Based on an article by Seth Godin, six principles of marketing can be used in order to push and your project alive within the organization.
These principles were exposed at the latest Coach Camp Canada in order to explore how they could apply in an Agile transformation/renovation project and what are practices or tools that could help the organization to understand and take action.
Permission: Do you have the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages about your project to the people you work with? Would they miss your updates and your insights if you didn't send them? How do you earn the ability to be heard?
How to get it done?
- · Simply ask for permission
- · Formalize the agreement, in writing or not
- · Use a vernacular language
- · Re-confirm your permission iteratively
- · Communicate with energy and credibility
- · Expose and validate your communication plan
Ideavirus: Do your ideas spread within the organization? Do people talk about your projects when you're not the one initiating the conversation, when you're not in the room?
How to get it done?
- · Create an event, buzz
- · Tell stories
- · Organize and facilitate a Lean Café
- · Tell (weird) metaphors
- · Be loud
- · Spread the ideas in different areas of the organization
- · Buzz words/phrases (Ex.: “QA should find nothing”)
- · Create an original work environment
Your story: Not the facts of your project or initiative, but the story of it… does it resonate with the worldview of the organization and the people who work there? If you're busy talking profit and they're busy listening for impact (or vice versa), how does that mismatch effect your ability to make change? (A key story element often overlooked by the internal storyteller: risk).
How to get it done?
- · Aim for the emotion
- · Know your audience
- · Remind : Why are we doing this?
- · Impact Mapping
- · Translate $ to ?
- · Focus on building
Remarkable: Are you creating work that demands to be talked about?
(We skipped this one)
Tribes: Who’s on your team—not because they report to you, but because you’re in sync? Are you leading people who want to be led, helping parts of the organization move in a direction that feels right to them?
How to get it done?
- · Explore / Discover through conversation
- · Hold a Lean Café / Community of practice
- · Exposes guiding principles and observe responses
Idea diffusion: Are you bringing the boldest ideas to the early adopters, and socializing them gradually as they move through the organization to the majority?
How to get it done?
- Apply a sales pyramid approach
- Shine the spotlight on success to find the majority
- Evangelize through actions and results
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