Episode 186
Increasingly, many Marketing teams have been forced to transform their own teams, or the Business as a whole has had to start transforming itself.
But no matter how technically sophisticated they are, no matter how many consultants they have or how many Project management meetings they hold, most companies struggle through these transformations. At best, when transformations succeed, they leave heart-ache and sore feelings
Most of them revert to the status quo they tried so hard to shake. Those leading the initiative end up demoralized, marginalized or downsized.
People who say they can make transformations successful are treated with skepticism. But when that someone has skills that are so multifaceted and has pulled off this feat in multiple industries, you ought to lean in & hear them out.
Susan Odle is someone whose life’s journey and heritage spans three continents. Born to Guyanese parents moved first to London England, then to Toronto, Canada where she went to high school; it happened to be the same school where I went. Anyway, she moved to Ottawa to study music at University. The musician in her has been strong from then until now, evidenced by a solo project she released in 2017.
Our paths crossed again years later when I moved to Ottawa. In the interim Susan had been holding pivotal roles in high tech firms, leading channel & direct sales, professional services, and ops which helped several to successful exits. Susan was honored In 2020 as one of the top 50 women in SaaS by the Software Report. She’s also owned several businesses as well. Currently, Susan specializes in operationalizing change through her consultancy, 8020CS. She’s taken her understanding of navigating successful change and literally wrote the book on it. “Successful Change,” was released in 2023.
Chapters & Timestamps
00:00:00 – Intro
00:02:47 – Welcome Susan
00:06:46 – The chaos that comes with transformation
00:11:50 – The 8020CS Blueprint
00:21:46 – Break change down into four dimensions
00:29:38 – PSA
00:30:32 – Moving through ‘gates’ toward successful change
00:48:59 – Overcoming resistance
00:53:45 – Susan’s coordinate and other resources
