Remember what your mother taught you: don’t judge a book by its cover. This book is far more than just a list of phrases. It is a management primer on communicating change based on our 40 combined years of experience leading change and consulting to others leading change in a myriad of organization sizes and industries on 4 continents.
- Get a handbook with practical methods for handling a wide range of change situations: We have compiled an… Read the full article >
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Employees in business yearn for transparency. They say that it’s a leadership requirement. Yet being open about what’s really going on is not realistic. Transparency does not and will not ever exist in executive suites around the globe. Here’s why.
There will always be pockets of transparency. For example, a friend of mine runs a successful technology business with 40 employees and has completely open books. He shares all financial information with all employees every two weeks, including… Read the full article >
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One of the reasons our mind gets fooled with optical illusions, like the picture below, is that there is a .1-second delay between seeing an object and your brain being able to decipher it. While that seems like a short time, it is enough time for your brain to fill in the blanks with what it thinks it sees. Even if it is not really there.
Many leaders do the same thing with their… Read the full article >
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We spend much of our lives in meetings. That is not bad in itself – we need to collaborate on important matters. Yet, if not run well, these meetings lower morale and reduce productivity. Our recent research of over 300 professionals on happiness and productive teams found that well run meetings are positively correlated to productive teams and happy employees. Here are 3 ways to create it.
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3 Ways to Create Meeting Happiness: If you want to create meeting happiness, which creates happy and productive teams, here is what to do:
1. Name it –… Read the full article >
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Unfortunately, many of the basic meeting-management techniques that leaders use fail to result in effective meetings. Even with an agenda, and strong task leadership, there is one huge problem that gets in the way: people! If there were robots in the meeting, well then it might all work smoothly. But people don’t act like leaders want them to in meetings. Distractions, group think, lack of comfort with conflict, overly quiet people, overly talkative people, and other things that are human nature get in the way of having a good meeting.
Here are 5… Read the full article >
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This checklist can be used while creating a change message. It is intended to help leaders ensure they create the highest impact message possible.
What kind of change is it?
*New Structure (i.e. Reorganizations, Layoffs, Outsourcing, Merger, New Teams)
*New Project (i.e. ERP/ Software Rollouts, Process Improvement, Innovation)
*New Leader (i.e. Succession, Merger/Acquisition, New Team Members)
*New Strategy (i.e. New Markets, New Positioning, New Products/Services)
What is the nature of the message?
*Announcing Change
*Identify what is changing and what is not
*Get clear on why the change is important to the business/team/customer/employees
… Read the full article >
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While there are no magic words that fit every situation, there are some best practices we have discovered over the years.
1. Build trust before change. The time to start building trusting relationships is before you need them! In times of change, the trust between you and your people is critical. If you don’t have trust, it may be too late to have real communication. Employees who trust you will hear the perfect phrases as you intend them. This will create meaningful dialogue. However, if your relationship with them is damaged from past errors, employees may hear any phrase… Read the full article >
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Rowing made its modern Olympic debut in 1900. It wasn’t until 1976 at the Summer Olympics in Montreal that women’s events were introduced, but men’s and women’s events have enjoyed recognition and respect ever since.
A rowing crew in perfect harmony is a thing of beauty and power.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, fourteen different rowing events are being offered, including Men’s, Women’s, and weight-restricted Men’s and Women’s events. If you have ever watched a rowing event, you were probably struck… Read the full article >
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Today’s organizational changes involve employees spread around regions, countries, and continents. Virtual tools like GoToWebinar, Skype, blogs, and Facebook offer a terrific amount of added flexibility to communicate with people. Yet, there are also many limitations and challenges when communicating change in this new digital world.
In principal, all the rules of communicating change apply in virtual situations. In fact, they are amplified because when you are not face-to-face, it is more critical to follow all of the guidelines…. Read the full article >
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We have seen leaders fail in communicating change in three basic ways: not telling enough, not listening enough, and not telling the truth enough.
Not Telling Enough
Leaders are usually ahead of the people they are leading. They usually know information before employees and have thought through situations before employees even know what is going on. This can lead them to forget that employees do not know what they know. The result is many leaders do not communicate enough…. Read the full article >
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