Jared Simmons shares key tips for the frustrated change agent to help overcome the most common obstacles faced.  When you’re new to a role, you’re often hired to change something. You may need to launch a new project, implement a new system, or improve the performance of an existing process. At some point, you will meet resistance. The team that passive-aggressively ignores your emails; the organization that can’t agree on scope or timeline; the leadership team that asks for more…

Tineke Keesmaat blows the cover of a common change management myth.  Imagine this scenario. Ambitious leader. Countless dollars and hours invested into creating an exciting new strategy. Lots of team members to rally. An awesome launch. And then, wait for it, nothing. Ok, maybe not nothing, but definitely not knock-your-socks off success. Yet another case study to support the research that only about 30% of leaders feel they achieve all their transformation goals. The excuse: we didn’t invest enough in…

Caroline Taich shares a  post on change and the skills you need to drive it forward.  In this blog, we have been exploring the McKinsey model for change. Last week I wrote about conviction as a driver of change.  This week I’m thinking about the skills you need for change.  Here is a big one – the ability to see your unique strengths. This came up during the wonderful opportunity I had to learn from Councilman Matt Zone.  Councilman Zone…

  In this podcast,Tineke Keesmaat interviews Dr. Elsbeth Johnson who shares her ground-breaking research on how leaders and managers can achieve successful strategic change in their organizations.  Big, strategic change efforts often fail. Virtually all of them are harder than they need to be. Why is this and what can leaders do to make change stick?  Leaders must learn to step up in the early stages of an organizational change, and then step back in its later stages. This combination…

  David Burnie shares a post from his company blog that identifies six change management guidelines designed to help manage change effectively.  While they say that nothing in life is certain except death and taxes, this proverb is missing another of life’s key inevitabilities: change. As highlighted by the current COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world, business and organizational change can be both planned and unplanned. Regardless of what instigates change, it must be properly managed for success. Not everyone enjoys…

  Jesse Jacoby shares a timeless post that explains how leaders can overcome overt and covert resistance to change.    In your role as a leader, you will likely encounter resistance to change at some point from one or more of your own team members. Resistance may come from a variety of sources: An individual with a difficult personality Someone anxious about impending change A person who disagrees with your vision Resistance is usually demonstrated in one of four ways,…

  This timeless post from Andy Sheppard identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the six most common approaches leaders adopt when instituting change.  A leader has many options when determining what can be improved in their organisation (or organisational unit). The options for determining how to mobilise their organisation to successfully deliver the improvements are more limited. This question of how to change is also often an afterthought: leaders can find themselves well down one of these paths without considering…

Jesse Jacoby identifies a few of the core issues that can arise when bringing a new manager into the workplace. Good things are possible when new managerial blood is brought into an organization. For one thing, there are often fresh ideas. You know yourself how easy it is to get so close to something that you can’t see the forest for the trees. You can’t see a solution that’s obvious to someone from the outside. And, of course, if you…