Archives
Good Lemonade
Don’t abuse change management activities to repackage and advertise bad lemonade. If the lemonade is bad, be straight about it. Work on the lemonade instead of accusing the buyers. Use change management activities to bring about involvement and participation that triggers an invisible hand.
The Time Factor
As I am writing this we are about to shake up a traditional organization by means of an SAP implementation. Most of the times this is regarded as a pure software implementation: design the system, configure the system, test the system and roll it out. That is how most software engineers look at it and [...]
Virginia, To Thee I Pray
Over the past months I have been shaking up the realities of a team that is supposed to deliver IT services to my team.
More Evidence on the Good Nature of Resistance
This week I came across an article by Alain Vas, professor at the Louvain School of Management in La Libre Entreprise (i.e. the business section of a Belgian newspaper published in French). Professor Vas – like most professors – starts off by analyzing the origins of the word ‘resistance’. Apparently the original Latin word ‘resistere’ signifies ‘to stop’ [...]
Suspect Yourself First
I just can’t get a hold of that thing called ‘resistance’. This is an attempt to map how I get hooked by energy draining conflicts, oppositions and being right.
The Giant Misunderstanding about Resistance
Focus on Indifference – NOT Resistance! Resistance is the emotion that occurs when our expectations of ‘the way things are’ are interrupted. Two words are important in this definition: – Emotion: the essence of resistance is that it creates an emotion. That means: not logical, not rational and most of all: not predictable. – Expectation: [...]
An Alternative Approach to Resistance
The picture below shows two brilliant management consultants unwinding at the counter of a downtown bar. Note the subtle difference between the white text balloons and the grey ones. White = categorized, judged, stuck, isolated, done. Grey = puzzled, eager to find out, preparing for interaction. The point of this post is to offer you [...]
Three Ways to Disagree
The below drawing started while I was making notes during a meeting last week. I observed three distinct behaviors resulting in three different outcomes. To my surprise I witnessed that behavior 1 and 3 are authentic behaviors that give a clear direction to the team and a positive contribution to the meeting results overall. Number [...]
How to Eat the Elephant of Organizational Change?
There is always a moment when the work ahead seems so massive that you don’t know where and how to start. Funny enough this feeling always overwhelms me at exactly at the same moment: once I decided for myself what will (and will not) change and how this will impact the organization. Those moments are [...]
More Afterthoughts on Indifference
This drawing refers to an earlier post titled ‘Cracking the Code of Indifference’. Click on the drawing to enlarge it.
