Archive for Change Management
I recently wrote about how far the Change Management profession has come in Change Management – It’s Come a Long Way Baby!. Now it’s time for the “but” portion. While we have come a long way, we have a ways to go yet. In addition, I’ve seen several negative consequences from the steps we have taken.
“But” #1 – Change Management is much more than a set of tools and templates or a specific methodology. These are good building block but they do not guarantee a solid delivery.
In the prior article I talked about the positive impact of the adoption of a set of CM tools. The “but” is that I also observed large gaps in understanding change fundamentals. I also observed significant gaps in execution ability.
Change Management had been “dumbed down” to focus on Communications and Training. Awareness had been built around the basic concept of Change Management. What was missing was a solid understanding of the nuances of Change Management and the psychology, human behaviors, and neuroscience behind it. There were also significant gaps in understanding when to engage practitioners and how to integrate them effectively into project teams.
Yes, Communications and Training is a portion of Change Management but it that’s not all. Yes, tools are helpful, but they don’t solve problems or drive change by themselves.
“But” #2 – Change Management practitioner is not a one size fits all title. There are a myriad of different skill sets - from beginner to expert. At this same client, individuals who had been through a 3-day Change Management training program were deemed ready to be ”Change Management practitioners,” able to support all the organization’s Change Management needs. While they certainly knew more than they did prior to the 3-day program, it wasn’t enough for them to be able to successfully drive the necessary changes.
But what is Change Management? I’ve been thinking about the analogy that good Change Management is like creating beautiful music.
Tools, templates, and methodologies can be viewed as the notes and musical arrangements. The practitioner as the player. Individual practitioners translate the notes on the page into music for the listener to enjoy. How they sound varies based on the instrument played and the skill of the individual playing.
Some music players have basic training, know the process, and have some technical proficiency but lack artistry. Some musicians may have a high level of artistry in their music without years of training. For them, it’s an innate skill. Others are skilled at more than one instrument.
At my client, the individuals who had been “certified” had learned several musical scores, but did not the practice and experience that they needed to play with the Symphony.
But how do you tell “good” Change Management? Outstanding musicians don’t need the sheets of music in front of it – they know it. That doesn’t mean that they never have the musical score up, but rather they know when they should have it up and when they don’t need it.
Musical virtuosos not only play the notes on the page, they adjust it. They make it “come alive” for those listening.
To further this analogy, the same note, a middle C, sounds different not only based on the instrument played but also a variety of other factors.
The best artists have both form and function. Lessons, practice, experience and artistry – some artistry taught while another portion innate. They “feel it” and sense it. They make adjustments as they play. The make adjustments based on the instrument they are playing and the environment they are playing in (e.g., a room or music hall). They move to different locations on the stage, sit or stand, and wear different attire depending on what emotions, messages, and originality they want to convey. They adjust their playing based on who is listening, what they are playing, where they are playing, and why they are performing.
Those that are at the top of their game, the virtuosos, fine-tune their performance based all the factors above. Each performance is unique, never to be duplicated. It can’t be. This variation is not bad, it simply is a result of both experience and the dynamics of the situation.
Sometimes the differences are based on whether the artist is “on” that night or not. Sometimes the differences are driven by external factors that the artist has no control over. Cell phone interruption can’t be blamed on the performer… All performances might be outstanding, but it is likely that some are slightly better than others. Which was better often depend on the individual listening.
A single performance is heard and interpreted differently by the various audience members. This variation comes from differences in expectations, their backgrounds, their individual musical ability and even their individual moods.
It’s also about two sides of the situation - the person playing and the person listening. A person who is tone deaf won’t notice the missed notes and errors as much as an individual with perfect pitch.
In conclusion…
Value how far we have come, but don’t but understand we have a long way to go.
- “Certification” does not mean the individual is a skill musician. Notes and musical scores by themselves are simply not enough.
- Change Management practitioner is not a one size fits all title. There are different levels of skills from beginner to virtuoso.
- Not everyone playing is an artist - some are just learning the notes.
Great music is often difficult to describe, but you know it when you hear it. The same goes for great Change Management practitioners and their efforts. They might be on a street corner or playing in a music hall. They might be chatting in Linked In or doing a large scale change effort. You just know what you are hearing is great – it moves you in some way, connects you, brings your emotions out, and perhaps changes you in some way…hopefully for the better.
The differences in individuals’ unique viewpoints have been driven into my head several times recently - literally. My literal ”knocking on the noggin” made me pause to think about a more metaphorical view. How differences in our viewpoint can lead us to different actions.
We have recently moved and things are in that “normal” state of total chaos. Part of the chaos is working from makeshift furniture as you wait for the “real” furniture to arrive. I’ve discovered that this wait has come with a bonus, and not a positive one. What’s my bonus? I keep knocking my head on a light fixture.
This experience made me stop to think about why interventions sometimes work but sometimes don’t.
I’ve tried three interventions…but they aren’t working.
1 – Several times I have placed a chair right under the light. The intent is a physical barrier I must walk around. It works for a bit, but the chair keeps moving…
2 – I’ve moved a table under the light. Somehow the table keeps getting moved too…
3 – I remind myself that I need to remember the light is hanging down. Hum, brain must be full or the information getting knocked back out because just reminding myself to watch out for the light fixture hasn’t stopped the knots from accumulating on my head.
This doesn’t seem to be a problem for anyone but me…
Hum, what is their viewpoint I wonder? How might it differ from mine?
- For Skyler and Sydney, it’s above their head. They never think twice about it.
- For Bruce, it’s in his line of sight. He simply walks around.
- For myself, it seems to be just out of my visual line of sight, but clearly not out of the physical realm. I’m the only one experiencing the problem.
During my analysis, I determined two root causes for failure.
1 – I didn’t involve others in my intervention…
It’s not that the chair moved itself, a person moved it. Bruce had no idea why there being a lone chair in the middle of the room, so he kept moving it where he percieved it to be “out of the way”.
How often do we institute an intervention but forget to communicate with key individuals that impact our intervention? In this case, I sure did. Why didn’t I? I thought it would be obvious why the chair kept being placed under the light fixture. Clearly it wasn’t.
2 – I wasn’t solving the problem in the right way…
My third intervention, reminding myself about the light fixture hanging down clearly isn’t working. The lumps on my head are proof of that. The multiple mental reminders clearly aren’t enough to fix the problem. I don’t think about this at the point of need – before I run into the lamp.
Do we need to change our viewpoint more often?
The 5th time I whacked my head I finally stopped to assess the situation a bit deeper. One of the outcomes of that analysis is this article.
I asked myself how often do we just look at situations from our own viewpoint. Might we feel that the problem is so obvious that we don’t need to communicate the issue to others? Then we wonder why others aren’t lining up to agree “yes, that’s a problem”.
The answer is clear. They aren’t lining up with our solutions and interventions because the issue/problem is not an issue/problem for them! It certainly was the case in my example of the light fixture meets the “noggin”.
Others may naturally go under, around, or above what we keep running into (physically and/or metaphorically). Why would they see a need to fix or change something if it isn’t a problem for them? It’s not that they wouldn’t support our needs, they simply may not be aware of what support we need (aka leave the chair in the middle of the room please). The problem is we haven’t communicated with them – sharing our needs and intentions.
The Lessons Learned…
- Remember to check the viewpoint from multiple angles.
- Don’t make assumptions – others may not see or experience what you are.
- Check to make sure you are solving the right problem.
- Understand both short-term and long-term solutions.
- Communicate.
- Duck, when walking near that darn chandelier. It’s heavy and I have enough lumps on my head!
Do you only focus on the mountians ahead or have you stopped to look backwards?
I participated on in a Change Management Quarterly Networking meeting at my client site today. Yes, they have formal quarterly CM meetings. They have also formally adopted a change methodology and are rolling it out across multiple levels of their organization.
As I was listening to the speakers talk about their methodology, raising awareness in their target groups, the importance of communication, as well as the needs of various stakeholder groups I thought, wow, how far we have come.
I started formally working in the Change Management arena in 1989. I was hired into a group within Andersen Consulting (who went on to become the Accenture half of Andersen, not the other, now defunct organization) known as Change Management Services or CMS for short. In fact, I worked on part of our Change Management methodology back in the early 90’s. At that time we broke change into three major areas, each with their own unique methodology: Knowledge Transfer, Organizational Change, and Technology Adoption.
I remember the biggest challenge back then was educating clients about what this “new” concept of Change Management was. Yes, client education still exists, but you typically no longer feel like you are completely talking a foreign language. You might have to explain that no, it’s not the same as Change Controls, but nothing in life is perfect.
Yes, I do realize that many of the CM concepts have been in existence for longer than the late 80s, but it seems like the “movement” of formalizing around this concept of Change Management and making it more broadly acceptable really started in then. Today I observe individuals arguing more about the nuances of it than about the need for it.
I was thinking today that we really do need to give credit to Prosci, their ADKAR methodology, and their work to create a Change Management conference. While I know that not everyone agrees with their approach (I’ve observed some fairly rabid conversations on this topic), you must give them credit for helping to standardize concepts and mainstream terminology.
I also give significant credit to Daryl Conner and his organization, Conner Partners. I remember when his book Managing at the Speed of Change came out. It impacted Andersen Consulting/Accenture’s change methodology in numerous ways. Daryl has done some great research. He’s also been doing a great job of sharing information through his blog, Change Thinking.
So what’s the purpose of this blog? It’s simply a reminder to stop and appreciate how far we have come. Sometimes what we need to accomplish to help our clients seems like a huge challenge. Rather than focusing on how far we still feel like we need to roll that boulder up the hill, take a pause, breath, look back and see how far you have already come. We really have come a long way baby.
Yesterday I was interviewed for a BlogTalk Radio Show by Heather Stagl of Enclaria. During the interview we discuss my own personal Change Revolution, how to start a revolution, courage, fear, and other related topics.
- Do I really care?
- Why do I care?
- How can I have an influence on this?
- What action can I take?
- What outcome am I looking for?
Each day you get a fresh start to decide how you want to approach life and your interactions with those around you. How do you want to behave today?
Need to go with the flow? Nurture yourself with a little Nature.
Do you feel the onset of burnout coming? Do you want to refresh and renew yourself? Feel like you need a vacation but don’t have the time and money for one? Think small, not big.
Often we are moving so fast we don’t realize how much time we are spending inside buildings. Our minds and bodies need to periodically visit the world outdoors.
Connecting with nature – simply letting the sun shine on your face, listening to the birds, listening to the flow of water through a stream, dam or waterfall can be wonderfully refreshing.
Even small things like packing a lunch and sitting on a park bench rather than inside a restaurant can be a boost to both your body and your mind.
Yes, a trip to the spa might be fun, but you can often get the same sense of peace and restfulness from a park. Plus, it costs a lot less!
My challenge to you is to find those small pockets of time in your schedule to take yourself outdoors. It can be something as simple as stopping at a park for just 15 minutes on your way home. Do you have a deck or patio? If so, when is the last time you had dinner outside? Try it, you just might like it.
Have a story to share about how you’ve found little pockets of time to let Nature provide a little Nurture for your mind, heart, and spirit? Click that comment button to share. Love to hear from you!
Image obtained from article on the "top-25-optical-illusions-on-the-web-4"
Interpretation can be everything. How a situation looks (or feels) depends on many things including our background, experience, and expectations. Whether a situation is change resistance or sabotage depends on how you see it.
Recently our Organization Change Practitioners group had a very robust dialog about this topic. The discussion was led by John P. Barbuto, MD. John graciously agreed to write about this for Ponderings & Insights. Here’s John’s story.
“This famous “optical illusion” image can be seen in two dramatically different ways: as a white candlestick on a black background, or as two silhouetted faces on a white background.
It all depends upon where you focus attention.
In like manner, a recent discussion of the topic “sabotage” on LinkedIn, with the context being organizational change management, produced two very different views of actively resistant behavior. In one view, when an organization wishes to accomplish a change and some people resist it to the extent of trying to actively prevent the change from occurring then this action was seen as an attempt to sabotage the change project. In another view, the same situation was seen with the focus on the individual – feeling that he/she must have a reason for strongly resisting and perhaps resistance was even an action of corporate patriotism. In the LinkedIn discussion things became heated. Some participants even advocated that there is no such thing as sabotage. People began to attack each other, even though this was a discussion of people who considered themselves experts in bringing about change within organizations.
As human beings we do have differing views. We may see exactly the same situation, focus on differing aspects of it, and interpret the situation entirely differently. If those views are additionally linked to very personal and cherished beliefs or values then emotions rise when there is challenge to the cherished view.
In human evolution and neural development emotions came before logic. This is reflected in neuroanatomy. The relative locations of emotional centers (in the limbic system) versus “rational thought” centers (in the cortex, particularly frontal cortex) reveal not only that the limbic system developed earlier but also that it has access to incoming information first. So, while in this stage of evolution we often prefer to think of ourselves as rational beings, neuroanatomy reveals that emotions can hold our rational thought captive. In the context of organizational change management we do well to remember this basic neuroanatomical lesson.
Where cherished beliefs or values are “on the line” hot emotions may usurp control from cool and analytical thought. The ability to see a “picture” in its various forms, and consider them, may give way to defense of a particular view. Things fall apart. Even professionals can lose their centering and devolve into attack and defense.
So, is there such a thing as sabotage in the context of organizational change projects? Apparently it depends upon the point of view. Most certainly, individuals within an organization may seek to resist a proposed change, and even subvert group movement toward its accomplishment. But, whether you call this “sabotage” or “patriotism” apparently depends upon who you talk to.”
In Conclusion…
One of the most important sentences for me in John’s story was “The ability to see a ‘picture’ in its various forms, and consider them, may give way to defense of a particular view.” Not all the participants in the dialog were reactionary. There were a number who did demonstrate this ability and it added to the richness of the discussion.
I believe that the ability to look at a situation from multiple viewpoints is a critical skill. It should be both fostered in others and utilized regularly within yourself. Often this requires stopping yourself from reacting immediately, stepping back, and digging deeper into both your thoughts and emotional reactions. Try to place yourself on the other side of the metaphorical table and think about how the view might look from over there. I personally find this exercise quite valuable and am in fact working to teach it to my children. It’s a valuable lifelong skill.
I respectfully request that you not to undervalue those “hot emotions.” Emotional responses are triggered for some reason. Seek to understand the reason, not just the reaction. The typical problem within interactions is not the emotional response, but rather what you say and do without thinking thru the situation. Your brain and body are contributing to both your emotions and intellect. Understand both. Value both.
As noted in the prior article, Is it Resistance… Maybe Not, it’s important to dig down into the roots of your reactions. Often times you will find that there are more layers of analysis going on than just what is in your conscious mind or what you initially interpret through your emotional response. It is critical that you balance the whole of yourself. Respecting the whole of others too.
If you can, I highly recommend following the links over to Wikipedia and reading more about how our brain works. Understanding better how our minds and bodies operate can be useful in a myriad of circumstances.
Can you help?
When I set up the Wikipedia links, I noticed a number of pages needed updating. If you know individuals qualified to provide updates to these important pages of literature, please ask them for their assistance. I’ve prompted John to see if he will participate.
A Word of Thanks
My thanks to those of you who help Wikipedia in ways both big and little. I believe it is one of the most important things on the Internet these days. If each individual who uses it would commit to supporting the content development at least once a year, it would continue to be the amazing resource that it is. Small efforts by numberous people can have amazingly large impacts.
A Shout Out of THANKS to John P. Barbuto, MD for his contribution to this Pondering & Insights article. I’m hoping John will continue to provide insights here on how our minds and emotions connect. I enjoyed his story and hope you did too.
What's going on in your mind?
I had a very interesting experience with resistance this morning. It reminded me that we should value resistance. Yes, value it.
Within the world of change management, organizational change, organizational development, (the list goes on), resistance is often seen as something negative. Something that you need to manage or overcome.
However, if you step back from the existence of resistance and seek to discover the root cause, you might uncover some very interesting things. I did.
Resistance can be expressed across multiple dimensions. It is something that you might experience on a mental level – through self-discussions. It might be something that you feel emotionally – possibly raising your anxiety level. It might be something expressed at a physical or gut level – perhaps you felt your muscles contract. Your conscious mind is only a minor fraction of the processing that is going on within our bodies. The reactions you feel or sense are typically based on much more than what you are consciously aware of.
The Backstory
If you’ve been reading my writing for a while you may remember me talking about a great group of people that I met through Linked In. People who I met on-line that I feel have moved from the peer/colleague category to the friend category. I wrote about them in my article, Penguin Leadership: Alone in a Crowd.
The group grew organically, without any intention for it to become what it has: a sounding board, a shoulder to lean on, a group of friends to vent with, and a group to push boundaries of thinking with. We’ve never met in person – our locations range from California to Canada to Belgium. Side Note: at this point, there are six of us in the group (Bill Braun has joined us since the article was written).
The Event
This morning a request came to add another person to our group (one might say clique but that can sound negative). I had a very visceral reaction that said “I’m not sure I like that idea.” I stepped back from my computer for a bit but the feeling still hung on. So I shared my reaction – that I wasn’t sure and needed to think about this.
Given that I’m a fairly open and friendly person, my gut reaction startled me. In part, because it was so strong. I even made a joke to the group about whether I was experiencing “change resistance.”
I forced myself to step back and analyze why I was feeling the way I was. What I discovered was that my strong reaction came from the value I placed on my interactions with this group. My fear was that adding a new individual would trigger changes in the style of interactions. Hum, time for me to dig a bit deeper.
Digging Down to the Roots
I realized that in many ways, this group has evolved from a peer group to a support + peer group. Many days this past month I would put that support has been predominant.
I believe that our Penguin Club members “get me”. They get my thinking process. They value my opinions. They seek to not just listen but to hear what I am trying to say. I can be candid, open, honest, direct, and fraught with human frailties in a safe and supportive place. How often can you say that? It’s something not to be undervalued.
I have a high level of trust from the group members. Unfortunately today, trust is a fairly rare commodity. But that’s a story for another day.
In the insanity of life that we live in these days, the value of these types of relationships should not be underestimated. They should be treasured. How many friends and colleagues out there can you say this about?
As this group grew organically, we had no defined objectives or governance structures. We simply threw out questions to the group, sought second opinions, and discussed concepts that interested us. This morning’s experience was a fascinating study (at least to me) in group dynamics. How different the informal evolution can be from the formal structures we often engage in.
During our flurry of emails this morning we are starting to unpack what it is we want and value from this group. It’s not always the same.
Have we made a decision about adding to our Penguin Club, no. Have the emails been flying fast and furious, yes. I actually glad that we are not making the decision lightly.
The Potential Impacts
I do believe that if there was a brand new group member, the nature of what we were shared this morning would be different. I don’t think we would have been as open and honest about thoughts and gut reactions.
Do I think we should avoid adding someone new to keep the status quo? Not necessarily. What I do want to ensure is that we as a group are aware of the potential cost and make an effort to move through the transition in a way that is comfortable for everyone.
I can say that this experience has been an interesting study in Group Dynamics, Social Networking, and Trust. It’s a microcosm of events that happen at work and in social settings each and every day.
The lessons for me today are twofold: TRUST yourself and HONOR your feelings of resistance. You are feeling them for some reason. Stop and ask yourself about the root causes. You might just discover something interesting. I did.
I gained insight into myself, my wants and desires of the group, and the level of trust I was feeling for the individuals in the group. I also learned how very important this group of people was to me. Our interactions and discussion are precious and should be treated as such.
That was the root of my resistance. It had absolutely nothing to do about the potential new person and everything to do with my connection to the existing. It was less about resistance and more about personal value.
In Conclusion…
How might this experience translate into your personal life, your work, your social interactions, or the business environment?
Do you stop and think “why” when you have a negative reaction? Do you explore the roots of your feelings and feelings of resistance? Do you trust your feelings, impressions, and instincts? How do you honor them?
Rather than just believing that resistance is something to be overcome, make the effort to understand its root cause(s). Both within yourself and within others. Honor it; don’t just focus on overcoming it. Value other individual’s emotional and physical reactions as well as your own. They are just as big a part of who the person is as the intellectual ones.
My perception is that we often forget this; that we do not value enough the underlying subconscious processing that our minds and bodies are doing. We need to remember the whole of ourselves, not just the individual parts.
Each part of yourself should be valued; your thoughts, your emotions, your physical reactions, as well as your spiritual needs. When you feel resistance, unpack it a bit. Explore its roots. You just might find out something about yourself you didn’t expect.
In the end, you might also find you make a different choice.
I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to Rick Maurer one-on-one this week. He is the pioneer of facilitating the open discussions we can now have about Resistance. During our conversation he shared some of his personal evolution to becoming the Resistance Guru.
Rick not only shared his thinking with me, but allowed me to bounce some of my current thinking off of him. I enjoyed the compare and contrast – the open dialog.
For those of you who don’t know who Rick is, here’s extract from his bio: “Rick Maurer, a renowned change management expert, speaker and bestselling author, educates audiences on how to get results from major change without headaches, cost overruns, and hidden problems…or Change Without Migraines™.” Click here to get to the full bio and web-site.
Rick broke down the way he thinks about resistance and change into four groups:
- Knowing – Do you know what to do
- Doing – Practicing what you need to do
- Hidden Commitments
- Hidden Beliefs/Culture
To my way of thinking, the first two are easy to discuss. Everyone is willing to talk about them. The greater challenge is in the last two.
One of the insightful statements he made was when you understand why people resist, you can understand why they support. Rick used the visual of a person leaning in or leaning out during a conversation about support. Me, I’ve almost always leaned in. I am insatiably curious and have a genuine interest in others as individuals – their thoughts, desires, and goals. I wonder how often we actually talk about what makes people support projects to change themselves or their actions?
I think that there are a myriad of elephants hidden in those last two. What are the underlying beliefs that are causing resistance? Until we can deal with them more overtly, change initiatives will continue to fail at the alarming rate that they do.
As for myself, I’m going to be talking about those elephants. I hope that you will too.
If you aren’t feeling like it or are concerned about doing so, I challenge you to ask yourself where the resistance is coming from. Take a look at the four groups above. See what you might discover about yourself. Good luck!
Are you putting all the pieces of what you learned together? Will you talk about what you see and the Elephants in the room?
The first day of the World Business Forum 2010 is complete. The speakers entertaining and educating.
The questions for me are:
- Was the audience really enlightened?
- Did they truly listen to the messages, not just the words?
- Will they truly take the core messages back to their businesses? To think about what it means to truly lead, not command and control?
While World Business Forum 2010 Day 1 is gone, the content it not? When you do as Collins suggests, stopping one day for every two weeks of booked time (come on, try it), I encourage you to ponder, think, reflect, and visit or revisit the Bloggers Hub. You’ll learn something new, provoke your thinking, and challenge yourself. I promise! I do every time I go back.
Articles related to what was learned, shared, discussed, and reflected on during the World Business Forum are forthcoming over the next weeks and months. My thanks to all the great bloggers, guests, and speakers who challenged my thinking and helped me to continue to drive myself and my thinking forward. Cheers all.
Elephant #1: We don’t truly value stopping to think, to reflect, to ponder.
We tend to value action much more than reflection. Doing over creating. I’d like you to stop and think about that. I’ll talk more about the motivation, drivers, and factors that drive this in a future blog.
I’m willing to talk about the Elephants in the room. The truth of what it takes to change a company, to change a culture, to change yourself. To be the Elephant Whisper. Are you willing to talk with me?
Elephant Whisperer: Strait talk about the Elephants in the Room ©
Book - ebook or hard copy tbd. Look for a series of blogs/articles on this topic in the interim.
Would love to hear back from you about the elephants that you see, how people deal with them (or not), and your personal stories.
Do you truly see me or do I simply look like all the rest? I stand alone in a crowd. Waiting for my uniqueness to be seen.
Recently a group of colleagues of mine, some really high caliber thinkers, shared a laugh about the attached penguin picture. This is a group of individuals I met through Linked In. Rather than posting in Linked In, we have found that we often turn to our small group. We challenge each others’ thinking, share insights and observations, and talk about “what if.” To me, one of the true and real benefits of social networking is having connected with these bright, insightful, and valuable colleagues.
This is a group of really great people who are forging their own paths. They have small firms which provide unique insights and are trying to make a difference. They all have a passion for people and have a high level of integrity. These are individuals who “get it” at multiple levels. They ask the hard questions. They offer the less popular solutions. They provide advice as to what they feel is truly needed, not just lip service. They want to do the “right” thing rather than the “easy” thing.
With the significant increase of individual Consultants and small businesses, it’s nice to see some truly qualified individuals out there with their own shingle. Individuals with a real desire to make a difference. Who want to help improve people, organizations, processes, and businesses not just in the short term, but in the long term. Individuals who aren’t selling a “solution” but rather are willing to invest the time and mental energy in understanding and analyzing situations to determine what would be of the most impact or highest value to the individual or business.
It appears that certain types of individuals (often when they cannot find employment) simply hang out a shingle and call themselves a Consultant. After all Consultants don’t do much or “real work” do they? They just tell others what to do and make big bucks don’t they? So the thinking goes.
With the flood of “Consultants” who have appeared in the marketplace this past year or two, each of us had been feeling a bit like we were being viewed as one of the crowd - when we each were quite different. We know this. Not just because of our individual personal beliefs, but because our thinking has been validated by other, deep skilled professionals. We know that we think and operate differently, but that we are often lost in a crowd.
We were concerned with the number of individuals who are labeling themselves as ”Consultants,” but that we don’t feel really “get it” or are selling bad solutions or the wrong answer. Their work products, behaviors, and ethics have an impact on the perception of all Consulting professionals. They do not demonstrate what we are truly capable of accomplishing.
My concern isn’t that that these new shiny shingled Consultants don’t have content knowledge. Frequently they are quite deep in one area or industry. Rather it’s that they do not have critical consulting, strategic, and analytical skills. It’s about whether they really understand what it means to be a Consultant.
- Do they know what a client really needs or are they following a checklist?
- Can they truly add long-term value to their clients?
- Can they see the connections across and within?
- Can they sense what is happening in the “whitespace” of an organization?
- Do they even know what that is?
- Do they know how to find it?
- Will they walk away from a client when they know that they aren’t the best solution or even a reasonable one?
Good, genuine, insightful Consulting is hard. Really, really hard. Honestly, my head hurts and I am exhausted when I’ve been deeply focused on my clients needs. When I’m doing some multi-dimensional systems thinking, often nested systems thinking.
My observation is that often times these deep skilled individuals are not well rewarded. They have chosen to take the path less traveled and less constrained. They want to operate with integrity and truth in an environment where many don’t want to hear the truth or take the hard, but right road. These individuals often work as much for intrinsic motivational reasons as extrinsic ones. They want to make businesses better and to do the best that they can for clients, without folding to politics and useless rhetoric.
For me, it doesn’t take long to identify who truly ”gets it.” Those that can see in color and think multi-dimensionally as compared to (or contrasted against) those who only see things in black and white but are adept at using the “right” words. Those that simply following a process, script, or methodology without taking the time to analyze what is truly needed.
Imagine the penguin picture in black and white. Would you see the Emperor penguin or would he/she look just like everyone else? Much of the world views Consultants in black and white. Apples to apples. A Change Management professional is a Change Management professional, is a Change Management professional right? Wrong. Very wrong.
So here’s my big shout out to some special people – great thinkers and good people.
YOU ARE UNIQUE and I APPRECIATE YOU. While we have never met in person, I’d work any day of the week, in any country with you and count myself both lucky and happy to do so.
Gail Severini, CEO at Symphini Change Management Inc Gail’s Blog
Luc Gallopin, Managing Director at Reply Management Consulting Luc’s Blog
Garrett Gitchell, President at Vision to Work Garrett’s Blog
Jim Markowsky, President of X-Factor Solutions LLC Jim’s Blog
You guys rock! May our lone penguin not feel so alone. May we find that Angel who will fund our time so we can stop worrying about the bills and take the time to write that Game Changer book. If not Us, then Whom. Both Me and You.
If you are reading this article and you happen to be willing to investment so that this group can pause their work long enough to write, let us know. We have a new view or two. In fact I know we do.
I've reached my "final answer." Have you?
A few articles ago I shared my “elevator speech” about what Change Management is and promised to break it down for you in a future article. Click here for a link back to that article. As a refresher, here’s my definition:
Change Management (CM) is:
Moving individuals from where they currently are to where the business needs them to be.
Yep, just fifteen words. I think of those fifteen words in four parts.
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Moving - implies a state change. It does not talk about the activities or the pace at which the change is done. To me, those are decisions that are made during the architecting and designing stages of the program(s).
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Individuals – implies that the program(s) are focused on individuals and their specific needs. I believe that it is critical to think about the individual’s needs, not just about groups. That does not mean that you cannot group similar people together. That each individual needs their own unique program. What I mean is that you need to conduct your analysis at the individual level. You must ask questions and consider issues from the individual’s viewpoint. Looking at their experiences, not your own or the sponsors.
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Where they currently are – this is the current state. As part of that current state, you need to understand the historical situation. Why do people think and behave as they currently do? What past experiences and situations are the drivers for their behaviors? What are the barriers? What conclusions have they reached and why? What are the underlying reasons that the current state exists – the ones that no one wants to talk about? If you don’t understand the drivers, you may overlook critical factors such as social and cultural pressures that may cause the individuals to “norm” back to their current state after a program is executed. I often think about the who, what, what if, when, where, why, why not, how, and how much questions.
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Where the business needs them to be - this is the future state. In the end, it really is about what the business needs. In my view, if the focus isn’t on the business needs, the program will miss the mark. Yes, as part of the business needs, you do look at the groups and the individual actions and behaviors. However, you need to look at them within the context of the end goal, the results needed by the business. I like to ask why, why, why at this stage. Drilling down three levels using why can help uncover interesting and pertinent information.
If you are counting, you will notice that I only discussed thirteen. I did not include from and to in the breakdown above. To me, these are part of the first item, moving. So maybe that could be called moving from/to. Alternatively, the “from” could have gone with 3 and the “to” with 4. In the end, to me, it wasn’t critical for the analysis. Rather it was a personal preference. A key point about effective Change Management … focus on what’s important and don’t bother with the non-essential. The specific placement of these two words is “non-essential” to the breakdown (at least in my view).
In the end, this is simply my definition of Change Management. One of thousands out there. This one has evolved over years of practicing, listening to people argue and debate, and participating in a myriad of on-line discussions related directly and indirectly to this topic. I think we need to keep the definition simple. I’ve observed that people often make it too complex. Focusing on the “how”, rather than the “what.” I want to keep it simple. The “how” is part of creating the solution.
I hope you understand my definition and breakdown. I don’t expect or need you to agree with it. Or argue about it. I see enough of that already. I am hoping that you take a few minutes to process it. To think about the various elements and what they mean. That’s what is truly important to me – that you stop and think. It’s taken me 20 years to net my definition down to something this short and sweet. As always, it’s subject to revision as I continue to learn. However, I do think this one might just be my ”final answer.” Feel free to use this definition if it makes sense to you too. I’m off now to ponder more on chocolates, rubber bands, metaphors, and analogies.
What's on, or rather in, your mind?
A recent dialog in a Linked In HR group for Organization Development and Training practioners focused on the concept of “unlearning.” Can we actually unlearn?
The concept of “unlearning” has been circulating for a while. While the idea of “unlearning” might be useful, that’s not really what’s going on within your brain.
First, let’s review what was posted by Ilze Els, who provides some insights into how the brain actually works. For those who have read my article, Stop, Look, and Listen, you will see that she touched upon what I was discussing there - the conscious and unconscious mind. On to Ilze’s post…
“Broadly speaking there are two parts of the brain: working memory and hardwiring/long-term memory: the conscious mind versus the unconscious mind. Working memory doesn’t really hold very much; in fact only about 7 items at any one time. Hardwiring/long-term memory holds everything we actually know which basically means anything that you don’t need to think about anymore. Our brains are designed to push things down into our hardwiring/long-term memory to keep our working memory fresh.
Think about the learning journey – taking on new learning is tiring and hard work and causes stress. Creating new wiring takes up a lot of effort and resources – literally. Once we have learned something however (hard wiring) we don’t have to actively think about it anymore and it becomes easy. The information stored in hardwiring/long-term memory becomes the basis for how we view the world and create new learning. We perceive the world around us based on our own unique experiences and what bits of information we have stored in our brains from these past experiences. Thus our reality is our interpretation of the world based on the way our brains are wired.
It’s practically impossible to deconstruct our wiring. It doesn’t take long to hardwire things – anything we think about several times over makes many connections in the brain thus getting hard wired.
It’s an attention economy in the brain. Anything we give focus to can become hardwired (remember the brain works hard to get things out of short term memory and into long term memory – it uses less resources this way!). The more we focus on a given connection, the more we deepen that connection. In fact what happens when we try to get rid of some wiring is that we actually think about it even more thereby making it even stronger.
It’s almost impossible to get rid of old wiring just by thinking about it! For example, if you are told not to think about smoking, you immediately think about smoking. The more you try not to think about smoking the more our brains will tend to focus on smoking. This increased focus tends to deepen the wiring even further rather than erase it.
Numerous studies have shown that the ability to effectively handle change is a key predictor for success. However, the fact is, our brains are hard-wired to resist change. When we encounter something new, a whole set of automatic responses take over the brain and the body, often interfering with our ability to respond optimally. Break-through research shows that we can “re-wire” our brains to make changes, throughout the human life span and at any age. You can“out-smart” your brain when it comes to handling change. It’s easy to create new wiring.
Luckily however it’s almost effortless to create new wiring – it’s what our brains are designed to do. We are able to reconcile impasses by creating new maps. This is what happens in the moment you have an insight. As long as we are given the opportunity and encouragement to reflect, we create hard wiring.
Bringing in a new wiring doesn’t get rid of the old wiring. It’s still there – it’s just not being used so much. The phrase ‘use it or lose it’ is very relevant here. By using the old wiring less it becomes weaker and less able to guide our perceptions/thinking, whereas the new wiring becomes stronger and takes priority over the old wiring.
Until very recently, it was widely believed that the human brain is hard-wired in childhood and determined largely by genetics. Not so. Current scientific research demonstrates that the brain is capable of growth throughout our lifetime and that while neural connections can disintegrate through lack of use, new connections can also be created. This ability to re-wire the brain is known as neuroplasticity.
Think of our person wanting to stop smoking – thinking about why you smoke just increases the hard wiring for smoking; thinking about what else you could do at the moment of wanting to smoke creates new wiring.
We create millions of maps every second – with so much going on inside each person’s brain, it behooves us to make it easier for each other and keep things simple. We love making connections – we often feel energized when we make connections. It feels good to make connections and have everything fit into our mental maps. No longer must we believe that our behavior is pre-determined. If such behavior is changeable, then we can change it. It is a liberating idea. Understanding your hard-wiring and how to work with it to fully realize your potential.”
Here’s my follow on to Ilze’s post…
My educational background brings me in alignment with Ilze, but then of course I am always open to re-wiring… :-)
I personally think of it as “scaffolding” and creating mental overlays. The old one is there, the one on top is simply stronger. Whether it is physically on top within the brain is a whole nother discussion…
If you can create a “bridge” from the first hard wiring point to the new item you want to hard wire it can be processed and embedded more quickly. We see this in the use of analogies. Part of the trick in the rewiring (when you want to “unlearn” something) is to focus on the benefits or positives of the new, not the negatives of the old, which will reinforce the earlier hard coding.
The underlying message within Ilze’s response (at least as I see it) is the value of better understanding psychology, cognative science, and medical science. The better you actually understand how the human brain works, the better able you are to design and redesign things in a way that will “stick”. Rather than “unlearning”, you “forget”, “bury” or “overwrite” something with new and better information.
I touch upon these concepts – albeit more indirectly – in a couple of my blogs: If Life is Like a Box of Chocolates, What am I? and Stop, Look, and Listen.”
So what are the take-away messages:
- The better we understand how the mind itself works, the better we can plan Change Programs.
- If you work in the Change Management arena (not just the Training and Development arena where this dialog occured), it behoves you to actually understand how the mind works.
- The more we can help our target audience (whether training related or other CM activities), the better we can help them learn and adjust.
- Our brains are designed to push things down into our hardwiring/long-term memory to keep our working memory fresh.
- The information stored in hardwiring/long-term memory becomes the basis for how we view the world and create new learning.
- If you understanding your hard-wiring and how to work with it, it helps you realize your potential.
- We perceive the world around us based on our own unique experiences and what bits of information we have stored in our brains from these past experiences.
- It’s not truly “unlearning.”
- That might be useful as a concept, but that is not what is actually occuring within your brain.
- Rather than “unlearning”, you “forget”, “bury” or “overwrite” something with new and better information.
- The phrase ‘use it or lose it’ is very apropo.
- Our behavior is not pre-determined.
- If such behavior is changeable, then we can change it.
- Focus on the new behavior, rather than what you want to change. It will be more effective.
- It feels good to make connections and have everything fit into our mental maps.
Some closing thoughts…
I encourage you to not only focus on what we have “learned” through your experiences and education, but to also expand your understanding of how the mind works as defined by medial science. There is so much more that I could write on this subject – maybe more later is the writing muse inspires. Ilze and I kept it simple (relatively). My latest understanding in this area of how memory works is that a belief was evolving that there was also a ”middle ground” between short-term and long-term memory. In addition, the concept of 7 +or- 2 that has historially been used (Lewin’s research if I remember correctly) may actually be more like 5 + or – 2. These concepts relate to the concept of “chunking” of information/data.
Anyone ever thought about how phone numbers are grouped? That they originally evolved as seven digits? (Prior to individuals worrying about area or country codes.) Have you considered how the “breaks” with the dashes help you remember groups of numbers? They are “chunked” for you.
Did you happen to notice that I have actively and intentionally ”chunk” data for you when I have a large number of bullets (not just here, but in prior posts)? I do pay attention to the number of bullets I am working with. I get the list created, then will go back and group together and create sub-bullets where I have more than 5 or 6 bullets. I use this approach for both writing and in presentations. It does make a difference.
My hope and wish for today is that you take a few minutes to stop and reflect upon how you have learned, relearned, and “overwritten” information within your mind. Think about what it has taken to change your memory of someone’s phone number when they change it. How can your translate your own experiences and understanding of how the mind works into better, more lasting Change Programs?
Some additional information and links from Ilze…
After this article went up, Ilze sent me the following message.
I’ve learned this from our CEO David Rock so in essence he should be quoted for more on this and neuroleadership you can visit his websites:
www.davidrock.net/
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/bloggers/david-rock
www.neuroleadership.org/
Which one are you?
- One for me, one for you, more for me, none for you…
If you have seen Forrest Gump, you are likely to remember the line in the movie where he states that life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you get. It’s a memorable statement. On one hand, it sounds like you need to get started before you know what you have. On another, it sounds like maybe you should try as many as you can. At least to a chocoholic like me… What made this line in the movie so powerful? The analogy. Almost everyone could relate to it and could understand the point that Forrest was getting to very quickly.
I’ve found analogies to be quite useful – at least when your analogy makes sense and your audience “gets it.” An analogy, as defined by Wikipedia, is a ”… cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. … They can play a significant role in problem solving, decision making, perception, memory, creativity, emotion, explanation and communication.” Whoa, too many big words. Let’s try that again, in my language. To me, analogies convey a wealth of information in a short amount of time by allowing you to relate one thing to another. You apply the properties of one item to another to draw an inference or conclusion. On a more serious note, for the information junkie and lifelong learners out there, I did find reading and thinking about the Wikipedia definition useful. I had not processed how many different ways that we use analogies. I actually use a variation of an analogy for my pictures and underlying text within these ponderings.
The analogy that I have found myself using a great deal lately is people are like rubber bands.
What, a rubber band you say? I’m not a little piece of rubber… No, you are not. But bear with me and think for a moment about a rubber band. What comes to mind? Material? Uses for the rubber band? The fact that they wear out? That they can become brittle? That they can snap? That rubber bands come in different sizes? In different thicknesses? That some are easier to stretch than others? Have you thought about how hot and cold can affect their properties? That children (and some adults who behave like children) like to shoot them at each other?
What all rubber bands have in common is their ability to expand and contract. For a rubber band, a few might call it ”resilience,” but most simply talk about how stretchy it is.
People come in different shapes, sizes, colors and strengths. At times we have more “capacity” to deal with change, we are more resilient. Other times we have been pulled in six different directions at once and simply have no capacity left. In “Change Management lanuage,” we often talk of resilience, of resistance to change, or change fatigue. We often focus on all the outside factors and influences without thinking too much about the inside. I like to think about both, the inside and the outside view. Sometimes, the best way that we may be able to help people is to simply help them strengthen their own internal rubber band.
The question I have for you today is how might the analogy of a rubber band help you not only better understand an individual’s current state, but think differently about how you might help drive effective and more sustainable change? Changing the factors outside the rubber band are frequently temporary. Strengthening the rubber band itself can more permanent.
Here’s to hoping that you “get” my rubber band analogy and find a way to build some strength and resiliance within yourself and others. Find more “stretchiness” – or find a way to get back some that you use to have. Cheers!
P.S. Now go shoot a rubber band and see how it makes you feel.
As noted in prior articles, I have been actively participating in a number of Linked In dialogs. The sheer number of different views and discussions defining Change Management (CM) and what it’s various components are is quite startling.
While I’ve had my own “elevator speech” on what CM is for many years, through these dialogs I have further refined and greatly simplified my own personal elevator speech. If you are unfamilar with this concept, an elevator speech is intended to be short. Something you could express to another in a brief conversation – the mental analogy being the time you have during an elevator which can be very short.
Rather than build you up to my “final answer” over a series of articles, I’m going to start with the final answer. Further articles will present other individuals definitions, describe components of CM, as well as extract interesting quotes and dialogs from several on-line discussions (aka debates). My challenge to you, the reader, is to determine if my short description works. Here it is…
Change Management is:
Moving individuals from where they currently are to where the business needs them to be.
That’s it. Fifteen words. I’m going to cut myself short and ask you to ponder on this a bit. During the next post, I’ll break it down for you. Why not now? I want you to come to your own conclusions. To give your conscious and subconscious some time to process.
Note: If you read my prior post called Stop, Look, and Listen you may remember that I find it amazing and fascinating how our brain works. Have you ever stopped long enough to appreciate what your brain can actually do and does every day? What your subconscious and unconscious mind can process? What they can push up to your conscious level. If you haven’t, here’s a link.
Like many things in life, the definition of Change Management depends on the Landscape you are looking at.
If you have been following my “Ponderings and Insights,” you already know that I am active in several Change Management/Organization Change groups in Linked In. There have been numerous discussions by “Change Management Practitioners” about what Change Management is (or isn’t), how it fits in with PMI (or doesn’t), as well as the variety of related terms (e.g., OCM, Change Transformation). If we the practitioners can’t agree, how the heck can we expect the rest of you to understand what Change Management is (and isn’t)!
So here I am, trying to cut through the morass and net things down to some fundamental concepts. My personal objective in the next series of articles is for you, the reader, to expand your knowledge base. To better understand what it really takes to execute changes within an organization. It is my hope that you not only learn something, but that you have the opportunity apply some of my “Ponderings and Insights” (which I often think of as a look inside my brain) to your own life and organization.
This article is the beginning of a series of related articles written by myself and Gail Severini, CEO at Symphini Change Management Inc. While Gail and I can both be considered “Change Management Experts”, you will see that there are areas where we don’t always share the exact same view. We are very close, but there are differences.
I decided to start my portion of the series with a contribution I just made to a Linked In discussion. This particular discussion began 6 months ago with the following statement “The PMI does not recognize the importance of OCM in project implementation success. Comment on this statement”. At this point, the discussion is up to 312 contributions and has touched upon not only the original statement, but a myriad of related items. What was interesting today was that we are reaching the point I like to call “agree to disagree”. One contributor attributed it to left-brain vs. right-brained, several others focused on “symptoms” vs. “root cause”.
So here was my first discussion contribution today. There was (of course) a rebuttal of sorts so I’ve written more in the LI discussion. During future articles, I’ll explore what I mean by each of these nine steps. Who knows, maybe these nine steps will be the framework for the book that keeps trying to work itself out of my brain.
“To me, many of the differences depend heavily upon what type of change. Is it an IT change, an organizational change, or a strategic business change. They all have very different components … however there are core elements and activities to all of them.
So here’s the summary of a “middle brainer” (I don’t cleanly fit either left or right.) and a person who considers themselves both a CM and PM.
1 – Begin with the end in mind. This should not just look at the project, but the business needs. It’s not just putting in an application, what is the company looking to accomplish with it.
2 – Identify stakeholder groups. Not just key stakeholders or impacted groups. Stakeholders can be other projects.
3 – Architect the program. The framework, specs, program elements.
4 – Identify potential barriers.
5 – Adjust Architecture.
6 – Design components.
7 – Execute components.
8 – Monitor & Assess against 1, 3 & 6.
9 – Adjust, revise, enhance, course correct, et al
The specifics within each of these points vary greatly based upon numerous factors.
What can we do?
* Listen to our clients and colleagues.
* Not get hung up on terminology.
* When you run into a situation where your view of CM is different, simply explain that there are different types/flavors of Change Management the same as there are different types of applications and IT programs.
* Understand the purpose and value of PM. There is a reason it is there. Does it sometimes get out of hand? Yes, it can. But so can anything else.
* Think in terms of collaboration not combating.
* Recognize that we can likely never do all the program elements that we would like or even feel are necessary. That is simply a truth of the business world.
* Expend energy on moving forward rather than on unimportant details or terminology.
* “Win over” others through successful execution and through a positive example.
In the end, what is most important is really #1 above. There are many, many paths to get there. How you exactly get there is truly not as important as actually arriving.”
Gail and I both believe that Change Management is a critical component of successful business change. As such, we are committed to expanding the general understanding of Change Management and will be posting multiple articles on this topic over the next several months. Some articles will be collaboratively written, others written and posted individually, still others may add new “voices” to our discourse. You can find us both on Linked In. We hope you will visit both our sites as well as others we may point you to.
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To read about Faith on Linked In, click here.
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Other information about Faith is available on the About Us portion of this site.
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To read about Gail on Linked In, click here.
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Other information about Gail is available in the About Us portion of Symphini’s site.
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To review Symphini’s Twitter account, look for “symphini”. The mission of this Twitter account is to contribute to the development and awareness of Change and Change Management.
If you want to contact us directly, you can reach Faith at ffuquapurvis@synergetic-solutions.com and Gail at gailseverini@symphini.com.
Do you feel like you are trying to juggle the world in your hands?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it takes to be a Change Agent.
- What does it really mean to be a Change Agent?
- What does it take to drive lasting change?
- How much physical, mental, and emotional energy does it take to make changes and truly make them stick?
Let’s be honest, it takes a lot of energy to change. It can be an enormous amount of energy, especially when you are trying to project positive energy into a group. The more places in your life you are working to make changes, the more people you are trying to impact, the more energy it takes. I’ve recently determined that I’ve been trying to be a Change Agent in too many places at once – juggling too many balls at once. I had hit my personal “change fatigue” wall. I had lost my energy and was feeling like a Zero (O). (For more information about what I mean by a Zero, refer to my first blog, The Revolution of One). I was concerned about my ability to remain upbeat and positive. How had this happened? I didn’t want to be a O. Yikes!
After talking with a colleague the phrase “coming from a place of hope” suddenly ran through my mind. What the heck? I realized that I was feeling more optimistic than I had the last several days. I started to analyze (what, me analyze something?):
- How did I feel mentally, emotionally, and physically at that moment in time?
- What did this phrase mean to me?
- Why had it come to mind?
I realized that I had unexpectedly had a “state change”. While I was still feeling tired and overwhelmed I was now a bit more optimistic. Not the “light at the end of the tunnel”, rather from a glass half-full rather than half-empty perspective. It’s the place I want to be. I believe that we can add or subtract energy from others around us individually and in groups. That how we feel and the emotions we project affect others. As I talked with my colleague, I’d been talking about the business environment, my views on change, and my sincere desire to have a positive impact on those around me and on business at large. There have been huge amounts of stress in the work environment this past year (and at home too) for almost everyone.
I wasn’t trying to execute anything, just talk about my perspectives and beliefs. I explained that if I have a personal mission to have a positive impact on others. That I believe in cascading impacts. That if I could positively impact one person, they could have a positive impact on someone else, so on and so forth. That we could together have a large, positive impact on the business environment. Our own Revolution of sorts. I think we need it in the business world.
In describing my fundamental beliefs, I had found some new energy. I remembered the “root reasons” (vs. root cause) that I am a Change Agent. By simply talking with me and validating my thoughts and work, my friend had been a Change Agent for me - providing some much needed positive reinforcement and new energy.
It can be hard being the person that rattles cages, raises red flags, and points out the elephants in the room. Candidly, it’s stressful and exhausting. I don’t enjoy raising the flags or talking about the elephants, but someone needs to in order to drive long-term, sustainable change.
Talking about problems, challenges, and pink elephants often raises fear and worry in others. This can take excessive amounts of emotional energy to help manage effectively. It’s something that most people are afraid to do, but something that must be done to make real and lasting changes. You can’t drive successful change if you aren’t willing to discuss problems and history. If you are not honest and “real” about situations, there will simply be some head nodding in the room when you discuss new or desired behaviors. When people leave, they will go back to their old behaviors – quicker than you might think.
What my friend had done for me was to validate that while I can’t please everyone and might feel personal stress about acting the “troublemaker,” what I was doing was important. I had left the conversation with a renewed sense of purpose and personal hope. “Coming from a place of hope” described how I was feeling at the moment. It struck me that this too was a powerful thought. That where there is hope, there are possibilities. Where there are possibilities, change can happen. That having a feeling of hope had actually helped counter my feeling of exhaustion (no, not all of it, but some).
I stepped back from myself to acknowledge that I can’t be “on” all the time as I had been trying to do. That it’s not realistic to think you can always be a One (1). While I do want to drive a Revolution, (see The Revolution of One), there are times I might need to be a O, at least for a little while, so that I can go back to being a 1 later on. That in the real world, unlike my technological metaphor, there are in-between states – ½, ¾, 5/6. Those are also ok places to be.
So I decided that for the next several days I’ll focus on the idea of hope, recognize the bumps in the road, acknowledge that there are day’s I might need to be less than a 1. I’ll remind myself, work on feeling, and believe that I am coming from a place of hope and that’s good enough for now. I’ll accept that it’s ok to be a ½, neither a O or a 1 for the time being. I’ll be a ½ with hope for a better tomorrow and the belief that with some rest and sleep (not always the same thing) that I could go back to being the 1 that I want to be.
So my personal lesson for today was to hold tight to hope and possibilities. To accept that when you can’t be a whole (1) it’s ok to be a ½. Give yourself partial credit.
Change is hard. Being the Change Agent can be even harder. Change is tiring and never happens all at once.
So my wish and hope for all of you is that you too find a piece of hope today and each day forward. That you give yourself credit for what you have accomplished, rather than focusing on how far you still have to go. That you find your own place of hope, piece of inspiration, and some renewed belief. This can come from the smile of a colleague or a child, taking time to stop to look out a window at the flowers and trees (or the snow if it’s winter). Find something in your environment around you that you can draw inspiration and hope from. Stop, Look, and Listen not to understand others better, but to pause for yourself. To give yourself a break and some personal recognition.
I ask that you can continue to join me as we make our own Revolution at whatever level you can, one day at a time, one person at a time, one situation at a time. For today, I’ll continue to focus on being a Change Agent-at-Large, even only at half-strength. I’ll keep my hope for better tomorrow. I absolutely believe that together we can change many things. A little bit at a time isn’t simply good, it’s GREAT.
So here is my “true confession.” I actually drafted this article several months ago. Life (and all the winter flu varieties) simply got out of control and I never finalized this post. Some days I felt a bit guilty, but I worked to remind myself that any forward progress was good and 1/2 was ok. I asked myself if it really mattered if the story went up in October or in January. You, the reader don’t really care do you? As I start the New Year and seek to post articles and stories more actively, I pulled the draft of this article out and made the final edit.
So what are the key messages I hope you take from this article?
- Being a Change Agent is hard work. It can be stressful and exhausting. But if you don’t do it, who will?
- It’s critical to rattle the cages, raise flags, and point out the elephants. If you don’t talk about them and address them, it is unlikely that change with “stick”. Again, if you don’t do it, who will?
- There is a great level of stress that comes with always being “on”? A simply analogy is a light bulb. It gets hot and burns out quicker if it is always on. When natural light is available or no one is around, shutting it off prolongs the life of the light bulb. We need to do the same for ourselves.
- Have you thought how “change fatigue” applies not just to change programs, but to yourself also?
- Are you planning appropriate breaks for yourself and within your change program?
- Are you taking care of yourself physically, recognizing how your health impacts your ability to create change?
- Are you giving yourself appropriate mental breaks?
- Are you giving yourself the credit that you should?
- Are you recognizing that any forward progress is good, even if it took longer than you had initially planned or scheduled?
- Are you familiar with the concept of diminishing returns?
- Can you recognize when you have reached that point?
- Can you tell yourself it is ok to step back and not work on something for a while? Regain your energy and start again. You will likely get farther.
A huge THANKS and virtual hug to my friend Ron for providing positive feedback in a time of need. A shout out of THANKS to my spouse, Bruce, for his on-going support of my efforts big and small, including providing feedback on this blog. He rocks.
