Strategic Challenges – Take Advantage of Change Requests

Published on March 23, 2011 by in Brainzooming - All Posts

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Don’t walk away lightly from hidden strategic challenges to what you do and how you do it. When a client, whether internal or external, asks you to change something so it’s simpler, clearer, flows in an alternate sequence, looks differently, etc., make sure you’re taking advantage of the opportunities it creates! By lowering your pride of authorship and raising your excitement about an apparently simple request to make revisions, you can find incredible strategic challenges AND opportunities to force your thinking and processes into very different directions you may have never considered exploring otherwise.

An example?

We thought we’d finished a social media strategy write-up when the client asked us to move it from PowerPoint to a document format and add a few visuals. Lo and behold, what seemed initially like a couple of hours of simple revisions to the document wound up requiring several days of attention.

In the midst of the effort, we discovered the formatting change request was really a strategic challenge. To make the reformatted document work better, we wound up re-depicting one of our social media strategy models in a much clearer way. We also developed a new social media response model. Both of these creations will be tremendously valuable in further social media strategy client engagements.

Not every change request is a strategic challenge in disguise which will yield new and better work. Be sure though you’re open to finding the dramatically improved ways of doing things which could be lurking in that one last revision to your strategic work. – Mike Brown

The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at brainzooming@gmail.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how we’ve developed  integrated social media strategy for other brands and can do the same for yours.

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Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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  • http://jimjosephexp.com Jim Joseph

    I think this is also a lesson in accepting feedback, even if on the surface you might not seem to agree with it. Feedback is an opportunity to learn and improve, to make better. And sometimes, many times, you end up improving in other ways than you imagined. I guess the point is to keep an open mind and also avoid the “not invented here” notion as well. Nice post! Jim Joseph

    • Anonymous

      It’s taken time, but I’ve really worked at not defending right away, but listening and considering feedback first. It’s actually become easier on the consulting side because we have to depend on the client knowing the internal workings of their business and what will work. Thanks Jim for your comment!

  • http://twitter.com/PlacesFirst Tobey Deys

    I appreciate how you mention ‘internal and external’ clients. We often forget that internal customer service can (and should) be as important and get as much attention as external customer service. (Bit off-topic, I guess :-)
    Great post; it’s true, change is good!

    • Anonymous

      Interesting point Tobey! A boss of mine both stressed the idea of internal customer service and cautioned against the potential it creates for internal people to act as if they forget that they’re all on the same team. It can be a delicate balance to get it right.

  • Charles Graves

    One fundamental advantage of exercising this opportunity is not mentioned. That is, demonstrating the ability to listen. By trying suggested changes you are also showing that client that you are listening to what is being said. Demonstrating to the client that you have made a change for the better thanks to their suggestion shows that listening ability and gives the client added trust on your behalf. It will eventually help in your relationship somewhere down the line.

    Thanks for your words of wisdom. I continue to enjoy reading Brainzooming.

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