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“Rick mixes great insight with common sense, complexity with compassion and care, and honors the integrity of an organization, individual, or project. Don’t think twice; hire Rick!”
Gail Bower, President, Bower & Co. Consulting LLC
Change Management: It’s Still Why Before How
Change Management: It’s Still Why Before How I was taking part in a conversation on LEAN. Someone posed the question about what incentives people needed in order to support LEAN (a waste reduction process). As I read through the thoughtful …
How to Get Rid of Wasted Effort, Scope Creep, and Lukewarm Productivity in 2012
How to Get Rid of Wasted Effort, Scope Creep, and Lukewarm Productivity in 2012 My prediction for the new year: Your organization will initiate many major changes with considerable hope and fanfare. But, by the end of the year, most …
Change Management – The Ninth Waste in Lean Six Sigma
The Ninth Waste in Lean Six Sigma Majdi Alhman posed a fascinating question in the Lean Six Sigma Forum on LinkedIn: what is the ninth waste (in lean Six Sigma)? You might have thought that he would have received a …
The Danger of Missing the Subltety of Kotter’s Leading Change
Recently, I have been reading lots of blogs on change. Some are great and get me thinking. I love those. Many others just list John Kotter’s eight steps. These blog authors add no value. How have they applied these steps? …
Don’t Shoot – Lessons on Leading Change
Don’t Shoot: One Man, A Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America (David Kennedy. Bloomsbury USA. 2011) is a powerful and important book. Harvard researcher, David Kennedy wondered why our approaches to dealing with gang violence were …
How can smaller companies utilize change management to help the business grow?
How can smaller companies utilize change management to help the business grow? The discipline of sound change management can be an important tool for small companies that want to grow. But, sadly, many smaller businesses act like the big kids …
What’s Your Communication Plan About the Change Initiative?
What’s Your Communication Plan About the Change Initiative? Late breaking news: communication requires giving – and receiving – information. The “and receiving” part of communications plans is often missing. Corporate communications departments salivate at the thought that they can create …
How to Prepare the Message You Want to Communicate Around Change
Note: This is a companion post to What’s Your Communication Plan About the Change Initiative?), I discuss the range of things that need to be covered as well as the need to make certain that communication is a conversation …
Making a Compelling Case for Change
One thing sets successful change management strategies apart from those that don’t work – people believe a change is needed. In a study we conducted,we found that in 95 percent of the successful changes, those who had a stake in the outcome understood that something had to change.
Making a compelling case for change is critical to your success. Everything else rests on your ability to get this message across. If you fail here, everything else is going to be harder. You will surely face resistance to change. And that’s not pretty. The change may take longer, cost more, give you headaches, and ultimately fail. Sadly, many rush past this phase and a pay a high price.
Are you certain that most (if not all) critical stakeholders see – and feel in their guts – a compelling need to change?
Here are some resources that can help you answer that question and make a compelling case for change.
Building Credibility for Your Business
This assessment shows you what to pay attention to when building (or attempting to regain) the credibility of your business.
Making a Case for Change
Gives lots of specific tips for applying Open Book Management. Also explores the critical difference between “why” and “how.
Why You Must Build Support Before You Need It
Have you tried to introduce a major new change in your organization – one that you knew was critically important – only to be met with blank stares or worse? People looked at you like you had come up with an idea whose time definitely had not come. Let’s assume for a minute that your idea actually was a good one, then why would people oppose you?
Podcast With Lori Silverman (Audio)
Click here to listen to the podcast with Lori Silverman, author of Wake Me When the Data is Over. We focus on ways to build support for change through the use of stories.