| By Rachel Hayes When it comes to marketing, we strive to get out from beneath the "every day stuff" and think big. But, like Sisyphus, we seem to have that boulder of "stuff" roll back down on us each day, just before we crest the hill and head for the strategic mountains we really want to climb. A few weeks ago I attended the Legal Sales and Service Organization (LSSO) RainDance event. The speakers gave attendees some extra muscle to push that boulder out of the way. The program invited big thinking in three dimensions – transformational organizational change, communication, and relationship-building- that should be applied across all types of professional services organizations. Big Time Change: Turning Traditional Thinking on its Head Speaking during the midst of a volatile global economy, LSSO presenters challenged attendees to be catalysts of major organizational change. This is no time to be timid, and small changes – spreading reduced budgets across many projects, tweaking the marketing mix, reshuffling roles to eliminate people – are not the steps to creating resilient, high-performing organizations. The value and potential of transformational change was hit home by Rick Gotham, President of the NBA franchise Boston Celtics. Gotham joined the Celtics in 2003 as Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Corporate Development. Coming into an organization with a marquee history and a desultory present, he recognized that the marketing team thought that disappointing ticket sales were the inevitable result of an under-performing team. The corollary? When the team wins, we'll sell tickets. But Gotham turned that idea on its head. Marketing's job, he said, was to help the Celtics win games. Selling tickets would create revenue, revenue would buy players, and players would win championships. So using every lever available in marketing – pricing, channel, modifying the product by enriching the audience experience, innovative promotions – Gotham and his team made it marketing's job to help build the franchise. Now, five years later, the franchise is in the NBA finals. His message was clear – when the resources of marketing (and every other support function) are applied to the core business, transformational change can happen. That message should resonate with every leader of every service firm in the country. When marketing views itself and is viewed by senior management as a key contributor to achieving an organization's mission, it is no longer measured as a cost center but as a contributor to the top line. Creativity, strategic abilities, analytic capabilities and great execution skills are unleashed on the organization's most important objectives – not relegated to choosing the colors for the new website. That's good business. No Such Thing as Too Much Communication The power and importance of communication was a theme throughout the conference, but particularly the message of Sally King, Regional Chief Operating Officer, Clifford Chance US LLP. Sally has led a large and growing team through the dramatic expansion of this law firm into a global powerhouse. Her primary task? Leading and taking care of the culture of the organization by taking care of the human beings who comprise the firm. Key to that is communication. Quoting studies from Watson Wyatt and Mercer, she underscored the organizational risks of poor communication. According to the data, uncertainty, fueled by poor communication, causes more than 40% of employees to consider leaving a company. On the other hand, when employees feel informed, companies enjoy a 26% increase in profit. Communication and instilling confidence in your employees keeps them focused on their work, invites them to be part of solving short and long-term problems, and keeps them from working on their resumes or wasting time at the water cooler speculating about their futures. The ultimate goal of communication is to create a relationship (the third theme at the conference) – with employees, with clients, with every stakeholder. Communication builds trust and confidence, foundational requirements for high productivity and high performance. Communication when times are tough reassures stakeholders that the leaders are on top of the situation, have a plan, and are doing everything possible to keep the organization driving forward. As with engaging marketing in the core of the enterprise, communication – and lots of it – is good business. Relationships: The Key to Effective Teams Communication helps build strong relationships. Relationships enable organizational change, selling, team effectiveness, and the development of long-term business connections. Andrew Cline, Principal of Cline Consulting LLC, discussed how each of us must understand our own, and others', communication styles in order to build trusting relationships. He then provided a practical tool for assessing communication styles and for discovering how these styles contribute to a highly functioning team. Cline got the audience to stand in an imaginary 2 x 2 matrix. The axes of the matrix were, 1) how comfortable are people speaking out/voicing their opinions and, 2) how easy or hard is it to read their emotions. The group then discussed what it's like to work with people who are, for example, outspoken but emotionally reserved versus people who are both outspoken and easy to read. No team, Cline believes, is complete without people in every quadrant. In fact, teams that lack people of all four trait combinations will under-function unless they figure out how to compensate for what's missing in the group. Without this balance, teams can suffer from having the "human element" ignored in the name of productivity. Alternatively, productivity can grind to a halt because managers are too concerned about people's feelings. If everyone is outspoken, chaos can reign. If everyone is too quiet, innovation can cease. Knowledge of communication styles is essential to building strong relationships - the catalyst to high performing teams, sales, and business success. Building the Marketer's Muscle Conference attendees left with a lot to think about and act upon. From practical to visionary, simple to complex, the program provided a menu of ideas to take back and put to use. Like a good workout, the LSSO RainDance event left us tired, but stronger – better able to shove that boulder of "stuff" over the cliff. |