Chapter 5
Making It Happen!
The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.
—Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
We've all heard the mantra, “What gets measured gets managed.” It sounds so simple to manage a change project. The problem is that just because you're managing something doesn't mean it will happen. There's a lot that needs to be coordinated and changed. There's a lot of inertia. And there's a lot of attitude.
What Barriers Are Preventing You from Maturing?
In many years of consulting, speaking at conferences, hosting forums, and talking with chief marketing officers (CMOs) and digital strategists, one question always sparks an emotional discussion: “What barriers are preventing you from achieving a higher level of customer experience maturity?”
Our research with the Customer Experience Maturity Model reinforced the casual tally of responses we had kept over years of the top barriers that prevent organizations from maturing. You can see in Chapter 4 where process is one of the biggest gaps:
- Lack of resources
- Lack of budget
- Uncertainty in process or direction
- Lack of capability in existing technology
- Lack of executive support or buy-in
- Lack of clear understanding of return on investment
- Difficulty recruiting staff
- Difficulty retaining staff
Some of these barriers have the same root cause. For example, having a clear understanding of process and strategic direction gives focus, which reduces the need for resources. Also, having a clear understanding of the business case will create a clear Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI). That will give you executive buy-in, which in turn cures a lot of ills.
Once you have a clear direction and clarity on processes, the rest of these barriers are ones you can scale.
Steps to Successfully Improve Marketing
You can have the right metrics, beautiful charts and dashboards, great management style, and even motivated teams, but still projects and improvement efforts fail. In fact, organizations have incredibly high failure rates when they attempt to make large changes or take on large projects. Why?
The failure rate is high usually not because of technical skills or tools. Rather it's because of people, process, and organizational inertia. Just like in physics, things tend to remain the same. Unless you have great processes and motivated people, the organization will return to its original position or speed.
We want to show you two complementary ways you can approach changing the people and processes in your organization. Each has a metaphor behind it that's easy to remember. The first is the Burning Platform. The second is the Trapeze Theory.
The Burning Platform is one of the most common ways of changing an organization. It depends on scaring the heck out of people: “Either we change or we all die.” As you might expect, it can highly motivate the right team of people, can demotivate others, discredit management if it's not true, and in almost all cases has a high failure rate.
The Trapeze Theory of change is a method of helping the people in organizations move from an old platform to a new platform. It is a model that helps managers think about how to motivate the movement from the old platform, support people during transition, and reward them for staying on the new platform. In past work helping large organizations transition from legacy to new computer systems the Trapeze Theory of change has helped managers understand how they can make the change easier, faster, and ensure that the change “sticks.”
The Trapeze Theory gives people a solid foundation of confidence, doesn't disrupt your organization as much, and has a high success rate. It's based on good, humane management skills.
Each of these methods is useful in different types of organizations, with different cultures, and in different change environments. You need to know which one to use for each situation you face. It's best to keep your tool kit stocked with different options and pick the tool that's best for the job.
Let's first examine the Burning Platform method, also known as “change or die.” A later section describes the Trapeze Theory.
Burning Platform Method of Organizational Change
The first and one of the most widely used models for organizational change is often referred to as the Burning Platform. The metaphor came from Daryl Conner. Conner relates that he had been researching how executives behave when their organization had to change to survive. (Notice the “change or die” situation.)
One evening in 1988 Conner was watching television when he saw a horrific story of the Piper Alpha oil-drilling platform high above the freezing North Sea off the coast of Scotland. The platform had exploded and caught fire. The workers were taught not to jump, as the fall of 15 stories and the freezing water were certain death; in fact, the explosion, fire, and bitter elements caused the deaths of 165 crew members and two rescuers.
Of the 61 who survived, Andy Mochan, a superintendent, lived by jumping from the high platform into the freezing water filled with floating debris. When interviewed later, Andy said, “It was either jump or fry.”
That is the same feeling that many executives have in using this Burning Platform model of organizational change. The executives and professionals who use a Burning Platform model for change must really be faced with a “do or die” situation.
Conner went on to write Leading at the Edge of Chaos: How to Create the Nimble Organization (John Wiley & Sons, 1998).1
Another organizational change model that follows a similar philosophy to the Burning Platform is John Kotter's eight-step model of organizational change.
John Kotter's Eight-Step Model of Organizational Change
Dr. John Kotter, the Harvard professor regarded by many as the authority on leadership and change, has written another book for this method of change. His easy-to-read business parable, Our Iceberg Is Melting (Macmillan, 2006), uses a short, insightful parable of a penguin who learns of impending disaster that will affect the entire colony. The ice flow the colony lives on is about to break up. This one little penguin is faced with convincing the leaders of the colony to move thousands of birds immediately. Dr. Kotter's writings aren't limited to a cute parable. Two of his other books are A Sense of Urgency (Harvard Business Review Press, 2008) and The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012).
Kotter has developed an eight-step model for using the Melting Iceberg metaphor to change an organization2:
- Establish a sense of urgency.
Leaders must be infected with this same sense of urgency and be able to instill it in their people.
- Create a guiding coalition.
A team of leaders must align together to solve the problem. Division of power will cause delay, and lack of focus will cause failure.
- Develop a change vision.
You must develop a clear vision that is easily understood, believed, and doable.
- Communicate the vision and gain buy-in.
Learn who the influencers and change agents are in your organization. Get them on board and help them spread the word.
- Empower people for a foundation of action.
Give people the power to make necessary change. Pressuring people to make change but not giving them the power and resources is incredibly demotivating.
- Generate short-term wins.
Divide long-term projects into short-term winnable goals. Celebrate reaching these short-term goals to increase motivation.
- Never let up.
Use the momentum of short-term wins to keep going.
- Incorporate change into the culture.
Become a learning organization that looks for continual improvement.
Dr. Kotter goes into detail and includes numerous stories of organizations making change in his books The Heart of Change and A Sense of Urgency.
Whether you call it Burning Platform or Melting Iceberg, this model of people, process, and culture change has a high failure rate. That is probably due to the fact that many executives use it when the platform or colony isn't in true life-threatening danger. This method does work when the people believe their leaders, when they can see and believe the imminent threat, and when the leadership creates a clear direction and process of how the organization can be saved and even come out better.
There is a problem with this method that reflects on leadership. The sense of urgency that is needed by Kotter's Melting Iceberg and the Burning Platform, implies impending doom. This suggests that management was not aware of what was ahead. Management waited until there was impending disaster and is now depending on crisis mode to fix it.
Culture
- If the organizational culture is composed of high-energy, proactive people (think Silicon Valley start-up culture) who feel they have a stake in a winning outcome, this model can be highly successful.
- If the organizational culture is hierarchical and motivated to the cause—for example, military units and some highly structured business units—this model can be successful if the cause is true.
- If the organizational culture is more bureaucratic and less self-directed, and people have an attitude of “just follow orders,” there's a greater chance of failure.
Situation
- If this isn't a do-or-die situation and your people discover they have been misled, then you lose credibility and motivation and may face internal sabotage.
- Teams and entire organizations can go through this successfully once or twice, but if this happens once a year or more, everyone will just ignore it. While working in a do-or-die environment can be exhilarating, most people will put their lives and families on hold only a few times for business. At some point they realize they don't want to stay in that organization.
Outcome
- If you are truly in a once-in-a-decade do-or-die situation and you get people aligned and motivated, this model can create amazing results—the “land a man on the moon” kind of results. However, for most day-to-day changes this model has a high failure rate.
Trapeze Theory Model of Organizational Change
For an individual in an organization, cultural change is like taking that first leap from a platform to catch a swinging trapeze. There's fear of the unknown, the gathering of energy to overcome inertia, and the uncertainty of outcome. Even with all the negatives, change does happen—the fear is balanced by the thrill of learning new skills and the potential for applause and recognition.
As executives or managers in marketing, we need to find ways to increase our people's chances of making that leap, catching a swinging trapeze, and timing the landing on a new platform. The more successfully we can help our people make this transition, the more successful we will be.
Any marketing organization that faces the New Marketing Mandate to switch into data-driven marketing will face some unease and inertia. It is just as important for you as a manager to create a plan to manage the people and process changes as it is to manage the technology changes. We feel that a combination of John Kotter's steps at the highest level and the Trapeze Theory model at the support level is the best way to help people move in three stages from their old platform through the uncertainty of change to the new platform.
| Where We Are | Midair | Where We Want to Be |
| How do we motivate people to leave their comfort zone? | How do we make sure they fly through the transition? | How do we make sure they land safely and stay there? |
| Acknowledge the fear—almost everyone fears their first solo. Let them know that is normal. | Catcher (mentor)—Have someone experienced ready to catch them in midair. | Have a catcher—Have someone grab their hand when they land to help them keep their balance. |
| Training—Make sure they have practiced in realistic situations so they have confidence they can do it. | Stretch—Let people know they may have to stretch to meet their goals during the transition. | Applause—Make sure the applause is motivating. Some like to hear it privately, others like it loud and public. |
| Increase their strength—If they aren't strong enough, build them up. | Safety harness—A practice harness lets people take a risk. | Larger platform—Make the new platform easier to land on and stay on. |
| Smaller platform—Reduce support for the old way. If the old ways take more work and are riskier than the new ways, there's less reason to stay. | Decrease the height—Reduce the danger of making a mistake. | Tell the stories—Share the positive stories so they learn from others' experiences. |
| Fire—Light a fire so it is uncomfortable or riskier to stay on the old platform. | Applause—Make sure they can hear the applause for those who have reached the other side. | Fix mistakes—When someone stumbles, adapt the training or fix the system so it doesn't happen again. |
| Recognition—Some people like constant change, others like occasional change, and still others like no change. Can you find a place for multiple types? | Net—Don't let a mistake be fatal. If a mistake can potentially cause serious issues, make sure a mentor oversees. | Keep practicing—Don't stop. After landing, take a breath to recover. Then, while the exhilaration is still there, do it again. |
| Give them a ladder down and out—Some people would rather leave than change. Make it easy and gracious for them to leave without demotivating others. | Get back on—If someone falls, help them get back up so they can do it the right way before negative memories or habits set it. | Reinforce the new platform—Make the new platform a more inviting place to be than the old. |
The Trapeze Theory model works well with the Burning Platform. The Trapeze Theory model helps support people as they go through the steps necessary to move away from the Burning Platform.
In the situation of helping your marketing organization move to a higher level of maturity, you can look at the Trapeze Theory model to understand where people might have fear of the unknown, where they need more time or practice, and where they need training and instructions. Marketers may want to go back to the old platform, their old way of doing things. That's when managers need to use discipline and coaching skills to reinforce the new direction. Use the Trapeze Theory model to help executives, managers, and all marketers understand they will be going through a time of change.
Common Barriers to Increasing Maturity and How to Break Through
Whether you are proactively changing to stay ahead of the New Marketing Mandate or you are changing in incremental steps, you will face barriers that can be even more daunting than the adoption of new technology. Remember that the New Marketing Mandate needs people, process, and technology. The common barriers described next are a big picture view of barriers you will see at different stages.
There are common barriers that every organization faces as it moves between stages in the Customer Experience Maturity Model. The following sections describe the large common barriers and what you can do to go around them, over them, or under them. The following chapters dedicated to the stages in the Customer Experience Maturity Model discuss in depth the barriers you may face at each specific stage.
Barrier 1: Lack of Understanding Return on Investment (Early Stages)
It can be a huge task going from business-as-usual traditional marketing to data-driven customer experience marketing. This barrier comes from not understanding the value that comes when data-driven marketing improves customer experience. Many marketers seem to think this type of marketing is appropriate only for e-commerce marketing; however, no matter what your line of business and industry is, all marketing organizations can use the steps of the Customer Experience Maturity Model to improve their customers' experience.
If this is a barrier for you, consider using some of the cases from this book to create your business case. Also consider starting your change with the quick wins (described in Chapter 8, Stage 4—Optimize, and Chapter 13, Selling to the Board), to prove the effects of making these changes.
Barrier 2: Lack of Strategic Direction (Early Stages)
Ask yourself and your team, “Why does our website exist?” If you get answers like “Branding,” “To be better than our competitors,” or “To inform customers about our company and services,” you are facing a lack of strategic direction.
What you should be getting are answers that support your organization's strategic objectives, which in many cases are objectives such as increase revenue, reduce costs, and increase customer loyalty. You must also pay attention to what metrics you use to report digital marketing success. If the metrics are ones such as visits, page views, time on site, and likes, then you are not strategic. To break through this barrier, you need to align strategic objectives with marketing objectives and digital goals so it is clear to everyone how digital is an important driver in the business.
Barrier 3: Lack of Resources, or How to Focus the Resources You Have (Early to Middle Stages)
Today's marketer and marketing teams have a lot on their plates, from branding to producing content, from events to launch campaigns, from looking at data to reports. So adding new tasks may be too much and overwhelming, as there simply isn't time for doing more.
A sign that your teams are overwhelmed is when they say they can't do testing and personalization because doing so requires more content, content they don't have time to produce.
If you are facing this barrier, consider starting at a point where you can create an impact with a small amount of content, and use that to prove your case for additional resources. If that is not possible, consider starting a small guerrilla project where you use external consultants to help.
Barrier 4: Caught in a Technology Silo (Middle Stages)
Some organizations are mature in their use of technology; many larger organizations typically use web content management, web analytics, marketing automation, testing, social integration, and the like. They can be quite sophisticated in their use and have built internal experts who know how to use these tools to produce value.
Typically, we see these organizations failing to move past the Nurture stage, because all the tools they use are different tools. The inability to integrate the tools presents an insurmountable barrier.
Web content management needs to be integrated with web analytics for tracking digital goal conversions within a site, but it also needs to be:
- Integrated with marketing automation, so triggers and behavior can be read from the sites
- Integrated with a testing tool, so you don't have to copy and paste content between the systems
- Integrated with social channels, so it's easy to provide reports and analysis on social channels that work with other digital channels
If you consider web analytics that need integration with testing and segmentation, they also need to be:
- Integrated with marketing automation, to track effectiveness of campaigns and compare those to other initiatives captured by the web analytics tool
- Integrated with social, so you can add demographics data to where you have analytics and track the effect of using social channels
And all of these integration barriers and issues continue with each additional technology that is part of digital marketing. If the technology isn't integrated, it becomes difficult and expensive to overcome the barriers at higher stages in the Customer Experience Maturity Model. Perhaps the most serious failing with nonintegrated platforms is the danger of losing customers as you attempt to move through these technical barriers. The key to avoiding these types of barriers is to adopt a connected platform early in your growth up the Customer Experience Maturity Model.
Barrier 5: Lack of Executive Buy-In (Middle Stages)
Once you enter Stage 6, customer insights from different systems like customer relationship management (CRM), customer service, loyalty management, and finance are needed to create the single view of the customer. Creating the single view of the customer across online and offline touch points involves many different teams in your organization that cross many functions.
One of the biggest barriers is not having executive buy-in. In fact, many studies have shown that one of the chief reasons for large project failure is the lack of executive buy-in. Without executive buy-in it's very difficult for one team to initiate cross-organizational projects and get full commitment from other organizational teams.
We strongly advocate the emerging executive role of the chief digital officer (CDO) or chief marketing technologist (CMT), who has the skills to combine strategy, technology, and marketing and has the mandate to make sure that cross-organizational projects are aligned to create the single view of the customer.
To see how the barriers you face compare to the barriers in other similar organizations, go to the book's companion website, www.ConnectTheExperience.com/barriers.