Social Media Strategies for
Change Management
Using Social Media strategies to
enable more effective Change within
an organisation

Introduction
• This presentation aims to give some
understanding of why Social Media techniques
are a huge asset during Change Programmes
• Part 1 aims to give an understanding of
Change itself and the challenges faced
• Part 2 looks at how Social Media tools and
techniques can be applied to great effect
without costing a fortune

PART 1 – WHAT IS CHANGE?

What is “Change Management”?
• According to Wikipedia:-
– “Change management is a structured approach to
transitioning individuals, teams and organizations
from a current state to a desired future state.”
• In an IT context:-
– Change Management is an IT Service Management
discipline. The objective of Change Management in this
context is to ensure that standardized methods and
procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling
of all changes to controlled IT infrastructure, in order
to minimize the number and impact of any related
incidents upon service.

The Transition Curve
• John Fisher proposed a theory in 1999 called “The
Transition Curve” (updated in 2003):
– Anxiety
– Happiness
– Fear
– Threat
– Guilt
– Depression
– Disillusionment
– Hostility
– Denial
The next slide shows this diagrammatically

The Process of Transition

Hierarchy of Needs

Some Initial Thoughts
• “The Transition Curve” (slide 3), as illustrated in Slide 4 uses
some extremely negative language to describe peoples’
mental state during Change – “Anxiety, Fear, Threat,
Guilt...etc”
• Clearly, some people deal with Change better than others,
but most issues relate to a lack of understanding about
what the changes will mean to people and these are
categorised at the most fundamental and basic levels of the
Hierarchy of Needs (slide 5)
• On this basis, successful Change Programmes must, at the
earliest possible point, start to address the uncertainties
felt by individuals within the organisation, whether they are
directly affected or not.

Why Change Programmes Fail
• According to Stephen Warrilow, there are three major reasons
why Change fails:
1. The gap between the strategic vision and a successful
programme implementation and the lack of a practical
change management model and tools to bridge that gap.
2. The "hidden and built in resistance to change" of
organisational cultures, and the lack of processes and
change management methodologies to address this.
3. Failure to take full account of the impact of the changes
on those people who are most affected by them i.e. the
absence of good strategies for managing change.
There’s also a 4th reason – “80% of companies [or rather 80% of
directors] - haven't got a clue about programme management”

Why Change Programmes Fail
• Research Findings on Program Failure and Success
Only about one-third of organizational change initiatives survive beyond the initial
implementation. Two-thirds of change initiatives fail.
– PERCEPTION: If the problem addressed or the solution offered doesn't resonate, then
the program will not work.
– TOP MANAGEMENT: The program doesn't have the support of top management.
– TOP MANAGEMENT: Conversely, if the program is merely a top-down, packaged
program that doesn't adequately engage people throughout the organization it will fail.
– REALITY: The program doesn't address “real” problems facing the organization.
– FEAR: A culture of trust is not fostered so fear persists.
– RESOURCES: They are not properly resourced with time, money, and/or people.
– TRAINING: Training is not provided.
– RESISTANCE: For the above reasons, the change initiative is resisted by managers,
supervisors, adversary groups.
– EFFICACY: The program doesn't work.
– SUSTAINABILITY: The problem for many innovations is not that they don't work, but that
the organization cannot figure out how to implement and sustain the innovations as an
organizational change.
Full details at - Research Findings on Program Failure and Success

The Fundamentals of Change
• John Kotter’s “Eight steps to successful change”
1. Increase urgency
2. Build the guiding team
3. Get the vision right
4. Communicate for buy-in
5. Empower action
6. Create short-term wins
7. Don't let up
8. Make change stick
• This is broadly similar but a more detailed version of Kurt
Lewin’s “Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze” concept.

“Eight steps to successful change”
1 - Increase urgency
 Inspire people to move, make objectives real and relevant.
 In other words – Communicate the high-level
concept to the broadest possible audience right at
the start in a way that motivates people to
“Unfreeze”

“Eight steps to successful change”
2 - Build the guiding team
 Get the right people in place with the right emotional
commitment, and the right mix of skills and levels.
 Create a core team, covering the stakeholder
community from senior management to the “shop
floor” who are able and empowered to make it
happen

“Eight steps to successful change”
3 - Get the vision right
 Get the team to establish a simple vision and strategy,
focus on emotional and creative aspects necessary to
drive service and efficiency.
 Set objectives that will galvanise the whole
organisation behind the programme, to ensure buy-
in and adoption

“Eight steps to successful change”
4 - Communicate for buy-in
 Involve as many people as possible, communicate the
essentials, simply, and to appeal and respond to people's
needs. De-clutter communications - make technology
work for you rather than against.
 Tell it like it is. Be honest, open and straight-forward
and get into a dialogue. Use Social Media as a
medium to support the dialogue.

“Eight steps to successful change”
5 - Empower action
 Remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback and lots
of support from leaders - reward and recognise progress
and achievements.
 Use open dialogue to identify and remove hurdles to
success - make every voice valuable and every
contribution recognised – top to bottom.

“Eight steps to successful change”
6 - Create short-term wins
 Set aims that are easy to achieve - in bite-size chunks.
Manageable numbers of initiatives. Finish current stages
before starting new ones.
 Find things to celebrate early on. Share in the
triumphs and create discrete packages of work that
mean everyone can play their part.

“Eight steps to successful change”
7 - Don't let up
 Foster and encourage determination and persistence -
ongoing change - encourage ongoing progress reporting -
highlight achieved and future milestones.
 Make success the norm. Ensure that everyone
understands the part they must play and the value
they are contributing to the overall objectives.

“Eight steps to successful change”
8 - Make change stick
 Reinforce the value of successful change via recruitment,
promotion, new change leaders. Weave change into
culture.
 Make change something that people want to be part
of and identify with, so they are proud to be a
contributor and are constantly seeking better ways to
do things.

PART 2 – SOCIAL MEDIA’S ROLE.

Top-Down Communication
Monologue

Social Media Communication
Collaborative Dialogue

Social Media by Definition
• Organic Social media marketing is
• Transparent about building ways that
fans of a brand or
• Authentic company can promote it
themselves in multiple
• Community online social media
venues. –Wikipedia
• User Generated Content
• Word of Mouth (That includes staff!)
• Viral

Benefits of Social Media Dialogue
• Increased Trust
• Increased Affinity
• Increased Advocacy
• Increased Satisfaction
• Reduced -ve sentiment
• Reduced complaints
• Reduced resolution times

Heaven or Hell?
This slide was designed as a Marketing
slide to show how the positive
interactions enabled by Social Media
can move a Brand through the stages
from initial “Positive Interactions” up to
“Loyalty” or, conversely, can lead to a
break-down in communications to
ultimate disloyalty.
The fact is that this principle applies just
as much to employees as it does to
consumers, if not more so!
It must be remembered that unhappy
employees spend a great deal more
time together than disgruntled
customers and the rot sets in much
faster!
http://darmano.typepad.com

Your Social Media Presence
Must Be........
• Open – a true dialogue with customers
– Promote free speech (-ve comments are opportunities to learn!)
• Welcoming – your customers should feel that they matter
– Getting customers to create content and share with their friends is marketing
you simply can’t buy at any price!
• Personal – people like interacting with people
– Create an approachable and available persona to front your interactions
• Honest – admit when you get it wrong and fix it (fast!)
– You gain greater loyalty when you handle problems well
• Authentic – true to your brand’s marketplace
– Your Brand integrity and tone of voice must feel (and be) “real”
• Coherent – resonate with your Marketing
– Social media must have the same “feel” as your other (traditional) channels
• Used internally too – create the same dialogue with staff!
– With a tool this powerful, you’re able to engage your employees in a deep and
intimate dialogue too...

“What about negative comments?!”
• There’s a risk that staff could say negative things but,
in this case, they’re going to be saying them anyway!
• The difference is that if you don’t hear them, then
you can’t address them!
• If the negative feedback is out in the open, then it
can be handled openly and honestly, which is much
healthier for everyone.
• By listening to and then handling negative feedback,
it may be possible to make positive improvements
that address these issues.

The Social Media Change Solution
• Low up-front investment
• Low on-going maintenance/costs
• Lower HR/PR/Communications costs
• Totally measurable
• Active dialogue (increasingly positive over time)
• Active buy-in and support
• Consistent messaging
• Immediate feedback
• Lower support costs
• Lower research/R&D costs
• Lower idea evolution costs

But How.......?
• The short answer is:
– There’s no simple or single answer to this question!
• Factors to consider:
– Number of locations
– Number of staff
– Type of change taking place (e.g. IT, merger, closures)
– Types of staff (e.g. Desk-based, mobile, remote, etc)
– Sentiment within organisation
– Stability within organisation
– Etc.........

What next.....?
• If you want to be in the 30% of change
programmes that succeed, then you should
put Social Media Communications at the heart
of your strategy.
• If you’d like some help getting it right, then
you need to be talking to people who
understand the power of Social Media and
how to make it work FOR you.

Do you remember when a website was optional.....?
Do you remember what happened next....?
If you’d like to discuss your Social Media Strategy:
Rory Murray
www.returnonrelationships.net
@rorymurray
rory@returnonrelationships.net
+44 7813 939916