If we could start over?-?where to begin when rebuilding your organization

A moment happened a few weeks ago. Well, to be precise it was May 22, 2020. 

Let me set the scene: 

• A summer Friday in May. 
• Approximately 70 days into most people’s “pause” moment, so we’ve just passed the two-month ticker. 

If we were going through the 5 R’s of the McKinsey model, we’ve just finished Resilience - deferring whatever is possible to increase liquidity and the reduction of all unnecessary costs. The mind can now turn to - Return, the third phase.

I see this as a return to basics; “how we put in place a new operations plan to get us to a new baseline.” Here, it’s critical to start thinking about the resources needed to invigorate demand and determine how we will fully reimagine our re-entry. 

It was time to think boldly. 

Not one, not two, not three, but four conversations I had that day with marketing leaders were all on the same topic: 

What’s the type of marketing organization I want to move forward with?

Not a “re-org”; a new org. 

Rewind to a few weeks before this. In a webinar, I had heard Michael Lebowitz of Big Spaceship say, “our legacy structure is keeping our industry from success.”

Man, that stuck with me.

It’s what I feel every day and what I work to change. He said it so simply in the right moment that I wanted to hug him. (Technically, I did message him and have a zoom call the next week to dive deeper. Virtual appreciation.) 

Our success is limited by our structure.

Nothing could be more true. There is agonizing frustration within large corporations about siloed marketing capabilities. It feels stale and rigid. This complexity continues to bifurcate on the back end when all we want to do on the front-end is offer a more seamless customer experience. 

Then a matching roster of siloed external partners that also struggles to find the connection points to cross over. Keeping them in walled lanes but also demanding they do more. Imagine, your social agency never speaking with your media or influencer teams. Simply because the structure, incentives, roles, and the classic textbook organization says to spin up new groups and vertical chains down an organizational chart with one boss. Forever moving people further away from collaboration.

“Almost 70% of clients recognize that their own internal structures may be an encumbrance to operating the most effective roster model” - 2018 WFA Survey. The Future of Agency Rosters 

As we all know, making changes to structure can feel like pushing a huge boulder up a hill. And recently you have to be a bodybuilder to move it even a centimeter. We default to accepting and celebrating the small wins that often never get us to that real vision. Then when you can’t move it further, you pass the boulder off to someone else and hope they can push it up a few more notches. 

There is a moment with every client where I show them a ton of amazing organizational models and say, “Which is you, and where do you want to be?” 

There is never a moment of, “Hmm. Well, I am not sure.” Not even a pause. They know. They are clear. They have a vision. They understand the impact they want their organization to have. 

Often, they are held back by how it’s always been; top-heavy structure and commitments established before their time. We have people, hierarchy, relationships, tenure, salaries, and fiefdoms. The idea of organizational change or shifting people feels riddled with immediate anxiety.

Re-orgs often just move a few pods around versus get to the heart of 

1. What the future of a marketing organization can truly be 
2. How to put in place an integration practice that allows this model to flow vs feel forever fixed

Because anything good can react and shift. 

Let’s go back

Fast-forwarding to the summer Friday in May — the conversation was at our doorstep.

The mission felt like a collective of voices saying: 

• If I, as a marketing leader, am going to inspire magic from my organization in this economic climate, who are my doers, and who are my drivers? 
• How do I nurture an environment where they can bring forward the best thinking that solves our challenges?

And I believe, this is where every marketing leader should be right now. 

Where to begin 

A transformative new idea doesn’t start by drawing organizational charts; it starts with creativity.

So as you begin to think about new ideas and bring in thoughts from your key partners, why not follow a creative process? 

Let’s use the Disney brainstorm method as a constructive guide to creating unexpected ideas. Use this method to consider the three stages (“rooms”) you go through to allow the best ideas to flourish by staying in one frame of mind at a time. I love it. 

Walt Disney Method Overview by Tools Hero

[Stage 1] Dreamer: Your raw, “why not” moment to ideate. 

• Think: “If anything is possible, what would we do?” 
• Align 5 top-line goals for the outputs you want your dream organization to accomplish. 
• Then begin. It’s often easiest to begin with some idea kick-starters. 
• Consume everything from the outside including the Bain models, the McKinsey models, the BCG models, and my stack of 10 models ;) 
• Then, as Faris & Rosie Yakob of Genius Steals say, “ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing.” What pieces and parts work for you?
• Pull this into a visual map and keep it as a narrative story. Don’t obsess on the details. 

[Stage 2] Realist: Enter a producer mindset. How would we get this done?

• Think: “How could we pretend the dream is possible and begin to build a plan.” 
• Discuss the vision with a realist mindset. This discussion is less about tearing down the dream, but instead a convergent style of thinking to build an architecture around the idea. 
• I recommend testing with real-world “simulations” and “scenarios” that sort out feasibility, resource approach, and which ideas feel the strongest to move forward within a 6-month timeline. 
• You will settle on what you feel is the best approach in a plan. 

[Stage 3] Critic: The Devil’s advocate moment. 

• Think of SWOT analysis. What are all the holes I could punch in this? How do they make it better or demand that we change things? Do we need to return to the Dreamer stage? 
• This stage is not the teardown moment. It’s time to see what is missing and what areas will be non-starters with other stakeholders. 
• I suggest you include HR into this dialogue. 
• Constructive dialogue should include: What are the risks or obstacles? Who might oppose this idea? The results of this dialogue will be questions that may require returning to the Dreamer stage and starting the flow process again.

What I love most about this

This process bridges the gap between imagination and reality with a thorough exploration of what’s possible versus the common sentiment of “We will never be able to get there.” 

We often end with an expression that is bespoke to that company at that moment. There is no perfect off-the-shelf organizational design. There are handfuls of ideas, proven strategies, and experimental implementations. What’s best for your organization may not be what was best for another organization. There is no perfect idea of what marketing is today. The outputs, balance of narrative versus growth messaging, spend, commercial opportunities; all are not fixed and should live within a mindset of “we need to be ready to pivot.” 

And beyond this being a great way to generate breakthrough ideas, it’s a creative process that identifies fluidity and options as the realists model against the dreams. Those may come in handy when the next pivot hits your doorstep. 

So, get those dreams on paper. Be pragmatic in how you explore them. Empower teams to have a safe process to be critical of those ideas and see what flourishes. 

With resounding support, hit go on your New organization.

Reinvent. Reorganize by audience versus category. Build out an editorial practice. Remove social as a silo. Merge acquisition and brand. Whatever has been sitting in the back of your mind - bring it forward. 

There has never been a better time for fresh ideas to build a new path toward success. 

And then maybe we can begin to say, our structure drives our success. 

Thank you for reading :)

Lindsey is the founder of Sunday Dinner, a brand strategy consultancy that helps senior marketers re-imagine their marketing organization, agency models, and overall comms strategy.