By Barbara Moser
There are many similarities between change management and team sports. Sports metaphors can be great motivators. Nike’s Just Do It campaign is still at it and always changing. Under Armour isn’t only worn under anymore. These are teamwork examples of forward-thinking marketing opportunities, which discover untapped opportunities to build cultural and community awareness.
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What you can do to manage change?
Companies that want to be great build the culture of purpose, set vision and strategy, design the brand experience, and truly engage their customers. Change management is more about transitioning individuals, teams and organizations from the current structure to the future state. Organizations need to apply motivational strategies and techniques to enhance commitment to change. Bring in workshop presenters, such as board certified behavioral psychologists to help change behaviors. Use balance exercises to assess ambivalence to change and enhance motivation to change. Convey advice/feedback and work effectively with resistive and ambivalent individuals. In order to implement or control change, we need creativity and innovation. Mr. Jack Welch quotes, “Change before you have to.” There is a challenge within change we need to identify. The following are three steps I’d like you to consider when addressing change. 
Step 1: Acquire left and right brain thinkers
Individual talent does not guarantee a successful team; it is how the team collaborates and performs together that matters. Consider someone on your team who studied humanities, both left and right brain people who have the capacity to imagine and think through ambiguous concepts. Plans that detail the skills required for the objectives are crucial. Individual strengths contribute to team efforts. Weaknesses and negativity must be taken into consideration. Use the strengths and work on the weaknesses. Break down problems and issues into smaller increments. Team members can take online classes to bring confidence and skill levels up. Education is a life-long endeavor. Give them options and the ability to proceed. The change must be actionable.
Step 2: Formulate a game plan
Identify the timeline and roadblocks. Collaborate with your team, together and individually, to craft vision. Plan your approach to identify specific issues, project schedule changes and budget or scope changes. Make sure changes are within scope and beneficial to the project. Implement weekly one-on-one meetings. Remember great leadership/coaching is the ability to get individuals to work together for a common good and the best results, while at the same time letting them know they did it themselves. Feedback is crucial—this is where trust is built. Both listening and speaking skills are important. Leadership based on conversation enables people to find their unique voices and make new understanding possible.
Step 3: Keep your stakeholders involved
The Change Management Plan describes the purpose of the board and their roles of the board. The Change Control Board is the approval authority for project changes. This board may consist of members from Human Resources, Administration, Marketing/Creative Services, Organizational Development, Finance, Information Technology and Risk Management, etc. Reinforce to keep change and ensure the plan is successful.
Practice accountability, keep commitments to extend trust and share vision among partners. Focus on building a trusting relationship and partnership with the team and members of the board, by becoming a resource, and helping them solve their on-going problems, or satisfying their continuing and evolving needs and obligations. Realize that your job is not only to manage change, but to also help the team and board become comfortable with this concept. Information is power and successful people uncover needs, problems, questions and concerns in a timely and truthful way.
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About InSource Content Contributor Barbara Moser
Barbara Moser uses her 20+ years of advertising agency experience and applies it to the corporate healthcare industry, serving on teams integrating digital and creative projects. She is part of a team of designers with strong Project Management skills, who deliver informational corporate brand results. A former Velodrome bicycle racer, she enjoys reading about art, creativity, sports psychology and riding her custom Italian road bicycle.
 
 

The post Change Agent: What In-house Managers Can Learn from Team Sports appeared first on UpSource.

Hello, anyone out there? Yet another in-house challenge: Finding great talent.
In my much younger agency years I never understood why small groups of seasoned pros jumped jobs together as a team.
I get it now!
It’s so difficult to find great people you can connect with and who care. The kind of people you can just look at and they instantly know what you need. When you find that rare and special business relationship you’d be silly to let it go.
So why is it so hard to hire the right talent and find the folks that fit the mold?
Is it 1, 2 or 3?:

1. Too much competition
2. People don’t want to work in-house
3. Everyone is a slacker

I’d like to hope it’s not C and it no longer makes sense that it’s B, since in-house design teams have been on the rise for many years and are now the cool thing to do since Apple and Google put us all on the map. So that leaves us with A–too much competition.
If too much competition is the challenge, we are back to putting our strategy caps on and figuring out how we differentiate ourselves from other organizations when we are interviewing good people for freelance or full-time roles.
Think about what benefits on your team you can discuss with a candidate when you’re getting the feeling that you’re speaking to someone good.
What types of projects are you working on? Some in-house teams get involved in everything from marketing collateral to interior design of their office space–that’s cool, mention it. Has your team won design awards that are worth pointing out? Are you working on any global initiatives that are great learning experiences like launching a new website or rebranding? Any of these opportunities could sway the right talent in your direction.
So, what have you been doing to attract the right talent for your organization?
Robin Colangelo
VP Board of Directors: InSource
Global Director of Creative Services: White & Case

The post Anyone Out There? appeared first on UpSource.

I did not have the luxury of mom or dad being in the business nor did anyone I knew know a single sole in this business. It took me a depressing and frustrating two years after graduation to find a full-time job in graphic design.
It was difficult to begin a career with little to no help from anyone that had previously walked the walk. Because of this, I have always stopped to look back at the up and coming talent to see how I can give them a lift.
As creative leaders we need to remind ourselves that we were there once. Lost, green and scared. It takes strong a mentor to inspire and motivate others to move forward. Be one of those people for someone on your team or in your organization.

The post Rising Talent appeared first on UpSource.