Archives
A conflict isn’t always a bad thing – Part 5
Unexpected – like innovation itself – another perspective that I’d like to add to this series: the newest insights on biodiversity.
A conflict isn’t always a bad thing – Part 3
Never mistake a lack of agreement for a lack of trust. If you fail to make the right assessment you may end up categorizing people in the wrong pigeon holes and you may be starting off your program on the wrong foot.
A conflict isn’t always a bad thing – Part 2
The process of creative destruction is not the only place where conflict proves to be productive in the long run. Here comes the demographic point of view.
Dorothy
About 10 years ago I saw a movie about stormchasers called Twister. In order to create a better warning system, they hunted violent tornados in Oklahoma with a complex measuring instrument called Dorothy. Dorothy contained small balls that needed to get inside the tornado whilst sending back huge amounts of data. Of course, the biggest […]
Sometimes it’s Not Resistance
This is the title of a paragraph in Peter Block’s book ‘Flawless Consulting’. He warns against the paranoid habit of some consultants interpreting every line manager’s objections as resistance. Resistance is often a label used by consultants who want to be right – in spite of the customer relationship. Here’s a quote of that paragraph: […]
My Inconvenient Truth – part 2
Last week I explained how naivety and co-incidence have more to do with innovation than intelligence and analysis. That was my inconvenient truth number 1. The second one comes from the same session that I conducted with my co-speaker and this one was a bit tougher for me to take. But the feedback one resists […]
My Inconvenient Truth – part 1
The naivity of a beginner and the feedback of people around you are the best conditions for innovation to occur. As it turns out, innovation is more about allowing the innate creativity to come out than it is about being a genius. A few months ago I was a co-guest-speaker for a foundation of voluntary […]
Execution: Organizational Change Management in Practice
In order to be successful, organizational change efforts are not exercises in democracy but rather military deployments. This article builds further on that military metaphor to clarify my point.
Pay Attention to your Attention
Sometimes people look at me strange when I mention the importance of psychological safety during organizational change projects. It is a term that I borrowed from the writings of Edgar Schein. Until now I didn’t find a way to explain in plain English what exactly I understand under that term. Strange and expensive words come […]
Good Lemonade
Don’t abuse change management activities to repackage and advertise bad lemonade. If the lemonade is bad, be straight about it. Work on the lemonade instead of accusing the buyers. Use change management activities to bring about involvement and participation that triggers an invisible hand.
