Change Management News

“Driven by hubris, we become blind to our own fallibility and make terrible mistakes.” This was spoken by New York Governor Elliot Spitzer in a speech he gave last August. As Attorney General of NY he went after prostitution rings and encouraged banks to enact the technological capabilities that eventually alerted FBI to his rather expensive hobby.

His take-no-prisoners approach to doggedly pursuing his goals, has left him with few political friends. It seems like everyone is calling for his resignation.

Read the rest of this entry »

I just read a very thoughtful post on leading culture change at The Halo Effect. I thought you might find it useful as well.
http://www.thehalogroup.net/blog/2008/03/leading-culture-change-part-2.html

Professional colleagues are conducting a workshop titled be the Change in Boston on April 3 to 5. I like their work. I haven’t seen this workshop, but if it is comparable to the quality of work I’ve seen from them, it should be very good. I’m sorry I can’t go myself.

http://www.change-management-toolbook.com/Portals/10/Blog/Holger/BeTheChange_Boston.pdf

Mention my name, and you can get a 10 percent discount. I think that’s a first for me:)

Rick Maurer

I read an interesting post that discusses how the US successfully resisted the metric system.

http://idlogger.wordpress.com

The author argues that personally perceived value and punishment are the impetus to change. I agreed with this writer in part. Here is my response. Read the rest of this entry »

I urge you to read Ellie Hook’s fine piece titled The Futility of Planning.  She makes a strong argument why we do need planning during these seemingly unpredictable time.
http://smartchange.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/02/the-futility-of.html?cid=104676678#comment-104676678

Once again, Shankar Vedantam has written a fine column in The Washington Post that I believe relates to change management. He cites research that indicates when political candidates try to make an emotional connection to their audience, they change. Saying is believing. Read the rest of this entry »

I was just going through old copies of my e-mail newsletter, Tools for a Change, and found this item. I don’t like to recycle things, but I love the research that promoted my short piece.

In my work on resistance, I have been interested in brain research that focuses on fear, stress, pain, etc. I believe that area of study (neuroscience) holds important keys to unlocking Level 2 and Level 3 resistance. I just read an article that I think may have application to our work in organizations. By the way, I do realize that this research is a bit of a stretch, but interesting, nonetheless.

In “A Comforting Spouse Could Turn Out to Be a Real Pain,” Robert Lee Hotz, writes, “By eavesdropping on electrical activity in the most private precincts of the mind, researchers investigating the effects of chronic pain discovered that a husband or wife can make the ache feel three times worse simply by being in the room. (Los Angeles Times 11/4/02.) Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a technique I read about in Blue Ocean Strategy. The authors call it Drawing Your Strategy Canvas. They say that this strategy increased revenues for a financial services firm by 30 percent. It is a three-step process.

Step 1: Visual Awakening. In this step they bring stakeholders together to create a visual value curve for the company. They found places where their own curve was pretty similar to their competitors. No way to distinguish themselves from the field. Read the rest of this entry »

I just read an interesting post at:

http://management.silicon.com/itdirector/0,39024673,39170072,00.htm

The writer, apparantly a CIO rails against employees who resist change. A few choice quotes:

“To achieve my desired results I have to metamorphose into some new-age therapist and start talking about utopia. . . .So here’s the real - but not politically correct - answer: if you want to innovate as well as get rid of the systems causing the problems, perhaps you should consider dispensing with the people too?” Read the rest of this entry »

I found a good list of things to consider when communicating change on About.com.
http://humanresources.about.com/od/changemanagement/a/change_lessons2.htm

As good as the list is, it misses one very important element — people’s relationship to the leader. If they trust and have confidence in the leader, then the list I mention can work beautifully. However, if people don’t trust the leader(s), you’ve got problems. People will be skeptical, cynical, or just close down and quit listening.

I call this Level 3 resistance and support. Level 3 suggests it is the deepest and hardest to overcome. If you’d like to read a brief article on my three levels of resistance to change, click here:

http://www.beyondresistance.com/resistance_to_change.htm

I read in interesting interview in Business Management with Fred Killeen, Chief Technology Office at GM.

http://www.buzz2ne.ws/2008/01/myspace-business-management-interview.html

Here’s the portion that relates to change management.

BM. What’s next for you at GM in terms of Web 2.0? How are you going to be approaching that change management aspect you mentioned earlier? Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting article in The Washington Post this morning.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008
/01/27/AR2008012701499.html

Presidents, who get reelected, simplify their messages the last year of their terms. The first three years tend be full of complexity and nuance. And then they get simple.

This is probably good advice for other leaders as well. When leaders in organizations need to get people to support a major change, they often add in too much stuff to their presentations. This tends to confuse, anger, or bore people. The message gets lost. I am not suggesting that leaders get simplistic, but they should make sure that people can walk away understanding the message.

The blog listed below posted a good list of steps to take when leading change.
http://mbadegreeusa.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-to-manage-resistance-to-change-it.html

Here was my response to their post. I appreciate the steps you’ve outlined for successful change management. In my own experience, I find that all the steps are important. I would add one additional step. The leaders must understand the impact that their behavior has on the project. (I call this Level 3 support or resistance.) I have seen otherwise brilliant ideas and plans die simply because the leaders caused so much fear and mistrust that people’s attention (and energy) went into worrying, avoiding, and sometimes sabotaging the project just to save themselves. Little is written about the critical role of the behavior of leaders on change, but their words, actions, reactions, and so forth can make or break projects.