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Paving for Change

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

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Fear of Success

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

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Shared Delusions

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

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Degree of Support

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

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Rogue Ripples

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

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Change Utopia

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. 

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Turn the Ship

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

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Measuring Change

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

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Why Change is Hard

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

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Holding Space

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

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Comfortable Uncertainty

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

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Push or Pull

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

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Cold Start

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

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Crisis Response

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

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Change Fatigue

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

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Sustainable Pace

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

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Addressing Paranoia

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

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Trust as the Lubricant

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

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Changing Indirectly

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. 

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