Most organisational changes cost more than expected and incur unnecessary financial losses. According to a recent McKinsey study, 78% of the financial losses occur in the implementation phase. And the reason for these losses comes mainly down to people.  Leaders and managers charged with implementing this highly complex task experience the frustrations of dealing with…
We often think of change – especially organisational change – as something to be implemented and managed. Change is what happens in the organisational machinery, and in the context within which the organisation operates. Viewed this way, the people that shape or are affected by changes are called stakeholders. Stakeholders are important because they have…
Failure. It’s not a four-letter word but it’s still a dirty word in many places. From this starting point, we could explore attitudes towards failure and the importance of psychological safety as a key cultural element. But we won’t. Instead, let’s explore why failure happens. In the September 18, 2018 edition of Forbes, Harvard professor…
What is the critical factor indicating the organisation is ready for the change? This is a great question but before we delve into an answer, let’s stop for a moment and think about ‘the change’. The change (whatever it is) must be a response to a problem (either something is wrong, or there is an…
On the Kubler-Ross Model I have written elsewhere about the Kubler-Ross Model (KRM). I have nothing against the model, but I do have a problem with it when it’s used as a model of change. Unfortunately, it is often used that way in the commercial world, and often by change managers. I won’t go into…
Whether a business survives and thrives depends on how creatively it adapts to future demands, not how well it has performed in the past. Adapting to an unknown and unpredictable future requires agility. Becoming more agile in how we think and work is the best preparation we can make right now for whatever the future brings. Where…
For most of human existence, change happened slowly. For generations people hunted and foraged, or later farmed the land or kept animals. Not much changed. But that’s far from our experience today. We count change in years, not millennia. But why has this happened? It has happened because of memes. Memes (coined by Richard Dawkins)…
Getting to Know Agility What do we know about the strategic creation of agile organisations? In 2014, Schulling reported on a 25 year-long study into this question. Here are 6 insights from that study. Develop an inquiry focus. Don’t base decisions on assumed knowledge but foster an attitude of inquiry. Encourage diverse views. For most…
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…
The Meaning of Management What does management mean to you? What did it mean in the past and how has it changed over time? Social Change Before the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700’s, most people lived and worked in small communities. The corporations or government enterprises we are familiar with today…
