Tag: Leadership

The Importance of Trust . . . It’s Not What You Think

August 28, 2020

A few weeks ago I was talking with a project manager who wanted an assessment of his team’s capability.  The project was moving along without significant problems, but was approaching an intense period with several critical milestones.  The project manager felt unsettled because his team was not providing the analysis and insight he expected. “I don’t think … More The Importance of Trust . . . It’s Not What You Think

The Missing Part of Change Communication

January 30, 2017

Maybe it’s time to reevaluate the effort project teams put into change communication. Pick any study that examines the effectiveness of organizational change and somewhere the results will say that communication is one of the most essential ingredients of success. Some recent examples include: A 2016 Robert Half studyreported that 65% of senior manager respondents said that “communicating … More The Missing Part of Change Communication

Revisiting Failure as a Secret to Success

September 11, 2015

Nobody likes to fail.  We think failure is the opposite of success.  In organization life, failure is unacceptable.  It demands action.  It requires a response.  It gets you fired.  It is better to maintain the status quo and achieve mediocre results than to take a risk and fail. Unless you are an effective change leader. … More Revisiting Failure as a Secret to Success

Profile of Change: Thulani Madondo

August 28, 2013

In January I visited Johannesburg, South Africa to speak at the Academy of Management’s first-ever Africa Conference.  The conference brought together leading organization and management scholars as well as social entrepreneurs, service providers and change agents interested in the many theoretical and practical problems presented in Africa.  The continent is home to some of the world’s … More Profile of Change: Thulani Madondo

Stop Hiding Behind Jargon

June 1, 2011

One of the surest signs that change leaders don’t know what they are doing is the excessive use of jargon.  It’s easy to spot.  Just listen for words like strategic, alignment, partnering, values, sustained, vision, execution, branding, methodology, governance, scalable, global, integrated, empowerment, enablement, or any other intelligent-sounding, yet empty clichés that assume speakers have … More Stop Hiding Behind Jargon

Read the Instructions

May 17, 2011

“When all else fails, read the instructions.” That simple, seven-word warning ought to appear on the instruction manual for everything that comes unassembled.  It should appear in bold face, large font letters on every purchase from Ikea, every home theater system, every backyard play set, and every brightly-colored, multi-part plastic child’s toy packaged in an … More Read the Instructions

The Assumption of Interdependence

March 1, 2011

My view of organization effectiveness starts with two important assumptions: We are interdependent, and as a result We need to collaborate. Interdependence implies that people need to cooperate in order to accomplish what they want.  In the workplace, managers need employees to accomplish results that lead to department or organization success.  Likewise, employees need managers … More The Assumption of Interdependence