Innovation – Productivity – Creativity
New research indicates that corporate transformations have a 78% failure rate.
The default position is that most top down change programmes will fail.
Smaller, well focused, spreadable changes, which are introduced on an ongoing basis in an inconspicuous way trump big change almost every time.
What if we overstate the effect of the people in our organisations, and we spend too much time addressing what they feel and think without addressing the more complex, systemic problems that influence how they perform or behave?
We’re obsessed with big change, but what if we’re underestimating the power of the small changes that lie more easily within our reach?
Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. ~John Kenneth Galbraith We live in a perpetual echo chamber. We follow the people we like and agree with on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We read the news sites thatContinue reading “How (Not) To Change Someone’s Mind”
Why do we persist in presenting plans that offer the illusion of certainty but are bound to be disrupted?
Unlearning is the process of letting go, reframing, and moving away from once-useful mindsets and acquired behaviours that were effective in the past, but now limit success.
Ultimately the innovation and change process begins and ends with one basic premise – listen first
How can our organisations cope with a coming tsunami of burnt out workers? The signs are all there that the transition to hybrid/remote working is not as painless as the Zoom and Teams enthusiasts are making out.
Many companies are still using software built or purchased from a time when Blockbuster were fining us for late returned videos. Most of the companies we admire for their innovation , your Amazons, your Netflixes or your Apples have no such legacy ways of working holding them back. They either cleared them out years agoContinue reading “How To Resist Corporate Hoarding”
Change-washing (noun): the process of introducing reforms that purport to bring about change but fail to result in any substantive shifts in systems, services or culture. — Thea Snow and Abe Greenspoon One of the unfortunate side-effects of writing a post that becomes popular such as People Aren’t Sick Of Change. They’re Just Sick OfContinue reading “The Complex Problem With Big Change Programmes”
I don’t buy into the idea that humans intrinsically hate change. I just think that by the time we’re in our 30s or 40s, lots of our experience of change – particularly in the workplace – has been more negative than positive. Instinctively rejecting it is a learned response – Tom Cheesewright People , weContinue reading “People Aren’t Sick Of Change. They’re Just Sick Of Change Programmes”
The UK now finds itself in its lowest-ever position in the Global Trust Index, just one place off the bottom, with only Russia below it – Ed Williams President and CEO, EMEA The results are in: Nobody trusts anyone anymore. The 2020 update of the Edelman Trust Barometer, which aims to survey trust and credibilityContinue reading “Enabling A New World Of Public Service Delivery”
Everyone says they love collaboration. Our open offices are designed to encourage collaboration. We recruit for people who are collaborative in nature. The digital tools we use are aimed at fostering greater collaboration. We promote the benefits of collaboration , or even co-creation, with our customers and service users. Collaboration has replaced innovation as theContinue reading “Why We Don’t Collaborate”
This is a edited version of an article originally written for Inside Housing There is a growing realisation that many of our social institutions and public services have run their course. Communities need something different from what’s currently on offer. We could be at the tipping point, the moment when future relationships between citizens andContinue reading “The Social Sector Must Rebuild Trust Through Equal Partnerships”
The birth of the change management movement began in the 1960s and 70s – when big consultancy began to see a vast new market – convincing organisations of the benefits of ‘transformation’. Alongside this came the development of a distinctive, pseudo-scientific language of change which the consultants needed to pitch themselves to new clients. ItContinue reading “Who Really Wins From Digital Transformation?”
You can’t change a relationship without actually changing your behaviour.
Speeches you never hear at a corporate conference: “….. Our Transformation Programme is going to be small and imperfect. We are going to do many small things that probably won’t work straight away.’ – Chris Bolton In the early 1960s, a New York housewife named Jean Nidetch began a weekly meeting with friends at her home toContinue reading “Avoiding The Yo-Yo Effect of ‘Corporate Change Convulsions’”
People don’t resist change, they resist bullshit – Peter Vander Auwera A friend of mine told me last week that their organisation was about to begin its third change management programme in just seven years. Each of the two preceding programmes had a number of things in common: People were unclear why a programme was needed in theContinue reading “The Big Problem With Change Programmes”
One of my 2017 resolutions was to blog more consistently. The glory days in terms of the readership and reach of this site peaked in 2014 before a decline in 15/16. The problem was lack of discipline. My blogging lesson learnt is you must set aside time to write and not be distracted by everythingContinue reading “Change, Transformation and Complex Problems: My Top 5 Posts of 2017”
The concept that 70% of change and transformation programmes fail emerged in the mid 1990’s. There’s actually little evidence that this is true. The 70% figure seems to have emerged because of a lack of clarity about what success looks like – and that most people have a bad experience of them. My contention isContinue reading “Why Transformation Fails – And How To Avoid It”
When someone in public service says, ‘I don’t use social media. No one wants to know what I had for breakfast!’ I hear, ‘I don’t have the vaguest interest in understanding how an increasing number of citizens get information or choose to interact.’ – Leah Lockhart What are we doing about boosting the Digital IQContinue reading “How To Find And Nurture Digital Readiness”
