In any organization, the success of a long-term strategic initiative depends not only on vision and execution, but also on communication. Particularly when the initiative spans a year or more—as major transformations, technology deployments, or organizational redesigns often do—leaders must embrace a proactive approach to keeping stakeholders informed. It’s not just a matter of courtesy. […]
Great project managers aren’t born, but it does take a certain sort as the saying goes. There will always be a balance between a project manager’s instinct and experience and the adherence to a flexible yet predefined project management methodology. All good project managers will possess a combination of acquired experience, a recognized qualification in […]
We live in a culture of yes. In the business world, we are taught to engage, be assertive and never turn down an opportunity. All of this behavior results in a whole lot of yeses (and time commitments). After all, saying yes is fun; it often feels a lot better than saying no. To further […]
One of today’s current buzz phrases in the management lexicon is that alignment of organizational goals should be aligned throughout an organization. Certainly, this is true, yet it’s often quoted without the real understanding of meaning or importance. A recent study by Capgemini and the IESE Business School, which surveyed 260 innovation executives globally, found […]
Talk to any transformation leader long enough, and the same story comes out. The project had a sponsor on paper. The kickoff deck named one. The steering committee charter assigned one. But somewhere between launch and landing, no one was actually steering the ship. The team made its hard calls in a vacuum, hit organizational […]
In their recent research report, 10 Best Practices in Organizational Change for Project Managers (August 29, 2011), Gartner focuses on the fact that project and program managers struggle with coordinating effective, organizational change practices. This struggle is compounded by an increasing rate of structural change from activities such as mergers and reorganizations, which is making change […]
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 […]
I first published a version of this post back in 2010. The headline was the same. The argument was the same. The statistics, unfortunately, are not all that different. Fifteen years and several waves of transformation later, most organizations are still spending real money on change and still getting modest results for it. That should […]
Jesse Jacoby
David Baker
Daniel Lock
