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 [...]

Change Agents are often asked to draft and deliver specific messages as a part of stakeholder communication. Whether a given communication event will take place by sending an email, posting website content, releasing a video or conducting a meeting, it’s easy for the details to fall through the cracks without proper planning and diligence.  Hence [...]

Change Agent Tip #32 Over the past couple posts I’ve introduced several things Change Agents can do to take control of their individual email inboxes and increase their effectiveness with this critical communication tool. Another angle worth exploring to improve communication effectiveness is your team’s use of email. Today I’ll propose a set of ten [...]

Change Agent Tip #31 In my last article, I described methods for Change Agents to reclaim control of their overflowing inboxes by, among other things, setting aside dedicated slices of time each day to focus on handling email and using a 2-minute rule to knock out emails that are easy to answer. Click here to [...]

Change Agent Tip #30 In the famous words of Monty Python’s Flying Circus… “…and now for something completely different!” Today’s post will address a topic I haven’t touched on yet in the nearly two years of writing this blog. I’m talking about email overload. Email is one of the main communication tools used by Change [...]

Change Agent Tip #26 A wise man once told me that one reason people struggle with change is that it often means we’re going to lose something. It’s Personal: Consider the last time you were impacted by a significant change at work (or in life). You may have been asked to give up something in [...]

Before you pull the trigger on your big culture change – consider answering a few simple questions… So far in this series, I’ve suggested a few ways that Change Agents can start the process of moving their culture in a specific positive direction. I started by recommending that they choose very carefully what elements of [...]

Every domain of expertise has it’s buzzwords. I have heard buzzword horror stories from Change Agents working in fields as wide-ranging as medicine, agriculture and technology.  They each described communication problems that arose from people assuming others understood what what was being said when they used what seemed like common terms. Here are a few [...]

This is Wendy Appel. She’s one of the world’s foremost experts on a tool called the Enneagram which sheds light on people’s underlying core beliefs and motivations. Even more importantly, it can help people use this understanding to be more effective in nearly any setting that requires humans to interact. So What’s an Enneagram? The [...]

In order to be effective as a Change Agent, it’s not only critical that we are viewed as being aware of how our change will impact a given stakeholder’s daily life. We also need to be seen as being empathetic to the stakeholder’s frame of reference. In the most effective Change Agent-to-Stakeholder relationships, this pattern [...]

Some teams work for months or years to implement a change, then limp across the finish line burned out and ready to shut down. Others reminisce fondly about having been part of a great team that accomplished something significant. What sets the two apart? I would argue the one of the most critical factors in [...]

Over the past couple posts, I have shared best practices that teams can use when they participate in virtual meetings.  For the uninitiated, virtual meetings involve one or more attendees participating from a distance. Participants typically use a web connection to share materials and a teleconference line for audio. I started by describing the key [...]

In an earlier post I shared some effective ground rules that your team can use to get along and be productive.  I’m sure many of you have more good team guidelines that have worked for you – and I’d encourage you to agree on a similar list when you kick off your next team project. [...]

Anyone who’s participated on a project in a team setting has probably heard the term “ground rules” tossed around.  Sometime the term applies to a useful set of axioms that cooperative team members follow to guide their civil and productive interaction.  Sometimes it refers to a nice poster on the wall of all company conference [...]