Many excellent change initiatives never get off the ground, stagnating just when they should be flowering. Why, after an enthusiastic start, do so many major change efforts—a new product rollout, international expansion, deployment of a new IT system—founder and organizations return to the pre-change state? It’s because companies focus disproportionately on the structure and technical […]
Previously, we addressed how to create a powerful future vision. Equally important is how that vision gets communicated to your people. This is where the art and skill of storytelling becomes very important. Done well, storytelling can be a powerful catalyst for driving transformational change. Effective leaders tell stories that position them and their organizations […]
The latest issue of McKinsey Quarterly contains a case study titled Developing Better Change Leaders. Using the backdrop of a multi-national operations improvement initiative, it addresses leadership development and organizational change and underscores the factors that make it possible to drive and sustain profound transformation. The case study highlights a number of important change leadership practices. Below, […]
Also, check out Blueprint for Building an Internal Change Capability Two-thirds of all large-scale change initiatives fail to achieve their expected business benefits. This failure rate represents billions of dollars in lost productivity, wasted resources, opportunity costs and rework—not to mention the cost of lost jobs and workforce disengagement. Companies that learn to manage change effectively […]
“Can we make that information available on an iPad?” It is one of the most common requests we hear from executives in the systems transformation space – no doubt a confluence of technology and regulations. Call it the “cool factor” or simply a clever way for executives to avoid getting their fingers dirty in corporate […]
Company leaders often ask us about common pitfalls associated with organizational change initiatives and how they can avoid them. The term “pitfall,” defined as a hidden danger in the form of a covered pit used as a trap, implies a sudden occurrence. We prefer the term quagmire which more accurately describes what actually occurs in […]
Often the good intentions of leaders can morph into unintended consequences for employees when preparing to implement a large-scale business initiative (note: by large-scale we mean impacting many stakeholders). Why does this happen? In our experience, many well-intentioned leaders fail to fully appreciate the extent of the “downstream” impacts their strategic objectives will have on […]
One of the best strategies for gaining buy-in and support for your business initiative is through stakeholder engagement. By “engagement” we mean not only communications, but active involvement of the people who have a vested interest in the outcome of the initiative. Bear in mind, it is human nature for us to resist change when […]
Jesse Jacoby
