Happy Monday! I thought I would start the week with something fun. It’s an innovative video from OK Go, an alternative rock band with a reputation for making catchy, viral videos. The band’s video for “Here It Goes Again” won a Grammy Award for “Best Short-Form Music Video” in 2007, and features the band members dancing around … More This Too Shall Pass
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group, tells us with his adman’s great hilarity, that we can be much more effective creating behavior change if we focus instead on changing perceptions. And that’s about more than selling the benefits of something new. It about tinkering with the way we define the symbolic, subjective and … More Sex, Potatoes and Smiley Faces: The Keys to Selling Change
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
A friend of mine called the other day to share a story from the executive suite that made him dream of selling hot dogs on the streets of New York. I told him that it was not the first time I had heard the tale, especially in these days of our sputtering economy. I imagine … More The Trouble With Layoffs
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
A marketing exec friend of mine gave me a call yesterday to catch up. After swapping stories about families and our current work, he finally asked after years of knowing me, “What exactly is change management anyway?” I had to think for a moment before answering him for a couple of reasons. First, because he’s miles away … More What Is Change Management Anyway?
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
Listening is an essential ingredient for innovation. Eric Lewis listens to the world differently than the rest of us, and as a result, is creating the next evolution of jazz. I had the joy of seeing him a number of years ago–before the hair–when he was playing with Wynton Marsalis. Then, he was electric. Now, … More Listening to Innovation
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
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)
Erik Van Slyke 