managing change

2 Jul, 2014

Challenge Your Thinking. Focus Your Execution. Deliver Desired Results.

By |2023-11-27T16:10:52+00:00July 2nd, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Innovation, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

The walls of The Loomis Agency are adorned with pictures of dogs. There are so many photos and references to our beloved canine companions that conspiracy theorists might wonder if the company is secretly reviving [...]

12 Jun, 2014

Is It Always Right to Be Right?

By |2016-10-29T15:29:28+00:00June 12th, 2014|Accountability, Corporate Culture, Government & Politics, Integrity & Ethics, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

The 1971 Oscar in the Short Film, Cartoon category went to a piece titled “Is It Always Right To Be Right.” It was directed by Lee Mishkin, narrated by Orson Welles, and written by Warren Schmidt. The opening words of the film are: There once was a land where people were always right. They knew they were right and they were proud of it. It was a land where people stated with confidence, "I am right and you are wrong." These were words of conviction, courage, strength, and moral certainty. In this fictional land, any attempt at cooperation and understanding were viewed as cowardice and weakness. Everyone was so convinced of their rightness that no one dared to utter words such as, “You may be right” or “I may be wrong.”

29 May, 2014

Jack Be Nimble: Sure, but how?

By |2014-10-20T16:56:01+00:00May 29th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

This would have been the message if the speaker at your last business meeting presented in nursery rhymes: Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jump over The candle stick. You feel better, right? You now know what is expected of you and the definition of success. And, you have no real context for why it is important or idea about how to move forward.

19 May, 2014

Break the S-R Loop to Make Change Work

By |2014-10-20T20:03:28+00:00May 19th, 2014|Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

We taught mice and pigeons to do all sorts of interesting things during my graduate school class in behavioral psychology. The principle is simple: provide a stimulus and elicit a response. The stimulus-response cycle still plays an important role in animal training today. And, it is evident in virtually every routine action we take. You don’t think about your response; you just make it. And at some point, it becomes automatic. On most days, those automatic responses are benign routines that allow you to effectively navigate. Unfortunately, they can also become anchors that prevent you from making a change that will transform your business and your life.

4 May, 2014

Should You Put Lipstick on the Brussels Sprouts? How Leaders Communicate Forced Change

By |2016-10-29T15:29:30+00:00May 4th, 2014|Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

My presentations about leading change usually include a story about Double Stuf Oreos and Brussels Sprouts. You can view the story here, but the basic principle is simple: A child will willingly change what they are doing to reach a jar of cookies on top of your refrigerator. You seldom see them act with the same sense of urgency to acquire Brussels sprouts. With that in mind, leaders generate creative tension when the vision they create for change is compelling – like cookies – rather than boring like vegetables.

20 Apr, 2014

Generating Urgency: What’s Keeping You from Changing?

By |2016-10-29T15:29:30+00:00April 20th, 2014|Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

The willingness and urgency to change are based on emotional readiness not intellectual understanding. If intellectual understanding – knowing what we should do – was all it took to change, the gap between realizing we need to do something different and the work of implementing that change would be non-existent. But that’s not how it works.

21 Mar, 2014

Why You Will Lose Your Best Employees

By |2014-10-20T19:56:41+00:00March 21st, 2014|Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Employee Retention, Leadership, Results|

Your best employees are contemplating quitting. Some of them already have – even though they are still on the job. Hiring is picking up – especially for the stars who more than compensate for their cost with superior performance. Your best employees will have the opportunity to leave. Are you vulnerable for an exodus? Chances are the answer is yes if you are guilty of any of the following:

11 Mar, 2014

Inside the House of Lies: Why Large Consulting Firms Are Often Bad at Change

By |2016-10-29T15:29:36+00:00March 11th, 2014|Accountability, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

I received this email last week. The author’s name has been withheld in order to protect his/her job: “I read your book Make Change Work. and it made me angry. What made me angry is the fact that I work as a management consultant for one of the largest consulting firms and I am ashamed how few (if any) of the wisdoms we actually take from your book and coach our clients accordingly. Very often, we are in gross ignorance of the very valid insights and tips you have in your little book.”

24 Feb, 2014

What Political Races Can Teach Us About Standing Out in Our Marketplace

By |2016-10-29T15:29:36+00:00February 24th, 2014|Business Growth, Business Strategy, Communication, Government & Politics, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change|

Who do you choose when there is very little difference between the choices? Do you take the time to understand the small factors that might distinguish one choice from another, or do you go with what is easy or the name that you hear the most often? There are four individuals running to represent their party for the office of state representative in the area where I live. All four seem like nice people, and all four are virtually indistinguishable in their stance on the issues. Seriously, you could copy and paste any of their individual responses onto the web site for any of their competitors, and no one would notice.

3 Jan, 2014

Why Most of Us Won’t Achieve Our New Year’s Resolutions

By |2016-10-29T15:29:37+00:00January 3rd, 2014|Accountability, Leadership, New Year's Resolutions, Personal Development, Results|

Most of the talk about New Year’s Resolutions is just that – talk. Despite all of our good intentions, most of us won’t achieve our goals for the year. Research released by the University of Scranton Psychology Department reports that only 8 percent of Americans are regularly successful in achieving their resolution. 49 percent achieve occasional success, and 24 percent are never successful. So in other words, the odds are stacked against you even if you set a goal for the New Year

23 Dec, 2013

Defining a Good Change: It is More Than Results

By |2016-10-29T15:29:37+00:00December 23rd, 2013|Business Growth, Business Strategy, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Leading & Managing Change, Results|

Every change is evaluated against the result AND the damage inflicted during its implementation. Ignore the people side of the change (feelings and perceptions), and it is only a matter of time before the desired results suffer, too. The type of change needed in today’s successful organizations is continuous. It is generated from every level, and it requires engagement and commitment from those involved. You can mandate compliance. Commitment and engagement to make change work are volunteered when you focus on more than the end result.

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