Jesse JacobyMost organizations are good at managing resistance to a single change and poor at building the capacity to absorb disruption as a constant. Here’s how to shift from resistance management to organizational resilience as a standing competency.
Most organizations are good at managing resistance to a single change and poor at building the capacity to absorb disruption as a constant. Here’s how to shift from resistance management to organizational resilience as a standing competency.
Picture a scenario that’s becoming increasingly common. The head of transformation at a Fortune 500 manufacturer pulls a trusted advisor aside after a steering committee meeting and says something that’s surfacing with growing frequency across the field: “Our governance model is fighting the work.” Her organization is eighteen months into a multi-year operating model transformation. […]
A division president I spoke with last spring described a moment of clarity that came too late. He had just finished reviewing his organization’s project portfolio and realized that nine of the fourteen active initiatives on his list had been approved individually, in separate steering committee meetings, over a period of eighteen months. Each one […]
Before launching any change effort, find out what’s functioning and what’s functioning around a problem. The difference is where your real ROI lives. Every organization has a department that should be half its size. You can usually spot it during a transformation kickoff. The team in question has more headcount than seems necessary, more processes […]
Most leaders I work with are proud of their “no drama” cultures. Meetings run on time. People nod. Decisions get made without much friction. Disagreements get resolved offline, if at all. We tend to interpret that as success. I’d argue it’s often the opposite. When people stop speaking up, it’s rarely because they’re fully on […]
A chief transformation officer had what she called her “cascade problem.” Every major transformation update followed the same path: she briefed the executive committee, the executive committee briefed their direct reports, the direct reports held team meetings, and by the time the message reached the people actually doing the work, it bore almost no resemblance […]
A division president last year described her situation with unusual clarity. “The board wants bold. My people want stable. And I’m supposed to deliver both without acknowledging the contradiction.” She wasn’t exaggerating. Her board had approved an aggressive digital transformation roadmap tied to a three-year value creation thesis. Meanwhile, her organization had just been through […]
A Fortune 500 company I worked with spent $4.2 million on leadership development in a single year. Custom programs. Top-tier facilitators. Off-site retreats with all the right frameworks. Eighteen months later, their employee engagement scores hadn’t moved. Exit interviews still cited the same complaints: unclear expectations, inconsistent feedback, leaders who avoided difficult conversations. The programs […]
