...because often I find that by the time I'm called in to a meeting for my "input" and "feedback," the decision to move in a new direction has already been decided. Often, by those who are furthest from the processes being changed, and the processes which I, along with my colleagues are asked to "buy in" to.
Michael Kanazawa, author of "Big Ideas to Big Results," wrote an interesting article about this titled, "People Don't Hate Change, They Hate How You're Trying to Change Them." You can download the 13-page PDF here for free.
Key point:
There is a tremendous amount of creativity, ingenuity and determination that is untapped in companies. The change programs so often used are flawed. People have come to hate corporate change programs and they don’t work. However, architecting a transformation or change process that is based on focusing on doing more on less, engaging people up front, and driving with leaders at all levels produces breakthrough results. The ACT process is a proven framework to start with as a guide to improving your process or putting in place a new fast, effective and repeatable change process.
Highlights:
- If you want to learn about great leaders, don't talk with them, talk with their team.
- Leadership impact isn't about how aggressive, decisive, and visionary you are, it's about how you bring that out in others... If leaders focus on their own power only, the organization becomes underpowered.
- The success rate of strategy execution and corporate change programs is 33%.
- Because so many programs fail, some execs and managers start to believe "people hate change." Not true. People don't hate change, they hate corporate change programs. (In fact, employment surveys show that the top reason good employees leave companies is over a lack of new opportunities and boredom with stagnant, never-changing, dead-end jobs.
- "Doing more WITH less" is a tired, ineffective mantra. Instead, focus and prioritize projects in order to get the best from people, rather than the most out of them.
- Phrases like "buy-in" need also to be struck from business lexicon. It doesn't work and speaks to a decision for change having already been made at higher levels without up-front participation from those closest to the issues.
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