NEW! Pinpoint Communication Workbook
June 11, 2009
I’m excited to offer a new workbook in my series of step-by-step organizational change guides. I collaborated with my friend and colleague Monica Nakielski of Harmeda LLC to bring you:
Pinpoint Communication: Plan to Avoid Scattershot Change
Communication is one of the primary tools you will use to bring about change in your organization, and yet we frequently see communication used in a haphazard fashion. The resulting hodgepodge of posters, newsletters and meetings yield a less-than-compelling story of change.
The workbook walks you though 5 Steps that build on each other. By the end, you will have developed a complete communication plan, including a schedule and measures of success.
The Pinpoint Communication Kit includes not only the workbook, but also high-quality, presentation-ready MS PowerPoint templates. Just complete the template with the information you developed in the workbook, and you’re ready to share with your organization.
This practical guide is truly something I wish I had back when I was an internal change agent. I would have been much more organized and deliberate about how I used communication. I’m excited that it might help you be more effective as you implement change in your organization.
For more information, a preview, and to purchase the workbook, templates or kit, visit www.enclaria.com/communication/.
Four strategies for making change
April 4, 2009
I just finished reading an interesting article in Time Magazine: How Obama is Using the Science of Change. The article discusses “behavioral economics” being used by the administration to help us make better decisions. It lists four strategies to get people to alter their behavior:
- Make it clear – provide better information
- Make it easy – ultimately, make the desired behavior the default one
- Make it popular – show that everyone is doing it
- Make it mandatory – enforce rules, or make it so appealing no one would say no
While the context is politics and economics, the ideas in this article are easily applied to organizational change. Read it, then answer this question:
Inquiry: How can you make your change clearer, easier, more popular, or mandatory?
Please share your thoughts with a comment.
Book Recommendation: The VITAL Core
March 9, 2009
In the last few days, I gobbled up the information in a wisdom-packed book called The VITAL Core, by Audrey Dorsey. In her work as a Fortune 500 executive coach, the author has identified five core focus areas of successful leaders:
Vision – Know your ultimate pursuit
Intention – Focus on clear goals and have a plan of action
Telling Your Story – Engage people and build relationships
Attitude – Hold beliefs and values that support you
Leverage – Use your resources wisely
The book contains stories that demonstrate each key point, then each chapter zeroes in on the specific steps you can take to make progress on your own toward being a more successful leader.
One new insight that is particularly useful for change agents is the value of learning to Tell Your Story. When you talk about your change initiative, do you make it compelling and draw people into the story? One of seven tips for generating impactful stories is to “convert information into impressions” – that is, win people over not only with logic but with how they should feel about the project. If you want the other six tips, plus numerous others, you’ll have to read the book: www.thevitalcore.com.
Introducing the new Beyond Buy-in Workbook!
February 11, 2009
In my quest to equip you to lead organizational change, one of my goals is to put together a comprehensive set of workbooks to help you implement the essential ingredients of change. I am excited to introduce the Beyond Buy-in Workbook, which takes you through five steps to raise leadership support for your change initiative. Find the details on the Publications page.
Whether you are just getting started or your quest for change is well underway, if you need the leadership of your organization to show more support for your initiative through words and actions, this workbook is for you.
Newsletter subscribers have already received the accompanying article entitled “Beyond Buy-in: Raise Leadership Support for Your Change Initiative,” which features five steps to gaining leadership support. The same exclusive article is also free for new subscribers. Sign up to read a preview of the Beyond Buy-in methodology.
Feedback lessons from American Idol
February 3, 2009
Like millions of others, I enjoy American Idol, but usually only after they get to Hollywood, when they are done filtering through the bad singers. Last week, although they were still in the preliminary phase, I thought I would watch with an eye for feedback tips.
Lesson #1: Short of honest feedback, people assume the best of their own performance.
A friend tried out for American Idol a couple of years ago, and shared her experience. Evidently, there are several rounds of auditions with other judges before the final round with Randy, Paula, and Simon (and now Kara). Which means that that the judges in previous rounds passed all the bad singers and crazy personalities by allowing them to think they were good enough to go on to the next round. If you think about it, this is not much different from every day at work. Lack of feedback – or lack of honest feedback – allows individuals to go on thinking that their bad behavior is acceptable and effective.
Lesson #2: Request permission to provide feedback before giving it.
The people who try out for American Idol expect to be given feedback, even though they may not agree with it. Otherwise, they stay home. If they sign up for it, they have to listen, or at least stand there while you say it.
Lesson #3: Modify your approach based on the performance and their attitude.
Watching Simon Cowell give feedback, I noticed he has four different approaches.
- Beaming praise. When someone deserves it, he doesn’t hold back the good feedback.
- Genuine critique. Contestants that have talent but need to work at improving receive kind words and specific suggestions.
- Confirmation of doubt. When the contestant is not good but also not in denial, Simon says something like, “That wasn’t good enough, now was it?” He lets them down somewhat easily by simply confirming what they already know.
- Direct and rude. For contestants who believe they are destined to be stars but who are truly untalented, Simon provides the response he has become famous for: direct, rude, and insulting. He tries to knock these contestants down a notch to bring them into reality, and if that doesn’t work, at least it makes for good television.
I’m not a proponent of being rude and insulting, but being direct does have its place. In my experience, the immediate response to direct, honest feedback is usually defensive and denial, but the recipient usually does listen in the end.
Book Recommendation: Noble Enterprise
January 27, 2009
I’ve written about the amazing turnaround of AT&T Canada Long Distance Services by Bill Catucci and his team in Tips for Leading a Successful Transformation. In a short article I was only able to skim the surface of lessons to be learned. Luckily, there is a new book that contains Catucci’s case study as its cornerstone: NOBLE ENTERPRISE: The Commonsense Guide to Uplifting People and Profits
Besides a more detailed story of AT&T Canada LDS, the author provides more insight into how to create a Noble Enterprise – one that achieves great business results and also (and really because it) makes the world a better place, honors people and fosters the human spirit. The book includes not only a “to do” list for leaders but also a “to be” list. The author provides a fresh perspective on what a company can and should be and specific examples for how to make it happen. A must read for anyone who has higher hopes for how their company does business.
A personal lesson about impersonal email
January 16, 2009
I learned a lesson today, and like most good lessons, it was learned the hard way.
If you are a subscriber, you’ve probably figured out that I use a few autoresponders – canned email sent at preset intervals to try to get you to take some action, in my case, to call me and set up a sample coaching session. And like a good citizen of 2009, you’ve put up with it because in today’s world it’s expected that you will get these messages when you sign up for a mailing list.
So I was playing with my autoresponders today, trying to make them sound more sincere and somehow more salesy at the same time, and something I did made a few of my subscribers receive up to four separate emails at once. I did not realize it until one of these recipients immediately sent me a note with a four-letter word and also called and left me a message on my phone to unsubscribe her. Deservedly so. If you were also a recipient of an email deluge from me today, please accept my apology.
The experience today confirmed something that had been nagging me about using the autoresponders. You can’t really connect with people with an impersonal email. Even though I wrote it, I don’t even know when it is sent or who it is sent to. That’s not communication!
Although I’ve been tempted to reach out personally to email subscribers, I’ve hesitated because it seemed like I would be violating some internet norm if I actually tried to contact you in person. My perception was that if you sign up for a mailing list, you expect to receive impersonal marketing emails, but if a real person contacted you, it would somehow freak you out. Could that be true? Have we come to the point where we prefer to receive impersonal messages from computers instead of real communication from a living person? I hope not.
For now, I have turned the autoresponders off. If I use your email address to send you an original message intended just for you, I hope you are not offended. I’m not trying to be a pest or a pushy sales person. I’m just genuinely curious about what you’re up to that brought you to my organizational change website.
And I do hope that you will take me up on the offer of the free coaching session. It’ll be half an hour of focused attention on you and your change initiative with an objective point of view. Call me to schedule a time to talk.
Remove barriers with Theory of Constraints
December 23, 2008
The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a model originally developed by Dr. Eli Goldratt and made famous in one of the most-read manufacturing books, The Goal. Last week I attended a presentation at the Organization Change Alliance by Dr. James Cox, retired professor at University of Georgia Terry School of Business, who has worked directly with Dr. Goldratt and is one of the leading experts on TOC. He brought to light a concept rooted in industrial engineering as an organization change methodology.
The Theory of Constraints says that in a production system, to improve efficiency, find the weakest link – your constraint – and then maximize its performance. Keep that step in the process busy at all times to maximize output for the entire process. Next, modify that step so that it is no longer the constraint. When the next constraint pops up (because there will always be one), then maximize it until you can eliminate it.
The thinking process used to eliminate barriers was presented as a way to implement change. Despite the 2-hour presentation, he was only able to skim the surface.
The TOC thinking process consisted of three major steps:
- What to change
- What to change to
- How to cause the change
What to Change
Dr. Cox defined that a constraint is “anything that blocks or limits one from achieving its goal.” One of the tools used to find what to change is the “Evaporating Cloud.” He showed us the following diagram:
The purpose of the Evaporating Cloud is to identify a conflict, or barrier, to reaching the objective. The “needs” are both required to satisfy the objective, but the “wants” cannot coexist. Take this example of a barrier to patient care in a hospital emergency room:
To maximize patient care in a hospital emergency room, patients must not wait long to see the doctor, and once they see the doctor, patients need focused care – however long it takes. These two “needs” are satisfied by two conflicting “wants:” to spend time with patients and to have quick patient visits.
What to Change To
To determine what to change to, solve the Evaporating Cloud by challenging all the underlying assumptions (until the cloud evaporates). For example:
- How might the “wants” coexist?
- What other ways can the “needs” be satisfied?
- In what other ways might the objective be achieved?
How to Cause The Change
One of the methods Dr. Cox presented on determining how to cause the change was the Prerequisite Tree, also known as the Ambitious Target Tree. Given a desired future state, ask “Why can’t we do that?” Next, map out ideas to overcome all the obstacles. After that, ask, “If we eliminate all these obstacles, can we do this?” If not, continue building the tree until all barriers are mapped.
There are a number of other TOC thinking processes that were briefly mentioned. Wikipedia contains a complete list.
My True North Story
December 9, 2008
I just submitted an entry to www.truenorthsnacks.com/story – a contest to have an TV ad created and played during the Oscars featuring your True North Story. Entries are limited to 300 words. Here’s mine.
My name is Heather Stagl, founder of Enclaria, LLC, where I equip individuals to lead organizational change. In my 11 years in corporate America, I learned that true leadership does not manifest itself only at the top of an organization. I’ve made it my mission to help people at all levels make a difference – to improve their job and make their company a better place to work for their colleagues.
I started my career as an industrial engineer and soon discovered that even a well-designed system will not work without accompanying leadership to sustain the change. The more I learned about leadership and change management, the less I liked my work environment, but I loved the people I worked with and had hope it could be better. I did my fair share of complaining, and then decided to do something about it. Using my MBA program as an excuse to perform a study, I was able to show the leadership team ways we could improve the organization. I was invited to facilitate strategy sessions and to lead one of the key initiatives that came out of it.
In the middle of this journey, I was introduced to coaching. I discovered during the coaching training classes that I was a natural. I realized that helping people find clarity was something that I had done most of my life. People always seemed to seek me out to help them think through problems and apply logic to find solutions.
Despite my successes, I still feel that there is so much more that I could have done, if I only had the courage and determination to tackle it. I don’t want anyone else to feel that they could have done more to transform their organization.
How do you follow?
October 6, 2008
A few months ago, I posted a poll about What Drives You To Lead. The follow-up question, then, is:
Next, an inquiry: Based on your poll response, how do you follow?
Source: follow. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/follow (accessed: October 6, 2008).
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