Recently, I was in a discussion with an executive about the lack of commitment he felt was present in his staff. As we continued the discussion it became very evident that he was in the middle of a major change initiative within his group and it was not working well. As we continued our discussion one key factor became evident – he really didn’t believe it would work.

So, I visited with several of his key people and discussed the new initiative. Again, on the surface, everyone stated they were committed to the initiative however they felt two things. First, they felt their leader was not sincere since he continually did things that did not help their move forward. Second, they did not really feel it would work for various reasons.

Therefore, the initiative was doomed from the beginning. There appeared to be commitment, yet, few really believed in the success of the initiative. Thus, Commitment is Meaningless without Belief!

So what really happened? The Commitment was Meaningless without Belief. Here is what we found out… Continue reading ‘Commitment is Meaningless without Belief’ »

One of the quickest questions to come up (no pun intended) during planning sessions or personal coaching sessions is – How do I/we manage this in a Fast Changing Environment? Well, this is a good question and will occur more often since fast-changing environments is becoming the norm. Increasingly change is becoming the number focal point for every organization and every leader.

These dynamic times require dynamic solutions including processes, people, systems and culture (a leader driven factor). The key is to develop an attitude that change is good for us. The more effective we are at developing a sense of optimistism in responding to the situations, thinking in terms of opportunities rather than threats.

Here is a list of key elements or how to’s to increase the success rate for change… Continue reading ‘How to Manage Fast Changing Times’ »

One of my favorite books on change is John Kotter’s outstanding book – Leading Change. I have listed it as a must read for all my leadership development clients. And, since change has and will become an even bigger topic in the coming years, I felt it would be good to provide you with a quick summary of his book.

First, Kotter’s book – Leading Change – describe a very helpful model and process for effectively leading change now and in the future. He overviews how to understand and then manage change through different stages. He points out the importance of your people in the change process. In fact, he was one of the first to point out that your people must believe in the need for the change before it will happen.

The responses of your people will have more bearing on the success of the change project than any other factor. So here are the eight steps or stages of leading change: Continue reading ‘Eight Steps to Leading Successful Change’ »

Continuing the theme regarding Managing Change and the importance it will take in the coming years – assuming you want to be successful. These five principles are directed to leaders of organizations. Use this these keys as a guideline and your change initiatives will turn out positive.

The five keys are: Continue reading ‘Five Key Principles for Change Management Success’ »

So now you are ready to make change happen in your organization. What have you done to improve the skills and knowledge of the people who will be asked to make the change projects successful?

Here is the truth -using more experienced and skilled change managers can reduce the risks of having a troubled or unsuccessful change project. So again, what are doing to enhance the abilities of the change management teams?

A great place to start is the leadership of the change teams. Effective change leadership is critical to the success of the teams. It is an advantage to create dedicated positions of change leaders within your organization – similar to the project management leaders. The project management leader is more common today than in previous decades. The same thing will happen to the change management leadership position in coming years – be an early adopter and gain a competitive advantage.

While having a dedicated change management leader will increase the success factor by a minimum of 20%, an even more important factor is top management sponsorship and close support of change management projects. In fact, top management support is the single most important factor related to successful projects. Top leaders must have a clear understanding of the importance of change and the advantages the organization will attain using a systematic change management system.

Take a moment to reflect upon change projects within the past two years at your organization. What worked and why? What did not work and why? If you take the time to examine the success and failures of these change initiatives – top management support or non-support will have a major relationship to the level of success.

What can you do as a leader to show support for change? That is the major question for you today.

Okay, continuing the theme of change management, one thing jumped out at me. There is a lack of information regarding formal methodology for creating change. When you compare the formalized processes found for total quality processes and even project management – change management systems are lacking or just more unknown.

The reason this is important is because formalized systems allow for complete – wide and deep – coverage of change processes in an organization. At best, today’s change management occurs in the form of improvised solutions using a number of different methods – both proven and unproven relative to getting results. Continue reading ‘Change Management Methodology – the Big Question for Success’ »

Want to improve your change project success rates? Since the average success rate is only 41%, then 59% are failing in some way. Yet, when researching the highly successful change masters of the business world, their success rate was a stunning 80%. That my friend is a high return on investment. If you want to move into the ranks of successful change masters, then the first step is simple…

You must gain insight or true awareness of reality and then launch an action plan.

So how do you make this happen? Early awareness of resistance to change or for that matter – any issues that pop up during the beginning phases of a change project need clear and decisive action plans and steps. Change projects are usually require simultaneous changes in your people’s mindsets, attitudes, culture and complexity issues. Such changes do not happen on there own, they need to be aggressively dealt with by the leaders of the organization. Continue reading ‘Awareness followed by Action leads to Change Project Success’ »