Change Management for Social Media Success
July 19, 2010
"We know that leadership is very much related to change. As the pace of change accelerates, there is naturally a greater need for effective leadership."
– John P. Kotter, Author, Leading Change
Marketers require all kinds of skills to be effective. We need to understand project management, art and graphic design, be able to run a brainstorming meeting and talk ROI at the end of the day to measure what we did last month. The one set of skills that we will need going forward is a master’s level understanding of change management.
What was once a discipline for people on large-scale corporate re-engineering teams, change management and the transformation process are skills that every marketer now needs to have in their hip pocket, ready to deploy at the next turn.
You can’t learn change management in a day, but there are some guidelines that can help you get through your next project. In Leading Change, John P. Kotter outlined eight stages in the change management process. By understanding the process that human beings go through in order to achieve successful change, you’ll increase the chances that your next endeavor will end on target.
Q&A | QUESTIONS & ACTIONS
Think about your existing marketing projects that are brining change to the organization (especially social media…) and compare them to Kotter’s eight-stage process to see if you’re going through the right steps to succeed.
- Establishing a Sense of Urgency
- Creating the Guiding Coalition
- Developing a Vision and Strategy
- Communicating the Change Vision
- Empowering Broad-Based Action
- Generating Short-Term Wins
- Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change
- Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK?
This week we’re doing something a bit different. Starting Tuesday July 20th and for the next eight workdays, we’ll be covering the “Eights Steps to Social Media Failure” using the Eight-Stage Change Management Process as a backdrop for the discussion. Stay tuned at www.marketingsavant.com.
