We all encounter people who are irrationally angry.  They can be confusing, frightening, concerning, or all the above.  Here’s what you can do to deescalate

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person, she didn’t expect that racial disparity would disappear overnight.  When Dr. Martin

One of the oddest barriers to getting people to change their behaviors is their fear of their own success.  Instead of looking forward to the

Trapped inside the hearts and minds of its workers, the assets organizations already have are unable to be leveraged.  Instead of copying the success in

The team has finally finished the work in defining the change that will chart the course for the organization for the next two years.  The

Songs have been written about how our lives are filled with green light days.  These are the days when we breeze through things without a

Sometimes, the greatest challenge in getting your change initiative accomplished is knowing whether people are really on board with the change – or if they’re

They’re called “rogue” waves.  They have no identifiable cause, and they can be deadly.  They catch people off guard, because they’re not expecting them nor

It’s August 29th, and a hurricane is bearing down on the Gulf Coast of the United States.  The exact location of landfall isn’t known, but

It was slightly more than 20 years ago when my friend Jason Dunn and I got into a rented car with our Pocket PCs, GPSs,

Inside change, there is a constant pull between the utopian vision that drives the change forward and the complicated, messy, reality that is day-to-day living. 

Quick: what sunk the Titanic?  Obviously, the answer is an iceberg.  However, the more interesting question is why couldn’t the Titanic steer around it?  In

It’s hard to believe that your change initiative isn’t amazing.  The vision of where we’re going looks amazing.  Your executives are all on board, yet

In my post Trust Your Instruments, I raised the issue of whether you should believe your intuition about change or whether you should have solid

Whether you’re wondering why there’s a 70% failure rate of change projects, why your personal change projects are failing, or you are hearing it from

There are a handful of things that stick with you when you’ve been trained as a pilot.  They’re life lessons that have specific applicability to

Do the same principles of good change management apply when the change is reactive rather than proactive?  How can we draw the line between the

There’s a children’s book, The Little Engine That Could, that speaks towards constant striving and productive output – to making progress.  The book and others

Standing still doesn’t seem like you’re getting much done.  It’s not productive.  It can’t be efficient.  However, it’s possible when holding space for people in

Leaders who are perceived as surer of their message are more likely to be followed.  We crave certainty, particularly in uncertain times.  The more uncomfortable

We tend to think about change in terms of the increasing velocity and veracity that we’re facing today.  However, there’s wisdom in the way that

The Brooklyn Bridge, while not anonymous, isn’t nearly as famous as other bridges, but it does hide a secret.  It was constructed with faulty steel

It’s not a secret that germs and other pathogens exist.  Everyone is taught in elementary science or health class about Ignaz Semmelweis and how he

Should you push people towards your change or wait for them to pull themselves towards the change?  The answer is simple, but making it happen

Our ability to read each others’ minds is what makes us truly unique as a species.  In The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt explains that it’s

One of the problems with any new system is the tendency for people to not know what they’re supposed to do and therefore freeze.  Here’s

Most people wouldn’t consider crisis response a part of the change process – but it’s the other side of the planning and preparation, and it

It shouldn’t matter.  Pluto is literally miles and miles away from my home and where I grew up, but somehow changing the number of planets

Everyone wants to be a champion – a winner.  However, when it comes to changes, you need to make others champions if you want to

Everyone wants to talk about the digital transformation efforts that their organizations are doing.  They’re leading the way into the new digital age.  The problem

The question about whether we’re talking about management, leadership, or both is one of those perennial questions that keeps popping up in the conversation of

I was up on stage.  It wasn’t any different than the 50 other times that year I had been on a stage – except it

In our post, What’s Different Between Adoption and Change Management, we focused on the fact that change management is more focused on the broader context

It’s early, and you’re not caffeinated yet.  You’re doing your morning routine with barely a thought.  Not bad for a morning routine – but it

Each time you start talking to someone else in the organization about the latest change initiative, you’re met with an audible groan.  You made the

Driving your car faster on the highway burns more gas.  Parasitic drag increases as velocity increases, and therefore it takes more energy to travel the

It was a correlation that was mistaken for a causation that caused the recession of 2008.  It stacked up kindling high and wide, just waiting

In the technology world, the word “adoption” is often used to describe those who are using a piece of software.  It’s a global term that

I was wearing a Hawaiian-style US Coast Guard shirt.  He was a Rear Admiral in charge of Cyber.  What he noticed had escaped me.  The

While many like to speak of change resistance, I prefer to refer to those who are uninformed about a change and thus need to know

Though many speak of change resistance, I prefer to break the appearance of resistance into two categories.  The first category are those folks who are

Everett Rogers described them as the laggards.  They’re the people who refuse change even when it’s become apparent to the majority that the change is

As a change professional, it’s my job to help people change their behaviors.  It’s my job to get them to change their mind.  I’m supposed

Some changes appear, on the surface, to be very easy.  Every indication is that it will be a fantastic success.  However, unforeseen circumstances can derail

The most dominant view of an organization is that it’s a machine.  We think that our work as change leaders is to change out the

You’re about to start the job of your dreams, and you’ve got a bit of trepidation and fear.  What if it’s not exactly what you

There are two great causes of organizational death: poor execution and lack of innovation.  They both rely on change management skills but different ones.  Knowing

Lakshmi is the Hindu Goddess of wealth.  The problem is that if you chase her, she’ll avoid you.  Sarawati is the Hindu Goddess of knowledge.