Tag: Business Transformation

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If You Want to Make Enemies, Try to Change Something: 17 Inspiring Change Quotes to Live By

"God supplies everything you need for successful change, and when you make changes with his help, it says changed." - Unknown
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.  Change, no matter what scale it is on, can be a source of stress and anxiety for many. However, it’s common for change management practitioners to view resistance to change as an irrational barrier to progress. Another school of thought is that resistance to change is a social process that can strengthen changes and help to eliminate undesirable change.
The fact remains that change is necessary in all organizations. But, it is the way change is initiated which can so greatly vary. It can be forced upon companies by outside forces or just come from a realization that the company may be falling behind the times. In this way, change management might be quite beneficial to an organization. Organizations that have learned how to transform themselves through effective leadership and strategic control are more likely to survive and prosper. The dilemma is that most people hate change and love it at the same time and what they really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
The good news is that God has a plan for your life to prosper.    If we trust in God and allow the change to grow us to become more like Jesus Christ in how we respond and act, then we are promised that all things will work together for good for those who love Him and keep His commandments!
The following thought-provoking quotes relate to change management including resistance to change, acceptance and change strategy.
  1. “One of the reasons so many celebrities keep going in and out of rehab is that they leave out the critical element to lasting change: God.” – Unknown
  2. “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” — Niccolo Machiavelli
  3. “Change has its enemies.” — Robert Kennedy
  4. “He who rejects change is the architect of decay.” — Harold Wilson
  5. “Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.” — Samuel Johnson
  6. “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” — Charles Kettering
  7. “God supplies everything you need for successful change, and when you make changes with his help, it says changed.” – Unknown
  8. “It is always easier to talk about change than to make it.” — Alvin Toffler
  9. “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things.” — Machiavelli
  10. “The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.” — H. G. Wells
  11. “When you feel weak in the face of change, God is omnipotent, or all-powerful. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” the Bible says. (Romans 8:31, NIV) Knowing the invincible God is on your side gives you tremendous confidence.” – Unknown
  12. “Paralyze resistance with persistence.” — Woody Hayes
  13. “Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.” — Frances Hesselbein
  14. “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic – Peter Drucker
  15. “The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.” — John P. Kotter
  16. “Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business.” — Mark Sanborn
  17. “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” — Woodrow Wilson

Don’t make change harder than it has to be. Do it the right way. Ask God for help.

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Agile Methodologies

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Agile Methodologies

The “agile” buzzword has really taken hold among a myriad organisations worldwide. That result is not particularly surprising. Who wouldn’t love to employ light and fast tactics that allow them to respond to rapidly changing challenges? Despite all the optimism about agile methods, the bigger question is how well companies are actually doing when it comes to employing these methodologies in the real world. Without understanding what the core objectives of embracing agile methods are, it’s not going to be easy to gain results.

Agile methodology is employed in order to reduce the time, risk, and cost that is associated with a project. However, these massive benefits are not going to materialise out of thin air. They are the result of the dedicated work of a team who is well versed in implementing the methodology.

To become “agile” will require organisations to take a quantum leap in their culture. They will have to embrace the entire philosophy behind these methods or no real change will take place. Truly agile companies are the ones that have gone through a transformative process in order to implement brand new processes that say goodbye to the past. This takes a lot of work and effort and not all organisations are willing or able to do this.

Ugly Agile Implementations

Project teams that are solely focused on results and who don’t do their homework end up with very ugly agile implementations. These teams are so excited about agile as a concept that they convert everyone in their organisation into adopting the methods. The problem is, they do not spend the requisite time getting everyone on board with exactly what needs to be done.

Because of this oversight, the projects are plagued with poor communications and engagement. The project team and others in the organisation are each working on their own tasks with no thought to how the pieces fit together in the “big picture.” This is a major problem because agile methods really only shine when the whole organisation works as one well-oiled unit. In this scenario, major issues at the core of the project are neglected and the entire project goes off the rails. This leaves a bad taste in the mouths of managers, who are no longer excited about agile methods.

Really ugly agile implementations have the wrong focus. Because of this myopia, the true benefits of agile employment are never realised. Before long, things, unfortunately, go back to “normal.”

Bad Agile Implementations

Some businesses completely miss the boat when it comes to agile deployment. They’re interested in receiving the benefits of reduced costs, faster time to market, and cutting “red tape.” Despite this knowledge, they’re not truly committed to the all of the values that are espoused by the Agile Manifesto. Without this commitment, they cannot possibly hope to fully embrace a functional implementation.

Organisations like to invest in education and communications, but they ignore important concepts like utilising the tools that help them truly embrace agility. They even form teams that understand cross-functionality, but without empowerment they are unable to make vital decisions.

Lastly, organisations that do poor agile implementations perform project reviews regularly enough, but the input from the meetings is never acted on by anyone. The key issues that are preventing proper implementation are never properly addressed and the project fails on its promise. Organisation members swear off the agile methods forever at this point.

Good Agile Implementations

When business personnel and IT staff work together, good implementations of agile are the result. These units work together so that a project delivery methodology is presented to the organisation that meets its needs. They also spend the time to create the cultural changes needed to ensure the methods are successful.

In organisations like this, team members, business end users, along with senior management and key stakeholders received a continuous education that empowers them all. Cross-functional teams that excel are the results. These organisations also invest in the techniques and tools that fully support agile. That includes test driven development, continuous builds, new standards, and more. With these in place, a platform that ensures long-term success will be installed.

Particularly telling, these businesses conduct regular project reviews which they conceptualise as opportunities to improve instead of something that simply has to be done. When change is needed, they embrace it and plan for it. When it arrives, they are ready and the organisation continues to excel. A sign of a good agile implementation is when the organisation is  commits to making long-term changes that will benefit the methodology in the long run.

It doesn’t pay to underestimate just how difficult implementing good agile really is. Since major internal changes to how project delivery is done need to be embraced, the road ends up being a challenging one. Traditional managers will be challenged because empowered teams now have more input than ever before.

Once a good agile implementation is in place, the benefits are obvious and plentiful. An energised, cross-functional community of empowering people who are all focused on common goals get more done than ever before. Good implementation put platforms into use that improve project delivery because they allow for test-driven development, continuous integration, standards implementation, and best practice design applications.

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The Hard Side of Change Management

Change management is an approach to transition individuals, teams, and organisations to a desired future state. For over three decades, academics, managers, and consultants, realising that transforming organisations is difficult, have avoided  the subject.

My Way or the Highway

Major organisational change is profoundly difficult because the structure, culture, and routines of companies  often reflect’s persistent and difficult-to-remove ways of working, which are resistant to radical change even as the environment of  organisations change.

What started out as a financial buzzword in the early nineties  has become fundamental business practice, with executives recognising the need to keep abreast  with the competition in a rapidly developing corporate new world.

Navigating  change

Globalisation and the constant innovation of technology result in a constantly evolving business environment. There is an ever-increasing need for Change Management Lead’s / Senior Managers who can help organisations successfully navigate change in today’s business environments. The focus of this movement to date has been on how to  partner with organisations to define education, training and communication platforms that help to support the change initiatives and concerns of company employees. The critical aspect is a company’s ability to win the buy-in of their organisation’s employees on the change initiative.

While a project team is important for success, a senior level advisor is invaluable and can work  with an organisations  leadership team to avoid common pitfalls that change management projects often fall into. There are four key areas where an Advisor should act as this resource as follows:

1. Defining A  Strategy  

Executives should start by asking themselves  what exactly needs  changing and why? Organisational change directly affects all departments from entry level employees to senior management and  must be aligned to a  companies  strategy. Too many programs are heavy on the jargon and light on the substance.  Executives are often sold on an idea only to realise as the change initiative begins that they need a different outcome, tool or process to be successful.

In this situation the strategy for change needs to be re-aligned with the organisation and its goals.

An outside senior advisor with a unique perspective of the organisation will  play an important role in helping an executive to explore and shape the strategy they are defining and highlight whether it will truly create the outcomes they desire. This upfront partnership can save money  on the back end of a project, by avoiding costly re-scoping of initiatives.This relationship  between senior advisor and executive should therefore begin as early as possible in the process.

2. Coalition Building

Its important to give  people multiple opportunities to share concerns, ask questions, and offer ideas  and to make following up with answers and updates a top priority.  Executives must reach out across their functional work streams to build a large cohesive team to support the project once the correct strategy has been set and the urgency for the project has been established. A good senior advisor will be able to guide an executive though these interactions.

As a senior change management professional, it is important that you help leaders of the organisation craft the correct message. While leaders often know what it is they want and see the urgency for themselves, the outside view that a coach provides can support the development of a team around the initiative and  help to navigate the strategic and political interests in linking the change to the interest of multiple team members.

The more people are involved in the process, the fewer will  be acting as internal saboteurs.

Communication Is Key to Successful Change Management

3. Communication

Don’t confuse process visioning, planning and endless powerpoint presentations with communication.  

Change is uncomfortable, and adapting to change is messy. A  Gantt chart can not capture  the  hard side of  change management. Why? Because tasks are easy to list, but behaviour and long-held habits are not easy to change. Gather outside information, solicit perspectives, and adapt the approaches for your organisation and group.

The importance of communication within an organisation around the change cannot be underestimated.     Executives often fall short on communication in two main  areas, not communicating the right message and not communicating it frequently enough across an  organisation. It is often thought that everyone else in the organisation is on board and understands the change, however, the  reality for an executive  is not the reality for another worker who may have lost a job because of a well intended change initiative.  A senior advisor can apply consistent pressure to the leader of the change around the need for communication and its messaging.

Quantity Is Fine, but Quality and Consistency Are Crucial

4. Share  Relevant  Information Quickly

Most CEOs and managers are quoted as saying, “You can’t communicate too much,” Part of the communication will be the support the urgency in messaging.     “My way or the highway”  is often used, but is not an effective communication strategy.     Senior Advisors can work with executives to tailor their message to each area of the organisation in order to define content that is important to them.

A study by  Towers Watson  shows that “only two-thirds (68%) of senior managers say they are getting the message about the reasons behind major organisational decisions. Below the senior management level, the message dwindles further  to  (53%) of middle managers and 40% of first-line supervisors understanding  reasons behind major organisational  change.

The forwarding and cascading of information does not work as  consistent communication around the change will be necessary at all levels of the organisation using a variety of communication pathways and vehicles.  As a trusted advisor it is important to encourage executives to lead by example in both their messaging and communication of the change  agenda.

Only 25% of Change Management Initiatives Are Successful over the Long Term

Maintaining The Change

Many leaders and managers underestimate the length of time required by a change cycle. It is paramount  that as the  change effort reaches its completion that  leaders of the change recognise that the process does not end there.   The role of a Senior Advisor will be to guide them to the idea that work must be undertaken  to maintain the change over time. Maintaining change does not mean that an executive must own the initiative  forever, just that they take the necessary steps to ensure that change has a lasting impact by integrating the change into the corporate culture and measuring the benefits  and highlighting areas for future improvements.

The outside unbiased view is  that a Change Management Lead is crucial to the success of a change management program.

This article  provides food for thought rather than counsel specifically designed to meet the needs of your organisation or situation.  Please use it mindfully.

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34 Thought Provoking Change Management Quotes

Change is good. It’s also often hard. The status quo can be so much more comfortable. But to succeed in business, you must run toward change.  Companies most likely to be successful in making change work to their advantage are the ones that no longer view change as a discrete event to be managed, but as a constant opportunity to evolve the business

Here are 34 thought provoking change management quotes:

  1. It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change —  Charles Darwin
  2. One key to successful leadership is continuous personal change. Personal change is a reflection of our inner growth and empowerment — Robert E. Quinn
  3. Change before you have to — Jack Welch
  4. You must embrace change before change erases you.
    — Rob Liano
  5. Change before you have to — Jack Welch
  6. Too few leaders have the emotional fortitude to take responsibility for failure.
    — Paul Gibbons, The Science of Successful Organisational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behaviour, and Create an Agile Culture
  7. People don’t resist change. They resist being changed! — Peter Senge
  8. If you want to make enemies, try to change something — Woodrow Wilson
  9. The key to change is to let go of fear — Rosanne Cash
  10. The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress — Charles Kettering
  11. There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things — Niccolo Machiavelli
  12. Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future — John F. Kennedy
  13. Even those who fancy themselves the most progressive will fight against other kinds of progress, for each of us is convinced that our way is the best way.
    — Louis L’Amour
  14. Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times — Niccolo Machiavelli
  15. Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers and business — Mark Sanborn
  16. Change your thoughts and you change your world — Norman Vincent Peale
  17. If you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less —  General Eric Shinseki (U.S. Army Chief of Staff, 1999-2003)
  18. We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn — Peter Drucker
  19. Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times
  20. — Niccolo Machiavelli
  21. All is connected, no one thing can change by itself
    — Paul Hawken
  22. Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you — William Frederick Book
  23. We would rather be ruined than change
  24. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment  and let our illusions die  — W. H. Auden
  25. Every generation needs a new revolution  — Thomas Jefferson
  26. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has  — Margaret Mead
  27. I’ll go anywhere as long as it’s forward  — David Livingstone
  28. Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself  — George Bernard Shaw
  29. Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win— Max McKeown
  30. You can’t build an adaptable organization without adaptable people–and individuals change only when they have to, or when they want to — Gary Hamel
  31. People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours — Ken Hakuta
  32. A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it — Chinese Proverb
  33. The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change — Bill Clinton
  34. Each of us has the opportunity to change and grow until our very last breath. Happy creating — M.F. Ryan

Change or die? we  choose life! How about you?  

 

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