Managing Change in Marketing Teams
How to respond to change, support colleagues through it, and turn disruption into effective new ways of working.
Why this matters now
Marketing teams are experiencing overlapping change: AI and automation; New platforms and tools; Restructures; Budget pressure; Changing customer behaviour; New strategies; Different measurement expectations; Evolving roles and skills
McKinsey estimates the average employee now experiences around 10 planned change programmes each year, five times the level of a decade ago. (mckinsey.com)
Key point: The challenge is increasingly not one change. It is continuous change.
Session aims
By the end, you should be able to:
Understand why people respond differently to change
Diagnose barriers to adoption
Apply established change models
Communicate change more effectively
Reduce avoidable resistance
Support colleagues through uncertainty
Embed new behaviours rather than simply launch them
Change is not implementation
A new CRM can be installed, an AI tool can be licensed, a restructure can be announced, a strategy can be published. But none of these means the change has actually happened.
CIPD’s October 2026 guidance stresses that poorly managed change can damage performance, engagement and employee wellbeing.
Key point: Change succeeds when people work differently afterwards.
Start with a change impact map
Before communicating change, identify: What is changing? Processes, technology, roles, priorities? Who is affected? Which teams and individuals? How are they affected? Workload, skills, authority, routines? What must they do differently? What support will they need?
Strategic focus: understand organisational impact.
Tactical focus: understand Monday morning.
A useful model: ADKAR
Prosci’s ADKAR model identifies five conditions for individual adoption:
Awareness – Why must we change?
Desire – Why should I engage?
Knowledge – What do I need to know?
Ability – Can I actually do it?
Reinforcement – What will make it stick?
Key point: Different people can be blocked at different stages of the same change.
Diagnose before prescribing
Imagine a team is not using a new campaign-management platform.
Possible reasons:
Awareness problem – They do not understand why it matters.
Desire problem – They prefer the old system.
Knowledge problem – Training was inadequate.
Ability problem – They understand it but cannot use it confidently.
Reinforcement problem – Everyone quietly returned to spreadsheets.
Practical lesson: “More training” only solves one of these five problems.
Resistance is information
Do not automatically label resistance as negativity.
It may reveal: A genuine operational problem; Loss of control; Poor communication; Missing skills; Unrealistic workload; Previous failed change; Fear about role security; A better alternative
Useful question: “What specifically would make this change difficult to adopt?”
Key point: Listen before trying to persuade.
Change and transition are different
William Bridges distinguishes:
Change – The external event.
Transition – The internal process people go through while adapting.
His model identifies: Ending → Neutral Zone → New Beginning
Example: A new structure may begin on Monday, but people may take considerably longer to feel comfortable inside it.
Recognise what people are losing
Bridges argues that transition begins with an ending.
People may lose: Familiar processes, Expertise, Status, Relationships, Autonomy, Confidence, Routine, Identity
This is particularly important when technology changes someone’s role.
Practical question: “What will people have to stop doing, give up or relearn?”
Ignoring that question can create mistrust.
The Neutral Zone is messy
During the transition: Old processes may still exist; New processes may not work perfectly; Productivity can temporarily fall; People may make mistakes; Roles may feel unclear; This is not automatically failure.
Bridges describes the Neutral Zone as both uncomfortable and potentially highly creative.
Manager action: allow learning time.
Team action: surface problems rather than hide them.
Use Kotter for the organisational view
Kotter’s modernised 8-Step model includes:
Create urgency
Build a guiding coalition
Form a strategic vision
Enlist support
Remove barriers
Generate short-term wins
Sustain acceleration
Institute the change
Modern Kotter thinking treats these as iterative rather than rigidly sequential.
Translate Kotter into team practice
For a marketing team:
Urgency – Why must we change now?
Coalition – Who can help champion it?
Vision – What will better look like?
Barriers – What stops adoption?
Wins – Where can we prove value quickly?
Sustain – How do we stop reverting?
Key point: Large change becomes manageable when converted into visible local action.
Communicate six things clearly
Every change communication should answer: Why is this happening? What is changing? What is not changing? What does it mean for me? What do I need to do next? Where can I get help?
Marketing reality: “Digital transformation will create exciting synergies” answers none of these.
Communicate repeatedly, not once
One announcement is rarely enough.
Use: Team briefings, FAQs, Demonstrations, Written summaries, Manager conversations, Office hours, Progress updates, Examples from early adopters
CIPD stresses that effective change requires ongoing communication, employee involvement and support, rather than simple top-down announcement.
Psychological safety matters
Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety around people’s ability to speak candidly without fear of interpersonal punishment.
During change, teams need to feel able to say: “I don’t understand.” “This isn’t working.” “I made a mistake.” “I disagree.” “I need help.”
HBR’s 2025 guidance links psychological safety with better decision-making and forward momentum.
Key point: Silent compliance can hide failed adoption.
AI change needs particular care
AI changes more than tools.
It can affect: Professional confidence, Role identity, Skills, Decision rights, Trust, Work distribution
HBR’s 2026 work on AI adoption warns that poorly handled AI integration can reduce trust and coordination, recommending that organisations treat AI adoption as a team-development challenge as well as a technology project.
Practical approach: Learn together rather than pretending everyone already understands it.
Involve people in designing the change
Instead of: “Here is your new workflow.”
Try: “Here is the outcome we need. Help us design the best workflow.”
Involve users in: Testing, Workflow design, Pilots, Training, Feedback, Identifying risks
Strategic benefit: stronger adoption.
Tactical benefit: better processes.
Key point: Participation creates information as well as buy-in.
Use pilots and short-term wins
Do not always change everything at once.
Example: Instead of rolling out AI-assisted campaign planning across the whole organisation:
Select one team; Choose one workflow; Agree success measures; Test for four weeks; Capture learning; Improve the process; Scale carefully
Kotter identifies visible short-term wins as an important mechanism for sustaining change momentum.
Measure adoption, not just implementation
Weak measure: “Everyone has received training.”
Better measures: Percentage actively using the process; Task completion rate; Error rate; Time saved; Confidence; Quality; Work reverting to old methods; Customer or commercial impact
Key point: Training completed is an input. Behaviour changed is an outcome.
Different team realities
Small team – Change can move quickly but may depend heavily on one individual.
Focus on: Conversation, Clear priorities, Simple pilots
Growing SME – The risk is inconsistent adoption.
Focus on: Process ownership, Training, Shared standards
Enterprise – Complexity increases through: Functions, Regions, Governance, Technology, Multiple changes
Focus on: Coordinated change portfolios rather than isolated projects.
Common mistakes to avoid
Announcing before listening
Explaining what without explaining why
Assuming resistance means negativity
Underestimating loss
Training without practice
Running too many changes simultaneously
Measuring implementation rather than adoption
Declaring victory too early
Allowing leaders to ignore the new behaviour
McKinsey’s 2025 research warns that continuous overlapping change is creating significant change fatigue.
Practical activity: build a Change Canvas
Choose one current or upcoming change and complete:
The change is…
Why it is needed…
Who is affected…
What they may lose…
The new behaviour required…
The current ADKAR barrier is…
The main obstacle is…
The support required is…
A useful short-term win would be…
We will know adoption is happening when…
Key takeaways
Managing change is not about persuading everyone to be enthusiastic about everything new.
It is about helping people understand: Why change is happening; What it means for them; What they need to do differently; How they will be supported; How they will know it is working.
Use ADKAR to understand individual adoption.
Use Bridges to recognise the human transition.
Use Kotter to create organisational momentum.
And remember: Change can be announced in a meeting but adoption happens through what people actually do afterwards.
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