Five Enemies of Unity

February 18, 2009

A friend of mine sent out a message on Twitter today, listing the Five Enemies of Unity, which had been discussed in a team meeting. The source is Dave Ramsey, a talk radio host who also hosts a conference called EntreLeadership. Follow the link to “Free Report” to download a pdf called “Avoiding the Five Enemies of Unity.”

According to Ramsey, the Five Enemies of Unity are:

Poor communication
Gossip
Unresolved disagreements
Lack of a shared purpose
Sanctioned incompetence

The concept of unity strikes me as more than teamwork. It’s about being a cohesive group with shared objectives and mutual respect. Unity is something to strive for as the foundation for organizational change. Can you imagine the laser focus your organization could have if these five items were eliminated?

Inquiry: What are the enemies of unity in your organization?

I would love to hear your thoughts. Please add a comment to this post.

Posted by Heather Stagl | Filed Under Inquiries | 1 Comment

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.

Posted by Heather Stagl | Filed Under Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment

Podcast #1: A new intrapreneur reflects on large-scale transformation

January 6, 2009

The Enclaria podcast series features interviews with change agents. Hear how others break through obstacles while they pass along lessons learned from their organizational change endeavors.

Nine months ago, Jim Ryan, Manager of Strategic Planning at Embarq Corporation, changed roles within the Fortune 500 telecommunications company. Although he kept his job title, his role morphed from implementing strategy – developing strategy, creating measures and scorecards, and rolling out the plan to the organization – to implementing one of the strategic initiatives – creating an entirely new business from scratch within the same organization. From his new vantage point as an intrapreneur, he describes the differences between implementing change within an existing large company and building a new internal venture.

Posted by Heather Stagl | Filed Under Interviews | 1 Comment

Common challenges of organizational change

July 7, 2008

In my conversations with organizational change practitioners, I’ve noticed there are at least seven common challenges they face:

Leadership buy-in - how do we get the leadership team, especially the CEO, to take on ownership of the changes?
Communication – how do we move beyond the prescribed speeches by leadership and get everyday managers and employees talking about this every day?
Motivation – what are the best incentives to use to motivate people to change?
Overcoming skepticism – how do we make people understand this is not “flavor of the month?”
Project justification – how can we quantify intangibles so we can justify key change projects?
Subjugating the urgent – how do we keep transformation from taking a back seat to firefighting?
Longevity - once we build momentum and change starts to happen, how do we ensure it survives turnover in key positions (especially the chief executive)?