Project Beginning- think or act?

I took a break from change for half the day yesterday and chaperoned my daughter (8 years old-third grade) on a field trip.

We went to a local farm-Forest Hill Farms in Danville, CA- to learn about agriculture in the Tri-Valley at the turn of the century.

In one module the kids (and me) learned about canning and had the opportunity to draw their own label. And that is where I quickly returned to my change management environment.

I was struck by the many approaches. And fascinated by the connection to similarities with adults “drawing” up change.

Some kids seemed intent on picking the right color.

Some seemed deep in thought- no grabbing of crayons, no words written down, just contemplation.

Some wrote their names, or made up a company name or wrote the product first.

Some were wild and erratic in throwing down the design, some smoothly controlled.

And a few seemed to get a balance between think and act.

Judging the results is of course subjective, but I found that the ones who acted first could not change their course (they used crayons).

The ones who thought too long ran out of time.

The ones who jumped to gathering resources ended up with confusing unbalanced designs.

And not one of them consulted with any of the others.

I came away with two things.

One, I think I have worked with each of their parents or someone just like that.

Two, what a fun team building exercise (and chance for a consultant to quickly gauge a group).

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Vision to Work- Contrary, Simplified and Insightful Enterprise Change Management

Why

Because there is so much that is fundamentally wrong with the current/historical change management approaches. Much more later-

First promise is a contrarian viewpoint.

Anything that is big as change can be scary, overwhelming and confusing-

Second promise is to simplify change management.

I have a passion for both people and business objectives. Both are necessities for change. And both get sanded down by methodologies and theory.

Third promise is to provide valuable insight from both  client and consultant perspectives.

Where

Here on our company blog. Soon on my own blog. And out there in the business world through your voices, your interpretations and your words. Because the people part of change is all about translation and action.

Who

Garrett Gitchell (the voice of this blog) started Vision to Work, Inc.  in 2000. Those were heady days especially here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Everything was changing and every executive was responsible for change. We began by addressing their perspective and moved toward defining those of their reports. Big projects, huge programs and more change (adaptation) later brings us to our strength, Enterprise Change Management. That is our specialty, but the design of an organization wide change function (our competency strength) has us guiding, mentoring and working with all of the specialties of OD, HR and project management along with every vertical function in an organization. So we are generalists in our knowledge and specialists in our expertise. Initially I, Garrett, will create posts. But guest posts will be an option if it will help stir the pot on a subject…

What

Our format will be to use words that have a connection to change and change management to help illustrate points, approaches, connections, disparities and to build a collection of parts that can be put together as a whole to show how change can succeed for the individual and be profitable for the organization (or is it the other way around?). We will show you our readers, executives as owners, stakeholders as the buzz for improvement, to see change management as the glue for the strategy of the whole organization. Or maybe it is the string and the people are the glue…

When

In digestible doses strung consistently together… sounds like the vagueness of timing we have seen on some initiatives.

how

Not a “W”?”

I think hard, take a chance and post.

And you react in whatever way works for you.

Feel free to leave comments. Disagreement is refreshing. Encouragement too. Critique not so… Assuming I do not get overwhelmed you are welcome to email me at ggitchell@visiontowork.com. Questions are the core of successful interaction so ask away. Suggest post topics or category words if you like too. And lets stir up some change together!

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