Leadership Archives - The Change Gym

Why Agility Is Important

2021-11-01T11:01:21+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Leadership|

Why Agility Is Important We all know that business in the 21st century is different from what it was in the 20th century. In the 20th century, competitive advantage was based on economies of scale, hierarchy, and control. In the 21st century, competitive advantage is based on a more entrepreneurial mindset.The key to sustained competitive advantage in today’s volatile business environment is the ability to manage complex networks of resources and relationships capable of taking advantage of short-lived opportunities. This [...]

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Marketing and Sales: The Secret of Stuck

2021-10-24T11:08:53+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Leadership|

Marketing and Sales: The Secret of Stuck This is the third article in a 3-part series on marketing and sales. In the first article, we considered marketing and sales as engaging in the first two steps of the change process. In the second article, we considered the importance of good communications to help prospects make forward progress through the two steps. In this article, we consider how to help prospects who get stuck. Stuck Is Normal You should understand that [...]

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Marketing & Sales: The Secret of the Stories

2021-10-24T11:08:53+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Leadership, Uncategorized|

Marketing & Sales: The Secret of the Stories This is the second article in a 3-part series on marketing and sales, taken from the perspective of change and change readiness. In the first article, we considered that the two steps of the marketing and sales process and the goals of each step. In this article, we examine how to use communication to move a prospect towards becoming your client.In the previous article, we considered the imperative to move prospects into [...]

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Marketing & Sales: The Secret of the Steps

2021-10-24T11:08:53+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Leadership|

Marketing & Sales: The Secret of the Steps This is the first article in a 3-part series on marketing and sales form a change perspective. If you’re in the early stages of building a business, chances are you have some marketing and/or sales challenges. Even if you’re employed by someone else, I bet you are still involved in marketing or sales in some ways.Full disclosure: I am not a marketing or sales professional. And you won’t hear what I’m about [...]

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Are We Leading Change with the Wrong Framework?

2020-05-09T07:09:41+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Change Readiness, Leadership, Managing Change|

Think of the term ‘change management’. What framework is implicitly related to that term? Obviously, it’s the management framework. Accordingly, change management is one type of management. ‘Management’ is the broad framework and ‘change management’ is a subset of that framework. But when we talk of management or change management, what we mean is a framework shaped by research. Research into management didn’t really get going until the late 1800’s. Before that time, organisations still needed to manage change [...]

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How to Create Successful Change

2019-09-22T08:10:48+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Change Readiness, Leadership, Managing Change, Programs, Resistance|

In 2010, McKinsey reported the findings of a huge study involving more than 315,000 respondents. They found that 75% of organisations were experiencing change and that 70% of change initiatives were regarded as unsuccessful.Hundreds of other studies corroborate the 70% failure rate statistic. This statistic is often cited in the change management community as a reason to engage change management professionals as change leaders. But the problem is that the 70% statistic has remained stable for decades, even though change [...]

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The Challenge of Organisational Change

2021-10-25T08:45:45+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Leadership, Managing Change|

Some years ago, a yachtsman competing in the BOC challenge pulled into Sydney harbour. He and his fellow competitors were sailing solo around the world. They were competing against each other, but also against themselves. In a real sense, the challenge of the race is facing the fear of the unknown and the limits of one’s personal capacity and endurance. Notwithstanding the dangers, most sailors succeeded – not in winning the race, but in facing the challenge and [...]

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Recognising The Demands of the Change Process

2019-03-25T13:58:27+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Change Fitness, Leadership, Managing Change|

This article examines why people find change difficult and how managers and leaders can help employees find success. We all know change is, at times, demanding. It takes us outside our comfort zone and challenge us at every level. In a 2017 article in the British Journal of Management*, Rafferty and Jimmieson explore three demands that cause people to struggle. Let’s look at them. Disturbance The authors write, “any modification to habitual patterns is disturbing, as functioning in [...]

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THE 3 ‘A’S OF ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

2019-03-25T14:16:25+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Change Fitness, Change Readiness, Leadership, Managing Change|

We need to start thinking more systemically about organisational change. I mean, we need to move beyond the first A (acceptance) and start thinking about the other two (acceptance and adaptability). Approach Lewin, Hiatt, Kotter and others have helped us think in terms of the first ‘A’ – how managers should approach organisational change. And it's true - the way managers and leaders approach change makes a difference to how things turn out. They need to clearly understand [...]

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What Makes A Good Change Manager?

2021-10-24T11:08:42+10:00By Steve Barlow|Categories: Leadership, Managing Change|

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 [...]

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