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This http://horizontalchange.com/2009/12/dandelions-in-the-lawn-organic-change-management-design/ most popular post so far must strike a nerve. I don’t have the luxury of knowing who or what type of person links to it, but the numbers most likely make it a range. Interested because you are stuck in a field of organic change? Interested because you are worn down by stagnancy? Think that if the ground swells someone above might pay attention? Or just like it when the pot gets stirred?
So lets just say thanks to the last couple of years we should be happy to have any kind of my kind of
Continue reading Organic Change- What to do about the dandelions
“What are you going to do with the leaders who will not change, that we have not done”, is a paraphrase of a comment that comes from almost all mid level early in the engagement conversations. Of course the reverse from senior leaders replaces leader with person.
Problems here; pay attention.
Change management is not a coercive process to convert individuals. The focus does not need to be on resistance. To direct energy to those who someone assumes will dig in is insulting to that person and should be embarrassing to the person who asked. When someone displays a
Continue reading Stuck (or naive) mindsets
I predict, thanks to reduction of employees, belt tightening and the effects of the economy a new obstacle for change- Apathy.
We are creeping up on an interesting flux period for organizations. Those who remain have lived in fear of losing their positions, have seen their work loads increase geometrically and are now years into seeing career paths disappear in front of their eyes. If they were “lucky” enough to remain they may also harbor guilt over “surviving”.
Those who were laid off, furloughed, trimmed, hacked (pick your synonym) are carrying bitterness over plans delayed (or destroyed). They
Continue reading and now get ready for APATHY
Not the best of situations, but common, especially for smaller technology implementations. Don’t despair, change management can always be weaved in to project work. Here are some general areas to address-
Awareness
Of two types- illustrating the connection of individual work, task and effort to the overall goals (best end state) of the project and showing an understanding of the difficulties of change. What is the true intent of this project? Starting with effect on you, what are the things that will happen that slow your regular work down, bother you or force you to look at things differently?
Continue reading Change Management without a dedicated resource
 Just the fact the there is a role for CM on any given initiative, program or project is a plus. It sends a signal to participants that the transition from one thing to another is complicated and difficult enough to warrant sheparding by a person rather than just through communication or project management.
As a Conduit
A CM resource external, internal or a designated leader will consider it their responsibility to make connections that are obvious, but for some reason are not happening. Leader to stakeholder and vice-versa, function to function, peer to peer across functions, internal to
Continue reading Organizational Change Management- Overlooked Positives
Ramp up the urgency Grab some like minded people to help out Now create a vision/story that will increase the tension… I mean urgency Start talking, start convincing and start bargaining if necessary Put some people in charge- in fact hold them accountable NOW You might want to consider some short term wins since you are so far into this Give 110%. With enough force you can get a square peg in a round hole Now glue it all together to form a new legacy
Just a few comments-
This is actually out of order. The last thing
Continue reading 8 steps to the Heart of Change-failure
Stuck with CM too low and too late as a leader or practitioner?
If you are sitting in that spot you probably have little control or influence over corporate strategy, the strategy for the change rollout (if there really is one), the ownership of the initiative, the accountability of leadership tied to the initiative or overall timing. If you are interested in doing things “right” you are in for a long haul.
What you might want to try is to be influential, make a difference, in the speed and acceptance of the change. At its core that is what
Continue reading Change Management in the middle
There are two posts of mine that seem to be popular “semi-plagiarize” content. http://horizontalchange.com/?s=speaking Although I must admit it is a quick thrill to look something up, find it and then realize you wrote it. Some day there will be so many I will not be able to keep track of it… we all need our imaginary, but possible, end states. In the interest of catering to stakeholders (in this case some distinctly different kinds of readers) here are a couple of exercises to go with the posts- steal away, but something more than 2 pixel font acknowledgment would
Continue reading Exercises for why, what and work styles
Good start. The primary competency of a change management consultant, I am beginning to think, is anticipation. Or ,so you do not confuse this with some fight or flight tendency (also well honed in CM practitioners) intuition might be a better word. We can tell you what will happen as each little action reverberates across the change web. We have probably seen something like this before, people are people and because of that, mistakes are consistently repeated from organization to organization and person to person.
Odds are you are not thinking of: How your assumptions effect your approach
Continue reading What are we not thinking of? A change management list.
 Yesterday’s post had me peeling bananas upside down with a nine year old. Now I am wondering how many things I can peel differently in my own life as well as within my client’s organizations. This little exercise says a lot about change management.
Change must make sense Sensible change must improve something (which makes sense) There will always be a little (or a lot) of hesitation (I will cut slack and say the a lot could be “resistance”) Even bought into the change, we have to transition All of this needs to be understood and acknowledged for the
Continue reading More on the Monkeys
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