift or token, like a small award on their desk, sometimes spending some time with them, sometimes a handshake or a hug, whatever it might be. There's these small, tiny, little actions that we can take when you talk about those champions and to reward them, and I'd like to talk about that in the future. What do you think? Does that sound like a great idea?
Speaker 1:I do. I think that's terrific. It's probably something that's overlooked a lot, particularly as people get really busy, and it has a huge impact, so great, let's put that one in the catalog and we'll get to that in a future episode. So I want to thank everyone for listening to Marketing 911. You can catch up with Richard and I on LinkedIn and we look forward to getting you hearing from you on the next episode. Richard, anything to say at the end here? Nope, just thanks, brian, and take care. Everybody, take care.
