What are the first thoughts that come to your mind when you hear the title of “influencer”? For people active on social media, an influencer is someone who has established credibility, a large audience, and the ability to influence others by virtue of their trustworthiness and authenticity (1). The influencer phenomenon has become so big […]
Posts Tagged ‘organizational change’
Mapping the Island of California & Other Myths in Leading Change
Living in the great state of Arizona, I see people travel frequently between Phoenix and Southern California. According to the map app on my phone, the California border is only 3 hours away if I drive west on Interstate 10. Plus, my phone gives me written and audio turn-by-turn instructions with a detailed map of […]
Informal Networks Require Leaders to Look Below the Waterline
How do communications and influence flow through your organization? The most obvious and visible method is through formal channels. Leaders in corporate or business-line roles receive information from executives and these leaders cascade the information down the hierarchy through predictable channels like email and town hall and group meetings. The path of these communications can be easily traced down through the lines and boxes of […]
Avoid the Day-old Sushi Approach to Leading Organizational Change
Do you love sushi as much as I do? So how do you know if what you ordered was made fresh with quality ingredients? Would you buy pre-packaged sushi from a gas station or convenience store on some remote highway? What if that sushi was also over a day old – how many risks are you […]
Tools to Calibrate the Need for Organizational Change Management
While digital transformation started gradually over 25 years ago, this new wave of data driven innovation has steadily gained momentum. Today, digital transformation includes a wide umbrella of technologies – including the cloud, Big Data, analytics, artificial intelligence, mobile/mobility, and IoT. For me, the digital transformation revolution gives us an incredible number of tools to improve how we […]
Build a Perpetual Beta Mindset to Speed Organizational Change
Nearly every day, I can scan the headlines on my news feeds and read a report on the dramatic ways that artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way we work. While the field of AI is wide and evolving, I like the definition given by Nils J. Nilsson, a founding AI researcher at Stanford University: Artificial intelligence is that activity devoted to making machines intelligent, and intelligence […]
Your “Back of the Napkin” Formula for Leading Change
When was the last time you gave an impromptu update over lunch on the back of a napkin to explain that big change project you are leading? Did you run out of space on the napkin or were you able to succinctly capture and explain where and why the project was – or was not – on target? […]
Cones of Uncertainty and Certainty and Organizational Change
“How will the change affect me personally?” This is the first question that people want answered as soon as they learn about upcoming plans for a large organizational change. However, at the early stages of preparing for organizational change, leaders are not able to give specific answers to these questions. This concept, known as the Cone of Uncertainty, is found in […]
Compelling Shared Visions Lead the Way for Organizational Change
I look forward to going to work every day. I know that sounds trite, but it is true. I have not always been able to say that. Don’t get me wrong – not everything about my job is easy or fun. Like the long walks down the sky bridge to catch my early morning flights, […]
Leading Organizational Change – Art or Science?
For better or worse, leading organizational change – especially for an external consultant – tends to carry a certain mystique. Perhaps this exists because some aspects of organizational change are intangible, unplanned, and require intuition. Thus, leaders seek out a consultant who can spread “magic dust” throughout the organization to get people to change and […]
Digital Change 2007 to Now: Governance and Other Ugly Words
So yes, Governance, Organization, Making it work, etc; they are all ugly words. At least they are enough to put you to sleep just thinking about them. With the increase in complexity, comes an increase in the organization necessary to support it. Let’s look at a typical organization supporting a site in 2007. I say […]
Leading Organizational Transformations: A Digital Perspective
McKinsey has a long but great article on Leading Organizational Transformations. It’s very focused on the generic need of transformation rather than my more specific focus on digital transformation but the description of the problem and recommendations on approach make sense in both use cases. The problem Let’s face it, most attempts at transformation of […]