“Too often our changes are technically perfect – the boxes are neatly arranged, columns add up, procedures are in place – but we fail to acknowledge the human aspect.” - William Bridges
ONE THING THAT should be apparent if you work in an agency/consultancy setting is that whether you are an expert at SEM, SEO, Affiliate or any other Online Marketing channel, excelling at your core competency is not enough. Managing client paid search accounts or pulling together a strategic SEO plan to improve organic search results will only be successful if you also manage the human side of the equation. Taking the human side of things into account early on in a relationship is critical to success both internally and externally and is the foundation for building trust.
Regardless whether this new relationship is a transition between a client’s in-house online marketing program being outsourced to an agency or a client switching agencies, there is a significant amount of change management involved even before you can begin to focus on the nuts and bolts of campaigns, keywords, meta tags etc. With any amount of change also comes a certain amount of resistance. This post will focus on the Cycle of Change, some key tips on how to identify and join the resistance in order to succeed and focus on some of the types of resistance I have encountered from an agency perspective.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, Turn and Face the Strange
As I mentioned there is a certain level of change that takes place when a client hires an agency for the first time or switches agencies for the first, second or third time… And with this changing of the guards there will be a level of resistance that needs to be embraced. Yes, I said embrace the resistance – it’s the only way to manage the change successfully.
It is outside the scope of this post to cover every detail of change and resistance but ultimately if you find yourself in either of the aforementioned scenarios there will be varying levels of resistance that you will encounter in your new partnership. Initially at the beginning of the engagement the agency and the client will be at different stages of change. By using the Cycle of Change it is easy to put into perspective where you are compared to where your client is in the first days/weeks of the relationship. The Cycle of Change is a management tool that is divided into the following 6 segments:
1. Random Incidents – little information for the need for change.
2. Recognition – recognizing a problem and the need for change.
3. Initial Actions – taking the first steps to initiate change.
4. Implementation – discovery period of new ideas to manage change.
5. Integration – making new ideas the standard way of doing business.
6. Waning Activity – reevaluates the new standards and makes the necessary changes for sustainability.
Typically when an agency contract is signed there has already been some level of Random Incidents and Recognition of a problem for which a change on the client side is in order. In the initial stages of the relationship it is critical to fully understand where your clients Senior Management – typically the decision makers – thinks they are along the cycle and where your day-to-day contacts – typically the ones previously responsible for SEM or SEO – are along the cycle. Usually they are not at the same stage and that is the perfect recipe for resistance.
One example of this is when Senior Management hires an agency vendor to increase online revenue, but the Marketing Team is at odds internally with IT and Merchandising. Hiring or switching agencies or even implementing a new software application is not the problem from the Marketing Teams point of view. Fixing the internal struggles first, before adding outside sources to the mix will make the agency or software more effective.
The disconnect between management and marketing will make it difficult for the new agency or software provider to effectively implement its strategy. The Marketing team may resist certain parts of a new strategy because it has already tried the proposed tactics before and failed due to internal bureaucracy beyond the new vendor’s control. Or they may feel that they could do the job just as well as the agency if the internal issues were resolved.
In either case there are several types of resistance to look out for including, confusion, denial, sabotage, easy agreement and silence. Understanding where the client is along the cycle of change will better prepare you for anticipating what type of resistance you will encounter. And even though you, as the agency, are supporting the client with their best interests in mind, you will always encounter some level of resistance. When this occurs, according to Rick Maurer *, there are five basic touchstones to use as a reference point and to keep you and the client on the same page moving along the cycle of change at the same pace. Those touchstones are:
• Maintain Clear Focus
• Embrace Resistance
• Respect those Who Resist
• Relax
• Join with the Resistance
These touchstones are regarded as unconventional ways of dealing with resistance since we tend to only look at problems from our perspective and do not dive deep enough under the surface to understand the true root of the issues. I agree that these may be the unconventional ways of managing resistance, but the conventional ways of dealing with resistance hardly ever work. So the next time you find yourself in a situation where you have resistance either internally or externally instead of giving in or applying force to get those who resist to agree with you, try to see things from their perspective and find common ground in order to move ahead along the cycle of change together.
* The Cycle of Change, the examples of resistance and the five touchstones are from the brilliant mind of Change Management Expert Rick Maurer and his book Beyond the Wall of Resistance: Unconventional Strategies that Build Support for Change . I can hardly do the book and his advice for dealing with change and resistance its due justice in a blog post so I highly recommended you find yourself a copy and read for yourself.
Additional Resources:
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change 
Why Change Management is Critical to Web 2.0
And a special ‘thank you’ to Mary Federico who is an Organizational Behavior consultant and author I had the pleasure of working with for several years. Mary introduced me to the works of both William Bridges and Rick Maurer.
