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In today’s fast-paced corporate world, change is inevitable. The most successful companies are constantly evolving to stay ahead. But even with this inherent need for change, the success rate of individual change projects is surprisingly low—around 70% of companies fail to meet their objectives (BCG, 2019). A key reason for this shortfall is that many companies overlook the most vital element in any change: the people.
At LOCAL, we believe change can’t be managed – it can only be marketed. Your people are an audience worth winning. By combining change management strategies with the power of marketing, we follow our people-first process to plan, build, launch, and sustain change.
Implementing change is a nuanced process that varies with each idea, culture, and individual. While this guide can’t cover everything, we’ll give you a crash course on the tools and approaches that LOCAL uses to make change stick.
Before you can change your organization for the better, you need to start with a well-thought-out plan. According to BCG, the foundation of any successful transformation is an integrated strategy that clearly defines your goals—the "why," "what," and "how."
Since winning over your people is key to any change, it helps to frame your change strategy as a well-told story. At LOCAL, we do this using what we call a Storymap. Similar to how it sounds, the Storymap helps you tell the story of your change in an easy-to-visualize format.
We start at the end, asking ourselves where we want to be. We then do research within organizations to understand the various perspectives, wants, and challenges that make up each culture. With this grasp on present realities, we’re ready to plan for future obstacles and tell a more true, triumphant story.
Plans change and flexibility is key to transformation, but with a detailed roadmap for the future, it’s easier to define roles, address tensions, and paint a picture of success.
A company-wide plan is only effective if it has support, and people are much more likely to support an idea when they understand it. Just like in the Planning phase, LOCAL uses the power of storytelling to Build understanding around a change.
A good story addresses your people’s biggest questions:
What is changing?
Why should this happen now?
How will this benefit the organization?
What’s in it for me?
By addressing these questions, you’re equipped to tackle three common challenges that changemakers face while seeking support for an idea:
Know your audience
Winning your people over starts with understanding them and speaking to their needs. Even in smaller companies, it takes effort and time to learn the beliefs, ambitions, and working styles that make your people unique. But this time is well-spent. With proper evaluation, you can tailor your message to your various audiences.
Here’s one filter that LOCAL uses to evaluate audiences:
These diverse perspectives can be overwhelming as raw data. That’s why LOCAL helps clients build a Case for Change — an employee-first, compelling story that resonates throughout the organization. The Case for Change is built around the themes, quotations, and learnings gathered from the company’s people. With this persuasive tool, our clients can secure the support they need from the boardroom all the way to the front lines.
Fast-food case study: Build Phase
A large fast-food chain wanted to instill a sense of leadership across its corporate staff and restaurants. This included rolling out a new model outlining key behaviors to empower leaders in every corner of the business, regardless of their role.
To begin this work, the change team needed to show the company’s officers why leadership skills matter, how this new model would elevate the business, and why it was critical to tackle this work now.
After gathering insights from stakeholders throughout the organization, LOCAL developed a sharp Case for Change. With this in hand, our client secured leadership buy-in, established a network of Change Champions to advocate for the work, and received the necessary budget to Launch.
Once an idea is understood and supported, it’s time to share it. In LOCAL’s experience, without a cohesive communication strategy, even well-crafted messages can get lost in a sea of channels and competing priorities. This makes reaching your full audience a challenge. Maximum reach takes more than communicating at the right times and places. It also takes thoughtful planning around how you’ll activate and ask your people to engage.
LOCAL’s Go-To-People Plan is a tool that helps you reach your people as they move from simple awareness to engaged action. As we put this plan together, we consider several elements:
Fast-food case study: Launch Phase
Let’s return to LOCAL’s fast-food client who was working to emphasize leadership. They were ready to move from Building the change to Launching it. Together, we built a Go-To-People Plan to reach corporate staff and frontline employees with the right information at the right time.
Some of our tactics included targeted training and videos featuring employees’ personal stories. These helped employees move from initial awareness to a deeper understanding. They recognized how the new leadership model could simplify their roles and enhance team support. Through clear communication and strategic timing, employees knew what they needed to do, how, and when.
Once an idea is supported and shared, the goal shifts to sustaining it over time. This happens most effectively when the change is integrated into the employee experience and becomes a natural part of the company culture. The employee experience is a journey shaped by every interaction an employee has with their workplace, from before they’re hired to the day they retire. Here are the seven key stages of the employee lifecycle that LOCAL focuses on:
Each of these moments is an opportunity to tell your change story and model the beliefs and behaviors you want your people to adopt. After evaluating each step of the employee lifecycle, LOCAL creates a visual map, showing which steps of the journey need attention. This map, along with tactical recommendations, forms what we call an Employee Experience Integration.
Fast-food case study: Sustain Phase
After our fast-food friends launched their leadership model, LOCAL helped them focus on Employee Experience Integration to Sustain the change. To do this, we asked questions tied to the Employee Lifecycle:
By addressing each step of the journey, our fast-food client developed a plan to sustain leadership throughout the organization. They activated key moments, created a consistent, compelling story, and ultimately made leadership a lasting priority.
Each change is unique and every changemaker is on a different part of their own change journey. LOCAL is here to help. The common thread in all of our work is a focus on putting people at the center of the strategy.
Whether you’re in the Plan, Build, Launch, or Sustain phase, or some combination of the four, focus on the story you’re telling your people. People ultimately determine the success or failure of any change, and a compelling story is a powerful tool for winning their hearts and minds. By planning for success, earning your people’s interest, reaching your full audience, and weaving your change into the company culture, you can turn your idea into a true transformation.
LOCAL is the Change Marketing partner to values-driven leaders at some of the world's best companies. Ready to transform your idea into company-wide change? Let’s talk.