I’ve been told – as most leaders are told during their careers - that taking action is critical to success. We’re rewarded for doing. We’re rewarded for results. The unfortunate flip side of this prejudice for action is that leaders are not typically rewarded for stopping and thinking before taking action. . I’ve also noticed [...]
Sometimes it takes a lot of tolerance to be a Change Agent. Expect to Face Some Heat: As people go through their natural reactions to change, we get bombarded from time to time with negativity, insecurity, doubt and frustration. We might be surprised to hear these emotions from people who had previously been quiet or even [...]
One of the more useful concepts that has arisen from the formal study of Organizational Change Management is the “Change Adoption Curve“. But before you toss it out as more consultant blather, I’d encourage you to consider its merits and limitations. The curve presents the simple idea that people tend to go through a predictable [...]
“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke (as paraphrased in The Swordbearers : Studies in Supreme Command in the First World War (1963) by Correlli Barnett Resistance to change, unexpected stakeholder challenges and failed adoption are all enemies of successful change. Change Agents should heed the Field Marshall’s insight and expect that they [...]
As promised, today’s post is a quick collection of links related to Change and other topics I found interesting. Click around to read more and use the comment feature to let me know what you think. Without further ado… … 1 … Change Or Die: This article by Alan Deutschman came out a while ago [...]
When it comes to tracking change adoption, identifying levels of change support or uncovering pockets of change resistance, data may be king, but information should rule your decision-making process. In my last article, I introduced a way for Change Agents to gather and apply accurate data related to change support, adoption and resistance. It all [...]
I love pineapple upside down cake. If you’re a pineapple fan and you haven’t tried it, you need to. When it’s done right, there are few better desserts on the planet. To satisfy my sweet tooth, I plan to bake one of these beauties the next time I have a bit of time and access [...]
The last article on theBigRocks was authored by our first-ever guest writer. Dr. Rodger Dean Duncan is an accomplished Change Agent who worked for several decades in the field before capturing his methods in a book called “Change Friendly Leadership“. He shared part of his new book in that post. I would encourage you to [...]
Ugh. It’s election season in the United States and the rhetoric is flying in every direction. Since I live in the “swing state” of Florida, it’s nearly impossible to watch television for five minutes without being told who’s going to raise my taxes or destroy my future. Regular readers of this blog know that I [...]
Few professional skills will correlate more closely with your ability to lead change as your ability to facilitate influential groups through critical discussions and timely decisions. Being able to guide people as they define their goals for a given interaction – and then consistently reach those outcomes – is a big part of helping your [...]
So far in this series, I’ve focused on how Change Agents can be more effective by learning and applying the art of facilitation to their routine work. We’ve talked about different ways that people think and how good facilitators pay attention to this variance as they guide group discussions and decisions. Over the next few [...]
As a Change Agent, one of my most common roles is that of “Facilitator”. One moment I will be asked to guide an executive team as they make tough decisions. The next, I’ll help resolve a personality dispute that’s blocking team success. As a neutral Facilitator, I’m often called to help an individual or a [...]
In my last post, I described what often happens when Change Agents and Sponsors of Change fail to communicate with their stakeholders. I suggested that people could interpret a lack of communication in one of several negative ways. They might think you’re telling them: 1. “This change is simply not a priority.” – After all, [...]
theBigRocks Pictures of the Week! Photography is a side hobby of mine. While my hobby might not apply to helping teams through change in a text book sense, sometimes I notice little things when looking through the lens and it just clicks for me… I snapped the following pics during the Fourth of July Parade [...]
Tip #36: Consider How Your Change May Impact Existing Relationships Today’s post is a picture that tells a story of two ways one can view the impact of change on existing relationships. For clarity, it can help to think of your change as bringing about the end of something and the beginning of something new. [...]
I’m a huge fan of Freakonomics. In their books, blogs, films and podcasts, co-authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt regularly explore what they call “the hidden side of everything”. They research cool topics like aligning incentives to motivate behavior, proving or disproving causality and digging into data related to all matters of systems theory as [...]
There’s a time to fall in love and a time to fall in line. Sorry to put it so bluntly, but while some changes are perceived as being a good deal for everyone involved, sometimes change is needed for less-then-positive reasons. In the world of implementing change, the chances are good that you’ll see both [...]
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