Category: Leadership

Now What? Managing Well After Layoffs, Recessions and Other Corporate Stressors

February 23, 2010

You better start loving up your employees. As we begin to recover from the economic downturn, organizations will be relying on their workforces more than ever to help them return to stronger financial performance.  But with recent studies showing that fewer than 1 in 3 employees are engaged and as many as 55% are passive … More Now What? Managing Well After Layoffs, Recessions and Other Corporate Stressors

It’s All In Our Head

February 15, 2010

Nicholas Kristof’s column in yesterday’s New York Times shared that the origins of political judgments may in part be the result of our fundamental personality type and even in the hard-wiring in our brains.  While even the researchers agree there is more work to do to validate these findings, it is consistent with the growing body … More It’s All In Our Head

Review Meetings: When Talking Is Effective

February 9, 2010

A number of years ago I had a boss who was so focused on staying on schedule during meetings that he forgot we were actually gathered to accomplish something.  He thought nothing of interrupting a productive dialog to remind everyone that we needed to move to the next agenda item.  The poor fellow thought “accomplishment” was … More Review Meetings: When Talking Is Effective

Going the Last Mile

February 1, 2010

MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” winner, Sendhil Mullainathan, uses behavioral economics to show us that convincing people to change behavior is about much more than giving people data and information.  His work examining the topic of persuasion has made a remarkable impact examining some critical social challenges in India and around the world. In the corporate sector we, … More Going the Last Mile

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes . . . the strain (reprise)

January 29, 2010

After reading yesterday’s post, my good friend, Jerry D’Ascoli, sent me the above video set to Bowie’s original.  It’s from Hugh Atkin and I couldn’t resist sharing it with you.  Side-splitting cynicism aside, the video makes you realize the difficulty moving from talking about change to actually creating change, especially in the province of the … More Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes . . . the strain (reprise)

A Change Manager’s View of U.S. Healthcare Reform

January 27, 2010

It’s been fascinating to watch the attempts at U.S. healthcare reform over the last year and beyond.  The change management requirements for this monumental effort make multi-process, enterprise outsourcing implementations look like a piece of cake! Ross Douthat’s column in Sunday’s New York Times presents an insightful summary of the challenge, highlighting the complex web … More A Change Manager’s View of U.S. Healthcare Reform

The Practice of Adaptive Change Management

December 18, 2009

Ronald Heifetz As Ron Heifetz states, “people in authority are under tremendous pressure to provide easy and decisive solutions to problems.”  This is true for government leaders, business executives, and project managers.  Unfortunately, some problems don’t have easy technical solutions.  They are what Heifetz refers to as adaptive challenges, and they require very different kind … More The Practice of Adaptive Change Management

More on the Importance of Emotion When Leading Change

November 30, 2009

John Kotter It is a big deal, as John Kotter suggests.  The reason so many change initiatives fail is that they rely too much on fact gathering, analysis, report writing, and presentations—the logic—instead of an approach aimed at grabbing the feelings that motivate behavior change. This reason for failure can be best understood with a … More More on the Importance of Emotion When Leading Change