Change is Hard
Online Communities and Organizational Change
Dawn Foster
Sr. Executive & Community Practice Manager at Olliance Group
olliancegroup.com @geekygirldawn fastwonderblog.com

Change is Hard on People
 Fear
 Anxiety
 Worry
 Resistance
 Revolt
Photo by: 416style http://www.flickr.com/photos/sookie/31219031/

Community Can Be Big Change
 Many of us thrive on learning and using new technologies
and finding new ways to collaborate
 For others, an online community is a huge change
 Shift from reading websites to being expected to create content
 Need to learn new technologies
 Communities can be especially scary because
 Mistakes and failure are public for your peers to see
 Anything you say now could be around forever
 Some organizational cultures make it difficult to build
community
 Government, conservative companies or professions, regulation
Photo by: BGLewandowski http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianlewandowski/55680565/

Scope of the Issue with Change
 Entire industry / ecosystem
 Government, regulated industry, less tech-savvy industry,
certain demographics
 Company or organization
 Internal corporate community, non-profit organization community
 Some portion of the population
 One of more audience segments
 Certain individuals having difficulty with the change
Photo by: Anirudh Koul http://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/3786725982/

Organizational Change Mgmt
 Definition (Wikipedia)
 Change management is a structured approach to transitioning
individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a
desired future state. It includes both organizational change
management processes and individual change management
models, which are used to manage the people side of change.
 We can learn from organizational change management
principles.
 Used for many years within organizations to deal with change
 Historically used with top-down change within organizations
 We can apply some of their best practices to community
building
 Even when it isn’t a top-down initiative

Kotter’s 8 Step Change Process
 Establish a sense of urgency
 Help people understand the importance of getting involved now
 Opportunities, market / competition concerns, potential crisis
 Create a guiding coalition
 In an organization, get executives as champions
 For corporate communities, get key customers
 Industry leaders, influential community members, etc. can also
be champions for industry efforts
 Develop a vision and strategy
 Know what you want to accomplish (vision)
 Always have a strategy for your online community efforts

Kotter’s 8 Step Change Process
 Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
 For people who are afraid or resistant, a single communication
will not win them over
 Over communicate with as much information as possible
 Provide plenty of opportunities for training. Many people will
need more than a single training session
 Communicate using a variety of methods (written, video, etc.)
 Empower People to Act
 Remove obstacles
 Change systems or processes that make
it difficult to build community
 Encourage risk taking and non-traditional
ideas
Photo by: DailyPic http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypic/1459055735/

Kotter’s 8 Step Change Process
 Generate Short-Term Wins
 Find easy ways for people to be successful quickly and frequently
 Recognize and reward members who are helping build community
 Evolution
 Figure out what works and what doesn’t
 Evolve the community to change those things that aren’t working
as well
 Continue to improve the community over time
 Culture
 Focus community management on reinforcing
and building this new culture
 Develop new leaders who support the culture
Photo by: usag.yongsan http://www.flickr.com/photos/usag-yongsan/3582952821/

Summary
 Q&A
 Resources:
 John P. Kotter: Leading Change
 About Dawn Foster
 Author of Companies and Communities: Participating without
being sleazy
 My Blog: Fastwonderblog.com
 Consulting: Olliancegroup.com
 Twitter: @geekygirldawn
 Email: dawn@fastwonder.com