Introducing the INflux Change Agent Network!
November 30, 2009
Introducing a new program for 2010 to help you influence change without authority:
Implementing organizational change is an uphill battle.
Studies show that only 30% of change initiatives meet expectations. When a change agent is involved, the success rate actually drops. The reason? Change agents have the difficult task of implementing change without actually having direct authority over the people going through the change.
Whether you are executing strategy, implementing technology, designing process improvements, or transforming culture, your role as change agent is fraught with challenges: Convincing people to try new things. Keeping change a priority. Getting leaders to take ownership. Aligning actions towards desired outcomes. Overcoming resistance at all levels. And yet, despite (perhaps even because of) the daunting task ahead, you want to help the organization move forward.
As a member of the Influx Change Agent Network, you will expand your arsenal of influence methods and gain a community of peers to help you push the boulder uphill. Step fully into the role of change agent so you can pull all the pieces together and effectively implement change in your organization.
Program Details
Members
Members of the Influx community are mid- to senior-level managers or individual contributors who are responsible for implementing one or more change initiatives within their organizations. Examples of change initiatives include but are not limited to:
- Strategy execution (e.g. Balanced Scorecard)
- Quality or process improvement (e.g. Lean / Six Sigma)
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Technology implementation
- Mergers or restructuring
- Culture change
Working Group Format
As a working group, the Influx community is much more than a training program. Members bring their own situations to the table and work on them over time with a community of practitioners facing similar challenges.
The Network provides a unique combination of training, community, and individual support to help you implement change:
- In-Depth Training. Monthly webinars examine methods of influence to help you be an effective change agent for your organization.
- Personalized Support. Your program host provides individual coaching to work through your immediate challenges.
- Community. In group calls and online discussion boards, participants have many opportunities to learn from each others’ experiences.
Because interaction and trust are key components of the program, the group is limited to 15 individual members.
Learning Topics
The working group focuses on three core areas to help members influence change: clarity and focus, personal influence and structural influence. Each topic includes training, group discussion and exercises. Occasional guest speakers round out the experience.
| Program Topics | |
|---|---|
| Clarity and Focus |
Gain clarity around your initiative and understand how change works. |
| Personal Influence |
Build up and utilize your ability to influence others on a one-to-one basis. |
| Structural Influence |
Introduce large-scale influence strategies to move the organization forward. |
Resources
Upon registration, you will gain immediate access to our online community. Member profiles, session recordings and other valuable resources will be available throughout the program to members only.
The online tools also help you to learn and connect with a community of organization change practitioners through discussion boards and live chat.
Annual membership includes:
- 10 webinar training sessions
- 12 monthly group support calls.
- 3 hours of individual coaching (3-6 sessions).
- Year-round access to online resources.
Program Fee
Annual membership is $2495. Save $350 when you register by December 15, 2009.
Interested but not sure yet that this program is right for you? Please contact me and I will answer any questions you might have.
On gratitude and organizational change
November 25, 2009
As change agents we often lament the things that make our jobs difficult. But, as my former boss Andy Rush used to say, “If this were easy, they wouldn’t need us here.”
So thank you to the unaware leader, who doesn’t see when his words and actions don’t match.
Thank you to the fuddy-dud stick-in-the-mud, who likes things just the way they are.
Thank you to those who think you can communicate something once and people will get the message.
Thank you to the manager who believes employees should just do what they’re told.
Thank you to the leader who thinks these are soft skills.
Thank you to the urgent, which always seems to crowd out the important.
Thank you to fear of the unknown and different.
Thank you to politics, silos, and self-preservation.
Thank you to irrationality and humanity.
For without you, this would be easy. And we like a good challenge.
The case of a bad incentive
November 17, 2009
A manufacturing company paid sales managers a bonus for forecast accuracy. Great idea, right?
Except the bonus was paid on the accuracy of the total number of cases projected. It didn’t matter what category, or what SKU. If the sales manager said he was going to sell 100,000 cases, it didn’t matter what was in the cases. This makes determining an accurate forecast as easy as mathematically possible. Good for the sales managers, bad for anyone who needed to use the information.
One customer of the forecast was the production planning department, which needed an accurate forecast at least by product group (e.g. a 24ct package vs. a 48ct package of widgets), and ideally by SKU (e.g. 24ct red vs. 24ct blue). Since the sales managers were not expected to be accurate to that degree, the forecast accuracy incentive was essentially worthless to those who actually needed the forecast to be accurate.
The actual desired behavior was not designed into the incentive program.
Ultimately, the forecast accuracy incentive was ignored anyway. Sales managers were paid even more when they sold more. In fact the prevailing attitude in the sales department was not to meet forecast but to beat it. Anyone who did so was celebrated.
Competing incentives – both money and adulation – drowned out the forecast accuracy incentive.
Bad incentive!
Please share your own examples of bad incentives.
Aftershocks
November 11, 2009
I recently came across an article about earthquake aftershocks: Earthquakes Actually 19th Century Aftershocks. I’m fascinated by all things earth science and started to read.
“Aftershocks happen after a big earthquake because the movement on the fault changed the forces in the earth that act on the fault itself and nearby. Aftershocks go on until the fault recovers.”
In other words, after a large shift, aftershocks are felt as everything around it rearranges itself to accommodate the new state.
What a great analogy for change in organizations!
Here’s one image that comes up: after making the push for a large change, you have to wait and see what else is disrupted as the organization and the people in it try to rearrange to accommodate the switch. In that case the aftershocks are the fixes we come up with the handle the unexpected impact of the change.
It turns out that the slower an earthquake fault moves, the longer it takes to dampen the effects of a large earthquake. While aftershocks on the San Andreas subside after 10 years, aftershocks along the New Madrid fault are still occurring 200 years after its last big quake.
It seems to me that a fast-moving fault like the San Andreas is basically leaving aftershocks behind. The aftershocks don’t happen later because the fault has already moved again. It doesn’t have to accommodate to the old-new state because there is a new-new state. It would be like upgrading to a new IT system before everyone was trained on the old one. You wouldn’t keep training people on the old system just because you hadn’t trained everyone yet.
It’s not that fast-moving fault lines are particularly resilient and bouncing back to normal quickly; instead their rate of change is just too fast to keep up with.
An interesting phenomenon, one you’d want to avoid with organization change.
How is this playing out in your organization?
Tips for Getting Your Project Approved
November 2, 2009
Unfortunately, not everyone in your organization has the same understanding or feels as strongly as you do that your project should be implemented – whether it is the entire change initiative, or an enabler such as training or software. While some projects might fly under the radar in the beginning, at some point someone with power has to say “Yes, let’s do this” for the project to continue.
The following tips are compiled from my many years as an industrial engineer, when one of my key responsibilities was to justify both capital and human capital projects to gain approval by the leadership team. Read more
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