The key to making change initiatives effective

What one thing can you do to make a change initiative work? Jim Manskey, President at TBG Partners, talks about pinpointing influencers, who have made all the difference in their shift toward purpose.

Robin: Hello and welcome to this edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I am Robin Tooms, VP of Strategy at Savage Brands, and my guest again is Jim Manskey, President at TBG Partners. So Jim, welcome back to Brandonomics.

Jim: Thank you again, Robin. It’s great to be back.

Robin: Well, we’ve loved hearing about the brand transition that was kind of sparked by leadership transition at TBG, but the company itself has such a long history, and I know part of the challenge around the brand transition was getting the internal cultural transformation on board with that. So I’m curious, what challenge did you see about making that transition happen, and how did you deal with that?

Jim: Well as we all know, change is difficult, and particularly with entrenched leadership that had been here for an extended period of time. We recognized out of the gate that we weren’t broken — we weren’t fixing anything that was broken — but to truly change the paradigm and rally around our purpose, we had to start grassroots up and create a groundswell of interest around that and commitment to it so we could change the organization from within.

Robin: So how did you get that groundswell going; what did you do?

Jim: It was interesting. We worked with a group called Innovisor brought to us by Savage that helped us recognize key influencers – we call them Purpose Ambassadors.

Robin: I like that.

Jim: I’m literally working with them behind the scenes to help me understand, with all that we’re starting to communicate with regard to our purpose, how is it resonating across the firm at the grassroots levels? And that helps to inform our leadership and helps the leadership get on board as well when they see everybody across the firm starting to rally around our common purpose.

Robin: So you’re able to communicate with them directly to help get that message across?

Jim: Absolutely. In fact we just had a wonderful conference call, the third in a series yesterday to talk about new initiatives, things we’re rolling out with regard to communicating differently, so that they’re literally allowed in the tent, so to speak, with leadership.

Robin: Any feedback from them yet?

Jim: Wonderfully positive feedback in terms of what they’re hearing, how the message that we’re communicating is resonating across the firm, how the people, from the youngest to the more seasoned, are getting behind the purpose and the commitment to making this earth a more memorable place.

Robin: Well, excellent. I like the fact that you mentioned youngest to most senior; that’s very important.

Jim: Absolutely.

Robin: Okay, well thank you for sharing.

Jim: Thank you.

Robin: This has been another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies

 

TBG is a landscape architecture firm specializing in community development, corporate campuses, civic spaces, hotels, hospitals and educational facilities. Over the past 28 years, the firm has grown from a single office to an integrated practice with more than 125 professionals working on projects around the world. https://tbg-inc.com/