We often talk about what it means to excel at change—to be change capable. Today we’ll distil our change management research into a quick list. What does a change-capable organisation do really well? Drawing from our 20 years of fieldwork, here are five characteristics of a change-capable organisation. Here’s what you need to do well Organisations that are good at change consistently do these five things well: […]
Category: Change capability
3 Things You Must Do To Build Leadership Commitment
Pop Quiz: Name one of the top two causes of organisational change failure. Answer: Lack of leadership (Source: PMI’s 2014 Pulse of the Profession) Unfortunately, just because someone holds a position of leadership doesn’t mean they know how to lead change. We all understand that leadership commitment is critical to the sustainability of any change – but how do we achieve it? […]
Three Reasons Behind Those Change Management Failure Statistics
“The project team said everything was in great shape when they handed over, but it’s gone to custard.” “I’ve got a bunch of Change Managers, but we’re still not doing change well.” We hear this a lot. You probably do too, or you’ve felt it. Organisations are undertaking major change all the time – yet […]
Pay Attention to Middle & Front Line Management
The American comedian, sometimes actor and podcaster Marc Maron made headlines in 2015 when he interviewed then-American president Barack Obama in his Los Angeles garage. In a conversation that spanned racism, gun control, criticism and legacy, this stuck with me the most. “Maron: There’s an element—and I don’t know if this will be insulting to you, […]
6 Benefits of a Change Capable Organisation
We’ve talked a lot about change capability: what it means, how you can avoid change fatigue, and why it’s time to rethink our approach. But what are the benefits of building your organisation’s change capability? 1. Create a competitive advantage A change-ready organisation is agile and able to execute critical organisational strategies quickly, efficiently and effectively. 2. Improve employee engagement Building […]
How Agile is your Company?
“Should we go agile? What does it even mean? Will it save money?” For years, consultants and thought leaders have been spruiking programs to introduce agile principles. Yet much of the discussion still focuses on theory, rather than how to achieve it. Our partner in Switzerland, AGILITYINSIGHTS, has spent the last 15 years researching and working […]
Let’s Change our Approach to Change
Change your approach to Change Management “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” Said Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who grew an inheritance of two small newspapers and a radio station into a mighty, worldwide empire. Say what you will about Murdoch’s politics, […]
Six Change Management Accountabilities That Are Also Must-Have Leadership Skills
“One major reason organizations struggle is because they treat both leadership development and change management as separate rather than interrelated challenges.” – R. Quinn and R. Quinn in HBR An ASX top 20 company was boosting its information security. Soon, all people leaders would be responsible for auditing their team members’ access to key systems – a […]
Is Change Fatigue an Excuse? Let’s Talk About Capacity and Capability Instead.
A major retailer set out to transform its business, aiming to leapfrog its competitors. To do that, they knew they needed to upgrade their foundational technology first. So they got started on the ‘must have’ technology projects, even though they had already started talking about transformation. Employees were confused – were they upgrading technology or […]
Change is the #1 Organisational Priority. How Change Capable is Yours?
#1 Organisational Priority: Adapt to Change “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” Often attributed to the late, great physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, this quote’s provenance is actually in question. Which is good, because we disagree with it. Why is Stephen Hawking wrong? Capability is the quality of ‘being capable’ – a capacity to do […]