Are key leaders in your organization frustrating you?
April 29, 2010
Are you frustrated by one or more key leaders in your organization?
For whatever reason, they are not doing what is needed to implement change? Perhaps they say they believe that change should happen, but their actions indicate otherwise. Maybe they seem to dismiss it altogether. Or they just do all the wrong things with the best intentions. Either way, they feel like a giant roadblock in the path to change. If only they would (fill in the blank), you would be able to make some real progress.
As an internal change agent with less authority, you probably feel powerless to do anything about it. Until now, your main tactics have been dropping hints and wishful thinking. Maybe you have waited a while for them to get with the program — weeks, months, even years.
You are not alone. In fact, not having adequate support from key leaders is the top challenge for most change agents I talk to.
It doesn’t have to be that way. There are ways you can help leaders help you influence change, even from where you sit on the totem pole. Join me for a 2-part online course that will help you get the leadership support you need for successful change:
The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders
So They Help You Implement Change
Dates: Thursday, May 20 & 27, 2010
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Cost: $149 (Only 3 more $99 early bird tickets remain!)
Maximum attendees: 20
Course Description
During this 2-part online training session, you will learn:
- Whose support you really need, and who you ignore at your own risk
- What leaders need from you most as a change agent
- How to tell which of five levels of support you have, and which you need
- Six reasons why leaders don’t do what you need them to do, even if they want change to happen
- What you can personally do to gain the support you need to successfully implement change
All attendees will receive:
- Two 90-minute interactive webinar sessions
- Access to the webinar video recordings
- Influence Factors: A checklist of 99 strategies to help people change
- Two article reprints: “Tips for Getting Your Project Approved” and “How to Deal With a Clueless Boss”
- BONUS: You will receive the Beyond Buy-in Workbook, a $34.95 value, when you register to attend.
Who Should Attend
Mid- to senior-level managers and individual contributors who are responsible for implementing change in their organizations won’t want to miss this series. Specifically, this webinar series will help people who need to influence change without having direct authority over people going through the change. Examples of roles that typically require the support of leadership to get things done include (but are not limited to): IT, engineering, human resources, strategic planning, internal communications, process improvement, and project management.
Without real leadership support, your change initiative will have diminished impact. Register today to learn practical ways to help leaders help you implement change.
Tickets are regularly priced at $149. Only 3 more early bird $99 tickets are left. Register while they last!
When change is a bad idea
April 28, 2010
One of the assumptions I typically hold true on this blog is that the change you are trying to implement is in fact something you should be doing — one that brings about improvement, helps people work better, and makes the organization more successful.
Occasionally it helps to be reminded that not all change is good. I recently watched the movie Up In The Air, whose context is an organizational change project that alters the way the company does business and in the process will completely change the lifestyle of George Clooney’s character. It turns out that despite significant efficiency improvement and cost savings, the project is just a bad idea.
How do you know when the change is a bad idea?
Someone in your organization has probably already figured it out. Listen closely to objections. There is always a valid reason for resistance. Many times concerns are personal and natural, and can be addressed without impact to the initiative. Other times, people follow a logical path to the conclusion that the change is not going to work, or will have negative side effects. Don’t brush off objections as resistance that you can ignore and keep pushing forward! Instead, seek to understand the objections, and ask yourself: What is the likelihood that the change will follow this path? What happens if it does? If there is a chance that the initiative is the wrong move, you can start small to test it out or otherwise mitigate risk before going full-bore. Plus, your initiative will be more robust, and you will have more buy-in from people whom you respect enough to understand and address their resistance.
When the project is already in process, there is a fine line between the symptoms of a bad idea and poor implementation. If you are seeing unintended and unexpected consequences occurring during the implementation, determine whether the consequences are an artifact of the change process (e.g. poor communication or lack of leadership support) or of the change itself (e.g. the new process didn’t save as much as you expected, or customers didn’t like the change as much as you thought they would). If there is a problem with the change process, then you can work to get it back on track. If the problem is the change itself, no amount of change management is going to solve the problem.
What might be true when resistors tell you the initiative will not work?
Interview: Operating Excellence at Lockheed Martin
April 27, 2010
This morning on The Change Agent’s Dilemma radio show, I interviewed Christian Kress, Six Sigma Master Black Belt and 23-year employee at Lockheed Martin.
Chris shared the story of his career as an internal change agent within Lockheed Martin. It’s an interesting story interwoven with the path of a long-term initiative to continually build operating excellence in the company through Lean Six Sigma. He shared a number of tips for how to influence change without authority.
Listen here (30 minutes):
Be sure to visit the radio show page to listen to past episodes and subscribe to the show.
New Webinar Series: The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders
April 23, 2010
It is common knowledge that in order for your change initiative to grow beyond your own span of influence you need leadership buy-in. The truth is you need much more than buy-in; as a change agent you need leaders in your organization to take action that supports your initiative.
The trouble is, leaders often don’t do what is needed to implement change, even if they agree it should happen. This lack of proper leadership support is the top challenge for most change agents.
Introducing a 2-part online course that will help you get the leadership support you need for successful change:
The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders
So They Help You Implement Change
Dates: Thursday, May 20 & 27, 2010
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Cost: $149 ($99 for the first 5 people who register!)
Maximum attendees: 20
Course Description
During this 2-part online training session, you will learn:
- Whose support you really need, and who you ignore at your own risk
- What leaders need from you most as a change agent
- How to tell which of five levels of support you have, and which you need
- Six reasons why leaders don’t do what you need them to do, even if they want change to happen
- What you can personally do to gain the support you need to successfully implement change
All attendees will receive:
- Two 90-minute interactive webinar sessions
- Access to the webinar video recordings
- Influence Factors: A checklist of 99 strategies to help people change
- Two article reprints: “Tips for Getting Your Project Approved” and “How to Deal With a Clueless Boss”
- BONUS: You will receive the Beyond Buy-in Workbook, a $34.95 value, when you register to attend.
Who Should Attend
Mid- to senior-level managers and individual contributors who are responsible for implementing change in their organizations won’t want to miss this series. Specifically, this webinar series will help people who need to influence change without having direct authority over people going through the change. Examples of roles that typically require the support of leadership to get things done include (but are not limited to): IT, engineering, human resources, strategic planning, internal communications, process improvement, and project management.
Without real leadership support, your change initiative will have diminished impact. Register today to learn practical ways to help leaders help you implement change.
Tickets are regularly priced at $149. The first 5 people who register will pay only $99!
The ownership paradox
April 15, 2010
I had an interesting conversation this morning with the director of a Project Management Office. One of the key points of the discussion was a distressing paradox:
If you want organization change to stick, you need someone with authority to take ownership of the change.
When they take ownership, they tend to want to do it their own way, or at least add their personal stamp to it.
Being a change agent ultimately means letting go of what you are trying to implement in order for it to actually happen. If the new state requires your presence for it to continue, then nothing has really changed.
What might you do to give up control of your change initiative to someone who can carry it forward?
Radio Show: Monitor Your Organization’s “Non-Verbal” Communication
April 13, 2010
This morning on The Change Agent’s Dilemma radio show, I talked about how most of your organization’s communication does not happen through official communication channels. Based on the popular article by the same name, today’s show includes additional examples of “non-verbal” communication gone awry.
If you want to know why your internal change communication doesn’t seem to be landing, listen to this show!
Listen here (30 minutes):
Be sure to visit the radio show page to listen to past episodes and subscribe to the show.
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