Never underestimate the importance of buy-in to the success of your strategic initiative or business transformation. Buy-in is so critical for creating a sense of urgency and gaining stakeholder alignment that John Kotter wrote a book about it: Buy-In: Saving Your Good Ideas From Getting Shot Down(2010, Harvard Business Press). All business initiatives begin as […]
We often think of change as something that happens to other people. But, how effective are you personally at dealing with change? The people appointed to lead organizational change efforts sometimes have a skewed perception of their own ability to handle change. Below are a few simple principles that you can employ to enhance your […]
Our last article discussed how to conduct effective stakeholder interviews for the purpose of developing your organizational change strategy. This week we address a second important method of gathering qualitative data from stakeholders: focus groups. Focus groups are an interactive way to get cross-functional perspectives on a single issue and can prove very helpful during […]
Interviewing stakeholders, along with focus groups and surveys, is one of the primary methods of gathering qualitative data. Insights gleaned from stakeholder interviews provide the basis for stakeholder analysis and prioritization and serve as a critical step in formulating an effective organizational change strategy. Stakeholder interviews done well yield many benefits: Correct structures, processes, and […]
In our previous article, How to Prioritize Stakeholders to Ensure a Successful Change Program, we introduced the Stakeholder Prioritization Map. Now we will explain how to translate that stakeholder prioritization analysis into stakeholder engagement strategies. As a reminder, stakeholders are individuals or groups who either will be impacted by changes resulting from the business initiative, […]
Stakeholder prioritization is one of the fundamental building blocks to a successful organizational change strategy. Too often, though, project teams get the stakeholder prioritization step wrong. Two of the most common stakeholder prioritization pitfalls are Prioritizing stakeholders based on the wrong assessment criteria Prioritizing stakeholders based upon input from too few people To clarify, in […]
Stakeholder resistance, if it gains a foothold on a large scale, can threaten to derail even the most positive change effort. There are four primary reasons1 that people resist change. Once you know what types to look for, you will be better equipped to spot change resistance in your organization. After you have identified the […]
Successful change initiatives require strong committed leadership through the entire project by both the business sponsor and the implementation team members. When strong leadership is lacking, the risks are manifold, such as stakeholders believe the “wrong” people are leading the effort; leaders kick-off the initiative and are not seen or heard from again; leaders are […]
Jesse Jacoby
