Change Management News

I just posted an interview with Patricia Husband, a librarian who was in a class I gave a few years ago. She sent me an e-mail telling me how she was using the ideas I presented. My curiosity (or perhaps my ego) compelled me to call her and set up an interview. Members of the free Change Management Open Source Project can hear this Podcast and access a lot of other free resources, including the e-book Introduction to Change without Migraines.

Changing a company is tough: only about 40% of transformation programs succeed, according to McKinsey research. But some change programs have a better chance than others: defensive transformations (those undertaken to stem trouble) have lower success rates than progressive ones (launched, for instance, to boost growth or to move from good to great performance). Trigger events matter, too. Some change programs are initiated proactively, while others are undertaken in reaction to external shocks, market pressure, or poor financial performance. Our research finds that most successful transformations are those that are both offensive and proactive — we call them “progressive” — which have a 47% success rate. Defensive transformations have a 34% rate of success.

Source: Creating Organizational Transformations: McKinsey Global Survey Results

by way of the Daily Stat, Harvard Business Publishing

I am not a big fan of Twitter. To date, I hadn’t seen what all the fuss was about. And then news came out from Iran. The government blocked the Internet so that word could not get out about reactions to the elections. But they forgot about Twitter. People tweeted, telling the world about their reactions.

So, what does this have to do with change management, you might ask.  You can try to keep things quiet, under wraps, etc. but people will find a way to let others know what’s up even in the most oppresive environments.

The US government should not be running GM. While the government can be capable of managing large programs effectively, running an auto company is not among them.

This is a good intention gone bad. While keeping General Motors afloat is a worthy goal, the plan won’t get us there.

You’ve got to ask yourself what’s really changed as a result of the bankruptcy. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a reply I received from Eric regarding my client’s question about rating values as part of a performance review process.

Given that the majority of inter-organizational “partnership” arrangements fail (over 60% in some citings), and that ‘interpersonal relationship problems” is often cited as a fundamental reason for leaving a job, then I’d really wonder at the notion what this particular supervisor is focusing on? True, the question as phrased, specifically cites Indicators. Indicators of what? Or, are these, or some of these, specific kinds of desirable behavior? If the supervisor feels OK at listing specific behaviors, then it might be matter of mis-communication. If the supervisor doesn’t want any of this ’stuff’ in the appraisal process, then it seems needful that someone take the supervisor aside for a friendly chat.  Something seems to be upside down in this limited description.

To read the first two posts on this, scroll down the page a bit.

A press release that we just sent out:

A new online survey, by leading change management firm Maurer & Associates Inc., of the challenge of change in organizations today found 33 percent of leaders were more successful at implementing major change during the last 12 months than in the last 5 years. This contrasts with 14 percent who stated they were less successful and 31 percent who experienced no change.
Survey responses also revealed that 48 percent of organizations have experienced rapid major change during this recession, and 29 percent of respondents believe the economic recession has positively impacted their employee’s readiness to change. At the same time, only 20 percent of the respondents believed they were highly skilled at leading or managing these rapid changes while 55 percent believed they were somewhat skilled. Read the rest of this entry »

My buddy, Jake Jacobs (Real Time Strategic Change) hosted a Podcast with me about my new free Change Management Open Source Project.  Thought you might enjoy hearing it.  Podcast

I love the comic strip Frank adn Ernest. On 4/30/09 A guy is attaching an additional sign to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms which reads “. . . and Trans Fats.” Frank or Ernest (I can never tell who is who)  says, “I worry that we’re losing our focus.”

I have seen too many vision and mission statements that are just a hodgepodge of well-meaning phrases. I’ll be they started off fine, with a clear focus, but then barnacles started attaching to the hull, and soon it was hard to tell where the ship was heading in the first place.

A client in the US federal government asked me if it were possible to measure values along with other performance indicators in the appraisal process.  The Human Resources Department of that agency said no. I wa skeptical, so I asked readers of Tools for a Change (my e-mail newsletter). Here’s what they said: Read the rest of this entry »

My freind, Ellie Hooks, just started a new blog called African Zen. I think it is well worth reading and coming back to.  See what you think.

Here is a Podcast of an interview I conducted with Lean/Six Sigma expert, J.R. McGee.  You can access it here or using iTunes.  As  you will probably be able to tell, J.R. and I enjoy our conversations together. Hope you enjoy it.  HINT: when you click on the link, then cliock on “media file” at the bottom of the page. You’ll see the iTunes icon.

I just posted a survey on change in organizations today. Given all that is going on, and is in the air, I thought it might be interesting to see how people are handling change. If you’d like to participate, please click here:    Change Survey Thanks. – Rick

I just made some small revisions to my free e-book, Introduction to Change without Migraines. I hope you’ll take a look.