From Panic to Plan: How I’d Land a $10M Marketing Transformation (Without Burning Trust).

Most restructures fail between the org chart and the work. The fix: one story and one scorecard. In 90 days, run five moves, Stabilize the narrative, Make the model real, Double-track workforce & risk, Communicate like a system, and Lead with care & compliance—while leaders steer from a single Adoption → Proficiency → Value (APV) page.

The Moment Everything Got Loud.
Picture this: a mid-size insurer signals “big changes” in Marketing… but can’t say when, how many roles, or what “better” looks like. Within hours, the rumor engine is humming. Managers don’t have answers. Productivity dips. Leadership feels the pressure.

That’s where you come in, not to redraw the org chart, but to connect the dots so people understand how work will actually flow tomorrow, and how we’ll measure progress week by week.

The Stakes (Sanitized)
• Budget: $550M → cut $10M
• Team: ~250 FTE, up to 50 impacted
• New CMO incoming; interim leader has announced change with fuzzy timing
• Reaction: anxiety, speculation, slowdown
• My brief: steady the Change & Communications workstream and make this executable

The 5 Moves (Week 0–12)

1. Stabilize the narrative (48–72 hours)
   We align on one truth source: “Strategic, client-focused marketing with fewer handoffs, clearer ownership, better ROI.”
   Then we publish three things fast:
   • What’s known vs unknown (and when unknowns become known)
   • Decision dates and transparent selection criteria
   • A Q&A hub (updated daily—even if the answer is “in progress”).
   Spokespeople are named: interim leader + HR + Change. No surprise emails. No side channels.

2. Make the operating model real (Week 1–2)
   Org charts don’t run businesses—operating models do. We translate the end-state into value streams (Brand, Growth, Lifecycle, Analytics, MarTech), define intake → prioritization → capacity, and assign RACI by stream.
   We also publish role families and levels before any 1:1 conversations, so the process feels fair and predictable.

3. Double-track workforce & risk (Week 1–4)
   Two tracks in parallel:
   • Workforce plan: who we retain, reskill, or exit; plus, continuity via backfill/contract to protect the customer.
   • Risk heatmap: campaigns in flight, regulatory/brand issues, client SLAs. Each risk gets an owner, prevent/mitigate actions, and a due date.

4. Communicate like a system (Week 1–12)
   We stop one-off broadcasts and switch to rhythm:
   • Mon Ops: decisions + process updates
   • Wed People: supports, timelines, FAQs
   • Fri Leader: talk tracks, slides, red-flag path
   Managers get a 10-minute huddle guide, scripts, and escalation routes. Everything lives on a single source of truth (SharePoint/Confluence) with version control.

5. Care + compliance (always)
   Restructure is human. We set respectful notification timelines, legal-reviewed letters, and Day-1 visibility of supports (EAP, redeploy, coaching, resume clinics). External comms run behind brand guardrails so we don’t create a second crisis while fixing the first.

What Leadership Sees Every Week (One Page)
We stack outcomes on a single APV scorecard:

Adoption — are leaders using the manager toolkit, and are teams working the new intake process?
Proficiency — can teams approve campaigns faster with fewer errors and less help?
Value — are we lifting campaign ROI, lowering cost-to-serve, reducing cycle time, and keeping brand risk at zero?

Scorecard fields: Target | Current | Δ vs last week | R/A/G threshold | Owner | Next action (one sentence)

Why this works: we stop reporting everything and start reporting the few metrics that change decisions. When leaders see Adoption stall, we invest in enablement. When Proficiency moves but Value doesn’t, we tune the flow. Every update leads to one action.

A 30 / 60 / 90 That Actually Lands.

30 days
• Narrative + principles live
• Selection criteria published
• Risk owners named
• Manager toolkit in use

60 days
• Role decisions complete
• New operating rhythms live
• Continuity resourcing locked
• Early KPI movement visible

90 days
• Post-implementation review
• Backlog re-prioritized to the new model
• Before/after KPIs published
• Temporary controls retired

Patterns to Avoid (Because I See Them Everywhere)
• Shipped ≠ Adopted. Launching is not landing.
• Activity ≠ Outcomes. Kill vanity metrics; keep three that drive decisions.
• No owner for the “behavioral bridge.” Name it and fund it.
• Monthly reviews for weekly drift. Tighten cadence or lose value.

How This Feels on the Ground
Conversations get calmer because managers finally have a script and a path. Teams know when decisions are coming and how they’re made. Leaders can look at one page and decide what to do next. Customers feel continuity instead of chaos. And the $10M target stops being a scary number—it becomes an operating design goal we can execute against.

Tools You Can Use

If you’re staring down a similar reset and want this landed cleanly people respected, customers protected, numbers delivered, let’s talk. I’ll help you set the cadence, build the scorecard, and get week-one momentum.

Kenny
Prosci® Certified | Digital Transformation | Change & Communications
KennysChangeLab.com /services