The blog, Mcontainer talks about the change management challenges in software development. The author suggests that we need to consider Enterprise 2.0 (just as the web now embraces Web 2.0 as a way to highlight the importance of conversation and community on the Internet.) The post ends with an inspired line: The risk is to close the Zoo and re-open the Museum.
Interesting post about mandatory safety helmets for professional baseball coaches in Lean Blog. Coaches are complaining about this new rules even though one of their colleagues was killed last year and there have been many near misses over the years. The top complaint (according to this blog post) “Nobody talked to us.”
Why do we keep failing to talk to the people who we want to influence us? It still makes me shake my head.
You’d think that promoting safety in a plant would be an easy sell. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. I just came across the Chemical and Safety Hazard Investigation Board (CSV). They have prepared a series of safety videos. One that they recently posted covers the tragedy at the BP plant near Houston where 15 were killed and 180 were injured. The video shows what happened — and without moralizing or turning it into a typical training video you can see many places where different actions could have saved lives. It is quite sobering. (more…)
I came across a fine and thoughtful post managing anxiety in the face of change. Although it was written about newsrooms, the wisdom applies in any big organization. I urge you to take a look. Managing Anxiety
And be sure to read his post on “Newsroom Culture and Change.” (more…)
Writing the previous post on William Dawes reminded me of Lana Turner, the popular actress from the 1940s and 50s. The story goes that she was discovered drinking a Coke at a drugstore in Beverly Hills. She was whisked away to Hollywood (conveniently only two blocks away) and the rest, they say, is history.
Too many people think that if they just sit around looking beautiful – or thinking great thoughts, or toiling away in their cubicle – that the world will notice. Of course that does happen sometimes. After all, it was only a mere 71 years ago that Lana Turner was discovered. So, take care of yourself and hang around for another 70 years and someone is bound to notice. (more…)
A part of American history that even sleepy fifth graders (and their parents) know is that Paul Revere rode to warn people that “the British are coming.” But not so many know that William Dawes rode that night in 1775. In fact, he rode further and warned more people. So why didn’t Longfellow write a poem about him?
Some speculate that Revere was more connected. He knew people. He served on committees. And the people he warned were influential leaders like Sam Adams. Revere left a written first-person account. He liked to talk. And he lived in Boston, whereas Dawes moved out of town.
So what’s this got to do with change management, I hear you mutter. (more…)
Shankar Vedandam has written another fine piece in The Washington Post. Learning from Goalies I keep finding great lessons about change management in his Department of Human Behavior column.
When faced with crisis (i.e. financial meltdown, competition eating us for lunch, etc) we tend to have a bias toward action. It is as if we believe that doing something is better than just standing there. It’s as if the research suggests just the opposite: don’t just do something — stand there. (more…)
Mark Mickelson (www.icollabora.com) sent me two fascinating articles about similar research to what I covered in The Right Frame of Mind.
The first suggests that just talking about something — say a recession, for instance — influences how we think about it. The link between Social Security numbers and product prices is downright scary. Social Security Numbers and Prices
This link discusses the price of wine experiment. Price of Wine
The portion of Brian Buck’s blog that focuses on Lean Production has some valuable information. Lean Production
The rest of his blog maybe fine as well, I just read the Lean section.
According to The Economist, Ara Norenzayan “conducted experiments using what is known as the dictator game. . . .Participants receive a sum of money – Dr. Norenzayan set it at $10 – and are asked if they would like to share it with another player.” In the basic version of this old game, people tend to keep most of the money for themselves. He “tweaked the game by introducing the idea of God.” Half the subjects unscrambled sentences containing religious words such as God, spirit, divine and so forth prior to playing the dictator game. The players who were primed with so-called religious terms gave $4.22 on average whereas other players left $1.84. (The Economist March 22, 2008.)
The Economist asked an interesting question. (more…)
Steven Pearlstein’s “A Sacred Cow in the Cockpit” raises some interesting questions about resistance to change in his Washington Post column. Just why do pilot’s ignore the writing on the wall that suggests that the airline industry is hemorrhaging money and the old way of doing business doesn’t cut it?. (That’s my phrase, not his.) Pearlstein said, “But there is no getting around the fact that the airlines also suffer from unions that, 30 years on, still haven’t accepted the reality of a deregulated marketplace. . .” he is especially harsh when it comes to seniority. It causes airlines to work in ways that are “ irrational or unproductive.” (more…)
In Corey Smith’s blog, Master the Business,
he asks why change often doesn’t achieve significant ROI. Here was my response to him:
Corey - I love your phrase “change forsaken.” That’s priceless.
I found a number of reasons why change fails to earn significant ROI. (more…)
I just read a post on Dan Tocchini’s blog titled “People Are Always Motivated. It is worth reading.
http://dantocchini.com/?p=31
A friend told me that he’d seen where it was even more effective to promise to give the money to someone you didn’t like if you didn’t meet your goals. I can see how that could work really well. In fact, I can think of someone right now who probably could help me meet my goals!
David Brooks’ column written in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer scandal is a fascinating look at people in power. Here’s what he says of people who are high achievers: “they have all of the social skills required to improve their social rank, but none of the social skills that lead to genuine bonding. They are good at vertical relationships with mentors and bosses, but bad at horizontal relationships with friends and lovers.”
I think the column is well worth your time. David Brooks
