2010 August | Horizontal Change Management

Tooting your own horn

There is something very enjoyable about opportunities to “toot our own horns”. It feels good to hear yourself acknowledge your own success. If the toot elicits a welcome response all the better. Of course I am assuming here an accomplishment vetted in our own heads (not braggadocio).

And so you say, “what does this have to do with change management?”. I’m glad you asked. One up on hearing my own horn tooting is to encourage others to do the same. How often are we given genuine permission to lay out our tackled obstacles?

If you are guiding change as a

Continue reading Tooting your own horn

Trust, perspective, behavior and a shout out for one of my favorite sites

“Beware of losing trust by blaming others (i.e. making internal attributions about them). Also beware of making excuses (external attributions) that lead you to repeat mistakes and leads to Cognitive Dissonance in others when they are making internal attributions about you. “http://tinyurl.com/24acxdd (from Changing Minds.org one of my favorite dig deep reading sites). The Attribution Theory.

Some change management connections-

Internal attributions are often silent and shared- CM practitioners must learn to draw them out and attach new behavior/perspective. External attributions spread fast and can become mythical- They are best illuminated and stopped as quick as possible. Empathy is a

Continue reading Trust, perspective, behavior and a shout out for one of my favorite sites

Client “ownership” consulting is not horse racing

This is where all third party firms and most consulting firms believe you as a client should reside- in their stable. Once they weasel their way in to your inner circle or directly to you (disclosure- of course I also have to do this part) they want to “own” you like a Kentucky rancher. Any use of you for any reason that has to do with their connection, in their scheme, requires a fee. The more valuable you are to the other ranchers the higher the fee. This might work for raising horses. For consulting it makes no sense

Continue reading Client “ownership” consulting is not horse racing

“Easy” Change and tips

An easy change scenario-

The organization will at some point move a performance system from paper based to online access (say into an SAP module). The money and energy is not there for the technical transfer (and the change that goes with it). There is the ability to address the system itself. There are grumblings from stakeholders about the ties between measures, performance and rating (especially against others in similar but different functions). The icing on the cake is a sudden realization from executives that there is both room and need for “enhancement” (yesterdays blog word for change http://horizontalchange.com/2010/08/the-adult-bad-word/).

The

Continue reading “Easy” Change and tips

A quick change misperception list

Many of change managements “less than successes” (I am growing tired of seeing the word failure and change tied together with little explanation) are a result of misguided perceptions, false assumptions and detrimental naivety. Here are a few-

Having the IT manager responsible for change for technical initiatives Having the project manager responsible for change for all initiatives Crowning someone buried in the middle of the organization with a role that touches all Change fails 70% of the time (what is that stat and how is it possibly helpful for anything but fear marketing of books and models?) There are

Continue reading A quick change misperception list

The Adult Bad Word

My kids have a list of bad words (dumb, stupid etc.). It turns out there are some adult bad words too. No not the ones you are thinking.

Change

This is, apparently, when you take something that is not that broken and tweak it. Or simply tweaking seems to count too. The word gets progressively worse the more you tweak.

For anyone intending to have changes and wrap change management around them it would be good to have the benefits and the business case rock solid tight before venturing into the change process. With that diligent pre work you can

Continue reading The Adult Bad Word

Change Addiction

“it’s very easy to get addicted to the change pattern by not getting the change right in the first place, not making the tough calls or bold decisions up-front, maybe going for something half-way, and then allowing things to slip back.” BP’s Fiona MacLeod (maybe not timely to quote BP, but every organization has a silver lining within) http://tinyurl.com/mewr9p

Change and addiction strung together seems a contradiction to me. It insinuates change is a bad thing. I suppose serial change makes little sense if it is not rooted in reality and sustainability. There, I admitted it might be possible (the

Continue reading Change Addiction

200 Blog Posts and my one year anniversary

Still the most popular post-

http://horizontalchange.com/2009/12/dandelions-in-the-lawn-organic-change-management-design/

a close second-

http://horizontalchange.com/2010/07/first-things-first-a-change-management-short-list/

and this, of course, if my favorite-

http://horizontalchange.com/2010/02/c-level-leverage-of-your-change-management-trusted-advisor/

and one that, I am embarrassed to say, has never been viewed (and is my second favorite)

http://horizontalchange.com/2010/07/c-level-change-management-primer/

It has been an interesting year. Reading back on the posts I am now itching to expand on some of the thoughts and ideas for useful information for both clients and consultants. For now here is a link to two posted papers, both on high level change management-

http://www.scribd.com/garrett_gitchell

Thanks for peeking into my thoughts and experiences and taking the time to look at

Continue reading 200 Blog Posts and my one year anniversary

Stakeholder types because “people are people”

Change Management is a constantly customizable and necessarily adaptive pursuit, but the more exposure you get the more you see that in some ways “people are people”. For the weekend I give you generalizations (sorry friends who say I do this too much- it does stimulate conversation though) about stakeholder types.

The Peacock

This is the person who struts around with feathers spread looking for attention. They are colorful in attitude and dress. Typically they range from happy to really happy. Once in a while their displays are of the jilted lover type- everyone feel sorry for me now.

Best

Continue reading Stakeholder types because “people are people”

Whose fault is PowerPoint the client or the consultant?

I know few independent consultants who will choose PP over a dialogue. I know few big firm consultants who do not relish that chance to put on the ‘ol PP show for the potential revenue and rewards. Clients who set the stage for death by PowerPoint seem to fit well with the second version of “consultant”. If you are that kind of client… the bus has left the station for one way interaction. The dialogue is also your responsibility- good consultants can help.

Which brings me to-

“Consultants will probably not be great purchasers of this book. There is nothing

Continue reading Whose fault is PowerPoint the client or the consultant?

Search for Change

Recent Posts

Archives

My Favorite Web Places