Change Management is Not Impossible!

Still waiting for the world to settle down! I hate to break the news but complexity and constant change is with us to stay. In my change management articles, I discuss strategies you can use to implement change and overcome the resistance of others to your efforts given this tough reality. I also share insights on what it really takes–today–to lead change in your management or leadership role. As a bonus, I have put together a free resource of 15 articles from this blog that explains How to Lead Change, Overcome Resistance, and Improve Employee Performance.

Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze: Is This a Child’s Game?

by Robert Tanner August 15, 2011
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The words unfreeze, change, and refreeze might sound more like a child’s game than the foundation model for implementing change. These three words are not a child’s game however.  Instead, unfreeze, change, and refreeze describe  Kurt Lewin’s powerful and simple three-step change model.  Lewin’s work on organizational change is well known in college business courses [...]

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What Zebras, Gazelles, and Wildebeests Understand That Leaders Don’t!

by Robert Tanner August 10, 2011
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At first thought, you might not expect to learn much about leadership from zebras, gazelles, and wildebeests.  They appear to be prey animals whose lives exist on the end of a slippery banana peel.  Nature always has something to teach us however if we look for the lessons.  In fact, the creator has given zebras, [...]

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Leading Change (Step 7) – Consolidate Gains and Implement More Change

by Robert Tanner July 20, 2011
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Have you ever taken a long trip and passed some unfortunate traveler on the side of the road with a gas can in his hand, a non-responsive vehicle, and unhappy family members in the car?  This scene is an accurate description of the state of some organizational change efforts.  Like this family trip, many organizational [...]

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Leading Change (Step 6) – Generate Short-Term Wins

by Robert Tanner June 1, 2011
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If you have worked for awhile, you probably remember working in an organization where senior leadership initiated a large scale organizational change effort.  Many of these efforts began with great promise. Senior leadership enthusiastically and forcefully identified the urgency of the needed change and expressed their support for its implementation throughout the organization.  Important key [...]

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Leading Change (Step 5): Empower Broad Based Action

by Robert Tanner April 20, 2011
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In my previous posts on John Kotter’s Eight Steps for Leading Change, I covered the roles of senior leadership and the guiding coalition in preparing the organization for a major change effort. From creating a sense of urgency to communicating the change vision, senior leadership and the guiding coalition have mobilized the organization and prepared [...]

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Leading Change (Step 4) – Communicate the Change Vision

by Robert Tanner March 22, 2011
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John Kotter’s, Eight Steps for Leading Change, remains a viable model for senior leaders to use to guide a change effort.  It has not lost its value with time.  In previous posts (see links below), I discussed the first three steps of John’s model.  In the third step of his process, Developing a Vision and [...]

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Three Change Management Lessons From the Dodo Bird!

by Robert Tanner February 22, 2011
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If ever a bird has become famous as a source of ridicule, the dodo bird has to be at or near the top of the list. I can still remember hearing about this “clumsy” bird in school.  I pitied this dodo bird that became extinct because it could not fly or run fast enough from [...]

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Fascinating Numbers: Organizational Complexity is the New Normal!

by Robert Tanner February 10, 2011
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Well, it is official now!  It is not just supervisors and middle managers commiserating about how tough management is these days.  Global CEO’s have jumped on the bandwagon!  In discussions with 1,541 chief executive officers, general managers and senior public sector leaders,  the IBM Institute for Business Value found that the most pressing challenge facing [...]

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Leading Change (Step 3) – Develop a Change Vision and Strategy

by Robert Tanner February 8, 2011
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John Kotter’s Eight-Step Model for leading change remains a popular approach for giving structure to the difficult process of organizational change.  Senior leadership begins the change process by rallying the organization to act.  It does this by creating a sense of urgency for a needed change. (Read More at Leading Change Step 1 – Create [...]

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