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So, Everybody Embraces Change?

Acceptance, Employee Involvement, Organizational Change, Resistance2 Comments

Once, I was invited to present at a Leadership Development Program hosted by a major university for a large corporation (my topic was organizational change). The host facilitator of this program got the group started in the morning by asking participants to take a few minutes to introduce each other at their table and make a list on a flip chart of the assets they brought to the organization.

I listened with interest and curiosity to each table report out. Without exception, each of the eight groups reported that one of the assets they brought to their organization was being ‘agents of change’ or ’embracing change’ or some form of that. This was interesting because at the time I was working with this organization and the reports were that ‘change’ was something this organization struggled with. I was there, to speak on the topic!

Leadership and Change: Blame, Fallacy, and Culture Change

Culture Change, Leadership, Organizational ChangeComments Off

A recent article (A Call for Leadership) in the Harvard Nieman Journalism Lab points to leaders as the chief reason that corporate culture does not change. The article cites research and examples to make the case for why executives are to blame for failure to change corporate culture in news organizations. But, this is true of probably any organization!

The typical view of most executives in organizations is that the masses will ‘resist’ change and that the masses is where the problem is. That is a fallacy. As the article points out and in my experience, it is leadership where the blame lies. Why? Because 1) often the change leaders are not truly willing to change, and 2) it is at the mid-management layer where the change most often loses steam (not the masses). Not surprisingly, the most common reason for mid-level leaders not supporting the change is top level leaders not being willing to change!

3 Ways to Make Your Change Management Plan Have Real Impact

Organizational ChangeComments Off

This is the fourth post in the series “5 Reasons Why a Change Management Strategy Matters“

Change management can be a buzzword. The concept of change management is often not well understood. Consequently, some change management plans can be complicated, hard to understand, and difficult to measure. Other plans may be nothing else than a change communications plan. Neither case yields effective results. But it does not have to be that way! Here are three ways to make your change management plan have a real impact on your project implementation.

7 Sure Ways to More Effective Meetings

Effective Meetings, Facilitation, Group EffectivenessComments Off

Image by Ambro

The USA article “Tame the meeting beast with these 8 tips” sheds light on something most of us already know: much of our time spent in meetings is a waste of time!

When you consider that we spend a great part of our time in meetings (what else is a work day but an endless series of meetings?), 50% waste is a huge misuse of organizational resources!!

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