This article examines the importance of assessing change fitness as part of the recruitment process. Are you a recruitment professional? If so, I'm sure you pride yourself in selecting the very best talent for the employment situation. You use a selection of tools to assess the suitability of candidates. But are you assessing their change fitness? Flexible and adaptable In this era of constant change, staff need to be flexible and able to deal with change. So screening [...]
Resistance to change is very common and it frustrates most managers. But here’s a secret: resistance doesn’t have to be a problem. In fact, it could become the manager’s best friend. Change how you look at resistance You have to change how you look at resistance. Most managers look at resistance as something that must be squashed. They see it as an enemy that stands in the way of success. That is not a helpful way of looking [...]
It’s not front page news yet we all know it: technological change is speeding up. Some folks embrace new technology, as my 88 year old friend did when he got his first iPad this week. But many people feel completely left behind. The problem is they are chasing a train that is rapidly pulling away from them. Over 40% of IBM’s revenue in 2012 came from products and services that did not even exist just 2 years before. [...]
When it comes to change in organisations, Kotter warns us of 6 attitudes that will lead to complacency and probable failure. It would be great if these harmful attitudes were uncommon, but unfortunately that is not the case. Size yourself up against them and see how you fare. We’re doing fine It’s a disturbing reality that many managers are not good at seeing problems. Have you ever worked with managers who are blind to the fact that their [...]
I recently participated in a LinkedIn discussion on the topic of whether soft skills training has any lasting effect. Other contributors made some very interesting and valuable points. Some commented that the positive influence of training does not last if people return to work environments that are unsupportive of the ideas and values promoted in the training. Others proposed that soft skills training has a tendency to be theoretical, and many trainers do not take the trouble to [...]
Before you can work on fixing a problem you have to first work out exactly what the problem is. Teasing out the exact nature of a problem can be taxing and challenging work. But if you don’t do it effectively, you are not in a strong position to solve it. So, how should you go about this task? If the problem is a personal one, you may need to work on it alone; or you might be able [...]
In this article we examine why change readiness saves you money. Think of this question: why are some changes easy and others difficult? In reality, change is only easy when you are ready for it. Change readiness makes change less difficult and makes you more likely to succeed. The lack of change readiness ends up costing the organization time and money, and increases risks. Some changes are hard no matter how ready people are. But here’s the thing [...]
Are the people in your team ready for change, or do they typically resist change? People who resist People who resist generally don’t handle change well and tend to see it as a threat. They avoid it as much as possible, worried it will introduce things they don’t want to face. Basically, they fear change. This is driven by a sense of insecurity about their capacity, and they have memories and stories of how and when change went [...]
Change fitness is all about having the personal or organisational resources that enable you to handle change really well. Having change fitness gives you a competitive advantage over others who struggle to cope with change. There are many reasons why you should care about change fitness. In this article I want to introduce you to just three of them. The first reason relates to individuals; the other two are more relevant to businesses or other organisations. Achievement Our [...]
What's the best way of managing change? In the past, leaders decided what to change and they developed a strategy and plan to get the job done. They established a game plan. Today, some people persist with this approach. However, with the rise of agile methodologies, this 'command-and-control' approach is falling out of favour. And it's being replaced by an emergent approach. The Cynefin Framework This is a framework that helps you understand the level of complexity in [...]