Change a Website, Change an Organization
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The document discusses plans to redesign the Stanford Graduate School of Business website to be more audience-centric, internationally accessible, and driven to engage people around the world. The changes aimed to connect people with Stanford GSB offerings and ideas to drive positive change. However, making these changes required organizational changes and forced cross-departmental integration that created challenges. Specifically, the new design triggered anxiety around redefining content strategies and required the marketing web team to earn trust as they led significant changes.
Change a Website, Change an Organization
- 1. Change a website, change an organization. Toni Bird & Sorel Denholtz Stanford Graduate School of Business Sneak Peek
- 2. — Machiavelli* “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” *Yes, yes, we know! It’s a highly relevant quote, even if he isn’t exactly our ideal role model.
- 3. Vision for the Stanford GSB Website Redesign
- 4. To connect and engage people around the world with Stanford GSB offerings and ideas so they can drive positive change. Support the marketing mission for the school
- 5. Web Site Vision PAST FUTURE Organized by internal departments Organized by external audiences Intended to inform Intended to drive engagement U.S.-centric Internationally accessible Decentralized Coordinated Flat html pages Shared content management system Desktop format Mobile responsive Status quo Innovative
- 6. Making these changes to the website forced organizational changes
- 7. Cross-departmental integration created stumbling blocks • Audience-centricity and a shared content management system required departments to work together in new ways • We will demonstrate specific examples and articulate approaches for anticipating, defining and managing new working relationships, both within and between departments
- 8. New content strategies triggered anxiety • Shifting to a site that was intended to drive engagement, supported by a complex content management system forced us to redefine the types of content being created by the school • This caused stress and anxiety for stakeholders who were being asked to think differently • We will share frameworks for bringing stakeholders from anxiety through comfort — and even getting them excited about change
- 9. The marketing web team had to earn trust • Asking stakeholders to embrace significant change presented many challenges, even when our stakeholders saw the value of the changes • We will share techniques for becoming a trusted strategic partner, and show how we led change instead of just letting it happen.