Training Magazine Middle East December 2014 | Page 37

COLUMN - Spotlight On Change

- Offer invitations to those who are at the helm of this strategy to be the marketers of the big picture.

- Provide resources for this to be easy for them to achieve.

- Link their success to future initiatives that will require their participation and leadership.

- Review on an on-going basis the small wins that their input is contributing.

Basically, be this team’s enabler so they can do the marketing on your behalf. Bring each individual in to the first level of marketing at a time that will capitalize on their strengths. Find ways for this team to spread the word, whilst at the same time reinforce their dependency on you taking this forward. Let them paint a picture of a future with more hope, and break the news of what consequences will come if we don’t move from the current situation.

Marketing to the middle managers

This level of the organization will be another key success factor. They are the meat in the sandwich and are often called on to both understand and believe in the big picture and then send it down to the team.

Much of the marketing these people need can be a revisit of what’s driving the change from yourself as well as an understanding of their role throughout this initiative. The former will now commence building bridges between you, being new to the role, and these folk as a key success factor.

They will need to know they have a friend in you (and a resourceful one at that), as it’s not always easy to perform one’s daily job whilst also driving change.

Identify small wins these people have and share

these around liberally, introducing recognition and a sense of healthy competition. Integrate their efforts that result from the marketing into all communication channels you set up, maintaining a constant flow of information that shows we are all growing in one direction. Bring their successes to the notice of the sponsors so recognition can be both timely and well founded.

Marketing to the employees

It’s not easy to be the last in the pecking order, and your marketing efforts for this level of the organization needs to be aligned with the manager’s efforts. These people are often simply trying to survive through the change, re-adjust some long-held beliefs and find ways through barriers and resistance points. Bring this out into the open so they’ll never need to feel they are on their own. Highlight the importance of ‘working a new way’ and the dependency that has on them. Help supervisors to identify the ‘what’s in it for me’ of each team member.

Without marketing, a trainer will exist in a vacuum. Rumours start infiltrating when misalignment exists between corporate activity and corporate communication, resulting in ‘saying one thing and doing another’. Build a bridge of marketing that can be your greatest ally – or otherwise, simply cease existing. What would you choose?

Debbie Nicol, the managing director of Dubai-based business consultancy and learning organization ‘business en motion’, working with strategic change, leadership and organizational development, assisting businesses and leaders to move ahead.

http://www.businessenmotion.com