Change

It’s Monday morning and you just realized a mandatory meeting is starting soon. As you open the email and briskly scan through the main talking points, one word is mentioned over and over. Change. It seems there is a desire to vastly improve internal processes. The meeting is about marketing change management, and you have five minutes to read up on it. So, let’s get started.

Marketing Change Management

Adroll.com describes marketing change management as the strategic approach marketers take, when preparing for or reacting to changes in markets and consumer behaviours. In other words, when a change is needed, a plan is developed and rolled out in stages to bring the change to fruition.

Organizational Changes

When you first started working, it was challenging to get into the flow of things and learn the tasks and duties you would be responsible for. Over time you became more comfortable with your duties and now you complete them with ease. However, if you look back on your career, you might remember times when you were hesitant or resistant to organizational changes that were coming down the pipe.

Implementing Change

When things change, the routine and processes you became used to get shaken up. It can be difficult to learn new ways to complete tasks you’ve become comfortable with and believe were done efficiently previously. This could be difficult to bring up with your leader. CoSchedule.com has a free template you can use to guide the conversation, prepare a solution and develop a plan to bring change to your organization.

The Need

First, you’ll have to gather proof to substantiate your claim that there is indeed a need for change. This can be a tedious task to take on, but if the process is broken, this is where you should start. One way to validate your argument could be to focus on the resources that may be wasted. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, “Time is money.” If employees are spending a substantial amount of time following an inefficient process, your organization could be wasting both. There’s a useful calculation you can use to help the figures speak for themselves on CoSchedule.com’s blog titled 8 Steps To Influencing Marketing Change Management That Sticks. Begin by adding the hours spent on a project in an average week. Next, multiply that total by each employee’s hourly wage, and finally, multiply by 52 to calculate how much money is spent on the project in a year.

The Benefit

The calculation above will help you show that not only is the old process wasting resources, but it is also negatively affecting the company’s profit margins. While CoScheduele lists many ways to gather data to help plead your case, showing your boss the numbers is a great place to start. Anthony D. Williams once said, “Creating new paths requires moving old obstacles.” The old obstacle in this case is the process or the belief that the old way, or the way things have always been done, is how they should be done. A new path will involve critiquing the old process and outlining a more efficient process to succeed it. While you’ve shown time and money is being unnecessarily wasted, merely pointing out an issue, isn’t enough. You need to have a solution.

The Plan

With these figures and any other proof, you’ve gathered in hand, it’s time to outline the new plan. Applying critical thinking will help you figure out how to improve the process. You could list each task in the project and eliminate unnecessary steps to reduce the time employees spend, which will indirectly save money. You could also highlight the positives of implementing a change to the process, by recalculating the time and money invested in the project annually.

Change isn’t Easy

Whether it’s been a few months, a few years or longer, it can be challenging to speak up when you notice a process isn’t as efficient as it could be. However, if you identify a problem with a process or a workflow, don’t keep it to yourself. Share your concerns with your leader because they may not have the same level of involvement you have. According to CoSchedule.com, it could take up to 21 days for your colleagues to accept change and build new habits. You’ll have to be prepared to put in the work to make the change a reality, because change isn’t easy, and nothing changes overnight.

 

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