Do You Sabotage Your Own Change Initiatives?
by Anne Riches
The critical message for us as managers is that when we have to bring about changes in the behaviour of others at work (or at home for that matter) we need to be actively conscious that subconsciously our team's mirror neurons are watching us for information about how to behave.

Rethinking Resistance
by Anne Riches
Do your employees like change? When I ask this question of participants in my people management workshops, the answer is almost overwhelmingly no. But when I ask part two of the question: do YOU like change - the answer is usually overwhelmingly yes! Isn't that curious? What happens when you become the boss? Do you go through some magic door and change your mindset about change?

Do You Work in a Culture of Fear and Loathing?
by Anne Riches
The article I am looking at described a leaked copy of an internal culture survey as "a grim portrait of chronically poor morale and employees who feel undervalued, restricted in how they go about their work and disengaged from decision-making processes." Whether the article is accurate or not, I wondered how many employees in any industry or profession in any part of the world feel like that? I think I know the answer and it's a scary monster.

Four Dimensional Goal Alignment: Quadrupling the Drive to Success
by Sandy Arpino
The magnified energy of goal alignment drives so effectively that the probability of reaching goals increases, with targets met sooner and with greater ease. New, more challenging aims can then be set and driven through, time and again, as long as goal alignment continues.

Bolt-On Programs or Built-In Culture Change
by Jim Clemmer
Far too many senior managers attempt organizational change or leadership development through narrowly focusing on delivering programs. These are generally unsuccessful. Managers must become more strategic if they are going to help their organizations find long-term and lasting solutions to organizational change and leadership development.

Appreciating Context: The Secret To Lasting Change (Part I)
by John Renesch
Last time I saw a statistic, around 85% of those who authorized the billions of dollars spent on change programs each year in U.S. corporations were dissatisfied with the outcomes! So why do organizations and people in them continue trying the latest fad for making improvements when there is such a high dissatisfaction rate? There is a better way!

Appreciating Context: The Secret To Lasting Change (Part II)
by John Renesch
The leverage value of focusing on context has been known for ages, "hiding in plain sight" so to speak.

Sustaining Your Organisation's Success: An Opposing Challenge for the Short-term Strategist
by Sandy Arpino
When a company commissions a new strategist for the prime purpose of quickly turning-round its fortunes, the ensuing product is likely to be a revolutionary short-term strategy, characterised by its sales focus and optimism. How can a sluggish company safely appoint and follow the advice of a short-term strategist, without jeopardising their long-term success?

Six Habits of Great Change Leaders
by Dr. Jane Adler and Dr. Robert Karlsberg
Great change leaders have the "execution advantage." While their strategic plans might not be significantly better than anyone else's, they achieve great results because their organizations execute plans more rapidly. The result? A significant competitive advantage.

On the Art of Problem Solving
by Peter de Jager
What do we mean when we state, “I have a problem!”? That’s one of those sneaky questions which we assume we know the answer to until we actually start answering it.

Change - Pursuing What's Possible
by Paul B. Thornton
Leaders not only have ideas on how to build a better mouse trap or create an improved company culture, but they also have a plan of action. They implement. They execute. They make it happen.

Unattainable Consensus
by Peter de Jager
There’s a difficult, and often ignored, problem within the “Participatory” style of management. The problem originates in the intelligence of all of the participants.

To Drive Organizational Change, Focus on Customers, then Lead the Way
by Shelley F. Hall
How do you lead an organization when you may feel like you're drowning in a sea of constant, rapid change? Is it possible to survive and thrive with change? The answer is yes.

The Power of Patterns
by Anne Riches
To change and to build leadership skills we must develop and hone the ability to reflect on our patterns, good and bad, and assess their impact on others and how much they contribute towards our goals.

Creating a Competitive Workplace: An Effective or Damaging Tool?
by Sandy Arpino
Leaders must balance benefits and risks, with insight, before applying the high risk, high reward tool of creating an internally competitive workplace.

The CHRO as Corporate Prophet
by Tom FitzGerald
For many years, C-level execs have complained that no instruments existed that would provide them a clear picture of the operating dynamic of the company; that would enable them to predict future performance. Today there are!

Aligning Your Organisation to Your Vision: The Strategic Leader's Weakness?
by Sandy Arpino
Does the person with the skills to craft a good strategic vision have the right skills to develop the pathway required to align an organisation to that vision?

Ethical Change Management
by Peter de Jager
Adhere to the Golden Rule, and deceit becomes impossible. Follow the Golden Rule, and ask others to monitor our actions against that rule, and the Sarbanes-Oxley structure of checks and balances become superfluous.

Five Myths About Change: How to Make Change Work For You
by Tom Northup
Change, though pervasive, is often misunderstood. Many myths affect our attitudes toward change and limit our ability to proactively accomplish positive change.

Lampedusa's Razor
by Peter de Jager
How good are we at recognizing a scam when it crosses our path? Here's one that's making its way through corporate corridors: "Change is good, and resistance is bad." Unquestioning acceptance of that advice will get you into deep, perhaps catastrophic, trouble.

Breaking Bureaucracy
by Estienne de Beer
How do you manage a boss that is a bureaucrat?

Superficial Skill Sets
by Peter de Jager
The difference between good and poor managers has nothing to do with their ability to deal with inanimate objects, and everything to do with their ability to manage interactions between subtle and fickle human beings.

Successful Organizational Leadership: Effective Execution through Strategic Alignment
by Gerard A. Abraham
Strategic alignment, put simply, is "everyone rowing in the same direction." The tighter the linkage and the better the alignment, the likelihood of flawless corporate execution becomes stronger.

Confessions of a Recovering Change Inflictor
by Peter de Jager
As techies, even dilettante techies like myself; our technical knowledge is so far beyond that of typical Homo sapiens, we’re almost an alien and often a hostile, race.

Managing 'Personalities' at Work
by Anne Riches
It is important for anyone who is working with a group of people to understand the role The Almond Effect ® plays in the workplace. The Almond Effect ® is when we react without thinking, saying or doing things that we regret afterwards.

The CFO as Corporate Prophet
by Tom FitzGerald & John Collins
For many years, C-level execs have complained that no instruments existed that would provide them a clear picture of the operating dynamic of the company; that would enable them to predict future performance. Fortunately, today there are.

The Almond Effect ® and Managing Resistance to Change
by Anne Riches
Resistance to change is one of the most powerful drivers of human behavior, and the key to dealing with it effectively is to understand both its physical and emotional components.

The Almond Effect ®
by Anne Riches
Have you ever just 'lost it'? Said or done something and then wished the earth would open up and swallow you whole as you died of embarrassment? There is a neuro-scientific reason why these things happen. I call it 'The Almond Effect' ®.

Strategic Change
by Byron Kalies
There's a nice little four step plan based on some work by Costas Markides I would recommend. I like it because it's simple and it works.

Does Your Organization Have a Balanced Culture?
by Gerry Schmidt and Lisa Jackson
If vision defines where the business is headed, and strategy is the road map for how to get there … culture is the engine which determines the speed, performance, and comfort of the trip.

Keys to Managing Change Successfully and Avoiding the Nine Most Common Pitfalls
by Marie Kane
When change is handled well, the credibility of the company with everyone affected, as well as everyone who hears about it, is enhanced.

Leadership and Real Change
by Byron Kalies
One of the most frustrating things about change is that no-one can see the benefits as quickly as you can, as leaders. Why is that?

Managing Paradoxical Opposites
by Gerry Schmidt and Lisa Jackson
If you are dealing with any change, and especially the high risk variety, you increase your ability to manage the paradoxes if you communicate in a way that ignites urgency.

Corporate Change on a Shoestring Budget
by Kenny Moore
My company no longer has wads of money to throw at high priced consultants to transform our culture. My two-part plan is presently underway. It's cheap and it's fun: two clear signs that senior management won't embrace it. But who cares?

Management's Guide to Communicating Change
by Edward Pfahl
Managing change is not an easy task and a strong communication effort is just one of many aspects of change management.

The Corporate Polygraph
by Tom FitzGerald & Tom Horne
Long before a crisis hits; long before it shows in the Financials or even in the Key Performance Indicators, the signs are there for the Board to see, and they can't be faked. Listen for the rumble.

Corporate, Large-scale Change — Doomed From the Start?
by Jamie S. Walters
Real change requires a different, more full or whole way of seeing, being, and doing than we currently address.

Predicting & Preempting the Corporate Heart Attack
by Tom FitzGerald
Fortunately there now exist instruments and technologies that can provide very early warnings for a company. They cost next to nothing to apply. They are also profoundly resistant to tampering or disguise.

Is Meaningful Change Possible?
by Jamie S. Walters
In this article, we'll look at one possible answer to this question, as well as review potential discussion-starters for action steps that are within your control regardless of what’s going on around you.

Corporate Renewal: The Accordion Effect
by Jahna SR
Leaders are challenged by the trade-off between core and opportunities. They have to constantly strike a winning balance between capitalizing opportunities and remaining focused on the core.

The Integrity Based Business
by Mark Goulston
The higher road of being dedicated to integrity at all levels has enormous appeal and is well worth the sacrifices.

Orville Wright Did Not Have a Pilot's License - How to Orbit the Giant Hairball of Your Organization
by Sid Smith
When we "orbit the hairball", we can stay outside of its direct influence, yet remain within the gravitational pull of its values and vision.

Redefining the Imperative for Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion: A Fresh Look
by Judith H. Katz and Frederick A. Miller
To enable organizations to really leverage diversity and their efforts, the organizational imperative must be instructive of the core drivers for action and must clearly and directly relate to specific, current business needs.

Anatomy of a Turnaround
by Jahna SR
Research has established that many of the attempts by companies to revive from declining performance fail, rather than succeed. The way a company handles the turnaround process determines its success rate.

Learning, Trust and Making Mistakes
by Byron Kalies
If you really, truly want your staff to be creative, motivated and happy - tell them you want them to make mistakes. Give them targets of how many mistakes they must make in a week and if they make more - give them a bonus. Trust them.

Post-Acquisition Due Diligence
by Tom FitzGerald
Harry had his Post-Acquisition Due Diligence and knew now why his stomach had warned him. He had seen what was driving the company and each of its units. He had seen its strengths, its weaknesses, its innate trajectory - its very soul.

Managing Change in Your Business - The Attitude Bell Curve and Mental Toughness as Business Tools
by Bill Cole and Rick Seaman
You have a brilliant idea for your company that will increase revenue and profits. There's only one problem. The employees who have to implement the idea aren't buying into your vision. How can you get them to embrace your great idea?

The Myth of the Hundredth Monkey
by Tom Heuerman, Ph.D. with Diane Olson, Ph.D.
The hundredth monkey is an allegory that gives hope to people who have been working on changing themselves and saving the planet, and wondering if their individual efforts will make any difference at all.

Dismantling a Culture of Knowledge-Hoarding
by Jamie S. Walters
Despite the many corporate initiatives launched to increase teamwork, and facilitate knowledge-sharing, many organizations still find themselves stymied by cultures where knowledge-hoarding behaviors flourish. What's a leader to do?

Simplify the Politics! The First Step of Corporate Renewal
by Tom FitzGerald
All it takes is a CEO with the desire to make things sharply better, a CEO with the courage to make the managers look deep into the soul of their company and not flinch away.

Hitting the Ground Running as the New CEO
by Harry K. and Tom FitzGerald
It is not the strategies, tactics or domain knowledge, however new, that are the challenge. It is the people - the management people, the supervisory people - the ones who make things work out there on the line.

Seven Powerful Actions to Become the Force for Change in Your Company
by Kate Ludeman and Eddie Erlandson
Want to change your company? First change yourself. Here are seven ways to create radical change in your company by radically changing yourself.

Ten Conversations That Can Transform Your Workplace
by Tom Terez
Select one or two questions that seem most relevant, then set aside some time to talk. Just an hour or so of dialogue, with ears and minds wide open, will deepen everyone's understanding and point the way to practical improvement.

The Top-Five Strategies for Sustaining Change Efforts in Tough Times
Internet Home Alliance Chairman's Roundtable
What strategies can managers within transitional and transformational businesses use to garner sufficient resources to capture new opportunities and, accordingly, sustain the enterprise long-term? That was the central question discussed at Internet Home Alliance's first Chairman's Roundtable, an event designed to surface, discuss and debate issues critical to advancing the home technology market.

Why Almost All Organizational Change Efforts Fail
by Dr. Wendell Williams
Asking employees to totally change their direction is like asking a golf team to suddenly switch to tennis. People are not plastic. They do not change their motivations overnight, get smarter over the weekend, or "grow" skills they do not have.

Making Good Kills - Stopping Projects, Quitting Jobs, Terminating Employees and Other Necessary Failures
by Paula Gamonal
If every project and every product your company turns out is a raging success; every person you hire is perfectly suited, and if your every career move turns out to be golden, you don't need to read this article.

Bringing Ideas to Life: Seven Principles for Pulling Together
by Rick Maurer
By engaging others in the innovation process, you'll emerge with superior results and stronger bonds between people.

Why Don't You Want What I Want? The Three Faces of Resistance
by Rick Maurer
There's a one-word reason most ideas never see the light of day: Resistance. Here are the three primary forms resistance takes - and what you can do to make each work for you instead of against you.

Straight Talk on Empowering Change
by Stephanie Cirihal
The "Three Truths of Change" - what you mother never taught you about change in organizations.

Why Change Efforts Fail
by Bob J. Holder
The landscape of organizational life suggests change has become a way of life. Change has also changed. Change is continuous and discontinuous. Change is accelerating. This article presents a number of change failure themes. Their avoidance may serve to prevent an organization's change process from ending up in the "change effort graveyard."

New Thoughts on Strategy and Change Initiative Implementation: Emergence, Readiness, and Adaptability
by Lawrence E. Wharton and Richard Roi
Top-level leaders must rethink the entire process of strategy and change initiative implementation. This paper discusses the problems of implementation and offers a new framework wherein the wise leader is a context setter who understands and uses the principle of emergence, ensures that the "structural" components and leader competencies of strategic readiness pervade the organization, and uses the Integrated Purpose as a prime vehicle for influencing organizational behavior and actions.

What Have We Learned Since 9-11?
by John Renesch
If you look at the past year's headlining events like the corporate scandals, terrorists attacks or the Middle East crisis through the lenses of a "systems thinker" you might see beyond the politics, religious fanaticism, greed, and perverse nationalism; you might see these events from a wider perspective - an "eagle's view."

Beyond Management Fads: Enterprise Fitness Builds Strength and Speed for the Long Haul
by John Covington
The "flavor of the month" may get people excited at the ice cream shop, but it's a downer in the workplace. In almost every corporation, employees have seen an array of supposedly ultimate solutions piped on board with considerable fanfare, only to sink into oblivion within a matter of months. Enterprise Fitness however, can be a sturdy bridge to help us go beyond.

Mirror,Mirror, on the Wall ... Facing Corporate Reality
by Thomas A. FitzGerald
Within a company, no great change can happen, no substantial performance increase can be achieved unless and until that company faces fearlessly and clearly what it is today, especially its inner life. That life that drives performance and results.

The Hierarchy of Manufacturing
by John Albion
Follow the hierarchy from its lowest level upward with a little patience and some heart-felt caring and you will have created a solid pyramid of value in your manufacturing organization.

Wise Managers Treat Layoffs as Last Resort
by Jim Clemmer
Over the last decade numerous studies have shown that "dumbsizing" sometimes provides short-term relief – and protects shortsighted managers' bonuses – while hurting companies in the long-term.

A Conversation with Carter Pate, Co-author of The Phoenix Effect
from John Wiley & Sons
Carter Pate is a world-renowned restructuring expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers with more than twenty years experience providing strategic consulting and implementation strategies.

From Politics to Purpose - The Rebirth of a Board
by Harry the Executive Director and Tom FitzGerald
It was over. The last meeting of the old era. By some alchemy it had also been the first meeting of the new. There was a new beginning. A new energy. A new era was underway.

The Habits Stephen Covey Forgot .......
by Anne Riches
Why do most M & A's fail? The most common three reasons are: incompatible cultures, inability to manage the target company, and being unable to implement the change. In other words, the integration factor.

A Better Way to Profitability in Today's Downturn: Protecting and Leveraging a Firm's Core Assets
by John G. Carlson
The current economic downturn, and that especially in high tech, has brought out the usual set of cost cutting actions. But is this the best way to maintain or enhance profitability for a business with a future?

How to Maintain Commitment to New Initiatives
by Rick Maurer
While some might think that progress is linear --- one thing building on another --- change actually happens in a cycle. Each stage of the cycle builds momentum for the next stage.

Seven Ways to Improve Your Chances of Strategic Success
by Brian Ward
There are some simple approaches to planning and implementing strategy, that once followed will dramatically increase the chances of success for you and your organization.

Why Resistance Matters
by Rick Maurer
Resistance is a natural part of change. It protects people from harm. Resistance is not the primary reason why changes fail. It is often the reaction to resistance that creates the problems.

Exploring Alternatives to Downsizing
by Rick Maurer
Major changes such as mergers, reengineering, enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), and restructuring often result in downsizing. It doesn't have to be that way. Here are proven alternatives that can help you cut costs while ensuring the commitment of valued employees.

Corporate Retrenchment or Corporate Renewal?
by Tom FitzGerald
The bottom lines may be the same, at least at first. But there is a profound difference in the long-term profitability and competitiveness of companies that renew, regenerate rather than just retrench.

The Four Emotional Stages of Change
by Anne Riches
How often do we make false assumptions about other people based on our own culture and experiences? And even more importantly, how often do we fail to recognise and understand how individuals deal with grief and change in their personal lives or at work.

Top 10 Layoff Mistakes
from Ketchum's "Layoff Insider"
Wisdom from Ketchum Inside, the workplace communications and change management practice of Ketchum, a top-10 global public relations firm.

Corporate Superman - The Blue Caped CEO
by Tom FitzGerald
While it is difficult and hard, sometimes impossible, for individuals to change, companies are not so stuck. They can change far quicker, far easier. If they know how.

The First Strategy of War
by Tom FitzGerald
The first strategy of war is a force that is fully mobilized and consumed with the desire to win. Without that, all other strategies are vain.

Inward Bound - A Journey of Corporate Renewal
by Tom FitzGerald
When modest change is not enough, when competition or the market or the world has become so different that a really new response or a preemptive strike is needed, then it is time for the company to make a journey, a spirit quest.

Downsizing Lessons Learned
by Freda Turner
Since the 1980s about 10 million jobs have been eliminated and the downsizing trend continues.  What have we learned about downsizing?

The Organization as a Theatre Company
by Rick Sidorowicz
An empowering metaphor that clarifies and simplifies the nuts and bolts of organizational change - from 'Dutch' Holland's Change is the Rule, published by Dearborn.

Fighting the Storm in a Sea of Change
by Gregory P. Smith
How to become better leaders and agents of change and overcome resistance.

The Company: Living Entity - or Machine?
by Tom FitzGerald
The company can be dealt with as a person, with life and body and soul. And treating it this way allows it to respond to its leadership, its people and its marketplace as a thinking, competing organism.

Thoughts on Empowerment
by Rick Maurer
Why it is critical, why it works, why it is so difficult to achieve, and how to start the conversation.

For Effective Change - Focus on the Fundamentals!
by Rick Sidorowicz
A focus on the fundamentals of re-design is the imperative, to keep the change effort on track to the longer term strategic objectives.

Check Out The Gap
by Rick Sidorowicz
A five minute reality check - yes or no, with no middle ground. Deal with reality - and start the conversation.

The Preemptive Turnaround - Renewing The Corporation: Body, Soul and Bottom Line
by Tom FitzGerald
A unique process through which a CEO can evoke a surge in profits and competitiveness while re-energizing the organization and its management.

Corporate Viagra
by Tom FitzGerald
Do you need it? Can you get it? And is it fun? - The seven transitions of the Corporate Renewal Process.

Fire In The Corporate Belly
by Tom FitzGerald
Reversing the corporate ageing process -  it is the spirit which must catch fire - and it can be touched and changed and ignited.

Systems Thinking and Cultural Change
by Rick Sidorowicz
Senge’s The Fifth Discipline remains a classic roadmap for understanding the systemic limitations of ‘culture’ and the tools to move beyond.

Engaging Chaos Together
by Jane F. Miller
How corporations can do better in times of chaos while helping individuals step out of the "Anxious Class".

A Revolution in Learning - The Lessons of Ataturk
by Ian Bullock
A ‘story’ of challenge, success, and triumph of the ‘little’ people - the great untapped capability of the ‘governed.’

Tom Peters and The Race Beyond
by Rick Sidorowicz
Crazy times call for crazy organizations! It may be crazy but it all makes sense. It's time to go beyond everything!

Leading Change: The Human Challenge
by Marc T. Frankel
Change from stasis threatens survival, especially if the new environment deviates significantly from those conditions believed to be necessary for survival.

Change Readiness Assessment
by Rick Maurer
Where are we today? - and are we ready for the inevitable resistance?

Implementing Radical Change
by Richard Ligus
The key characteristics of companies who are able to radically transform themselves - the right stuff!

Turnarounds and Change
by Rick Sidorowicz
Whatever must be done, must be done fast! You must take decisive action - a reality check.

Conditions for Change Assessment
by Rick Maurer
Considering a major change? Identify potential problem areas first with this quick assessment.

Building a Foundation for Change
by Rick Maurer
Add strategies to your plan to build support for change. An outstanding framework.

Corporate Renegades
by Kelvin Cross
Success stories do in fact depend upon renegade behavior - the six roles of the Corporate Renegades.

Making Change Happen
by Rick Sidorowicz
Create your own criteria - the key principles, the zest factors, and your unique design.

Beyond Transformation
by Rick Sidorowicz
We like the more ‘delicate’ notion of 'transformation' - but the word is feeble and it's time to move well beyond.

Bureaucracies Love Kaizen
by Rick Sidorowicz
When kaizen enters the vocabulary of your business you can kiss any hope of a breakthrough in performance goodbye.

Related Topics: Creative Leadership I | Creative Leadership II

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