Posts tagged as:

change

Change: Knowing When, Knowing How

by Steven M. Smith

Workshop
Kurt Lewin said, “There is nothing so practical as a good theory.” A gift from pioneering family therapist Virginia Satir is a good theory about how people process change.
The Satir Change Model describes the: five major stages of a change; transition between stages; effects each stage has on feelings, thinking, performance, and physiology; and interventions [...]

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Selling Your Ideas to Management

by Steven M. Smith

DAVID: Ruth, I think we should buy the ABC software to track trouble tickets and issues.
RUTH: There is no budget for that.
DAVID: But it takes me days to put together the information you want about the state of the product. And without an automated collection mechanism, I think many problems aren’t being reported.
RUTH: Provide the [...]

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Gandhi and Change Agents

by Steven M. Smith

Mahatma Gandhi epitomizes the effective change agent. In my opinion, he was not only the Twentieth Century’s greatest change agent but also its greatest leader.
Are you looking for change agents in your organization? Let’s explore desirable qualities for change agents exemplified by Gandhi.
He believed in the Hindu religion, which, from what I understand, holds the [...]

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Segment Your Audience

by Steven M. Smith

Tips for managers who speak to large audiences about change.
1. Know your audience
The members of your audience aren’t like you. They don’t think like you. They don’t act like you. They are a mix of people who have different roles. They like to know that you are aware of them and their role so amplify [...]

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We Know Best

by Steven M. Smith

“We know better than they do about what’s needed.” Whenever you hear an influential member of your team utter those words, fasten your safety belt. The team is nearing the Twilight Zone.
The person saying, “We know better than they do about what’s needed,” is referring to the customer.
When decision-makers say “We don’t have time for [...]

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Saying No

by Steven M. Smith

One week before the application you have been working on is to be delivered, your client asks you to make a small change to a drop down menu. He knows there isn’t time to process the change through change management so he asks you to bypass it. You try to reason with him that a [...]

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Short-Circuit Chaos?

by Steven M. Smith

Managers who like to be in control have a predictable reaction to their organization grappling with a change which creates chaos — they want it to stop. When? Now, right now.
What happens if management decides to short-circuit chaos with a magical solution? What happens if management accepts chaos as a necessary but uncomfortable period of [...]

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Waiting For People Who Arrive Late

by Steven M. Smith

What does it say about the participants of a weekly meeting when the meeting consistently starts 5-10 minutes behind schedule?
Answer, the participants are cooperating with each other to start late.
Starting late is the status quo.
Let’s explore:

Are you cooperating with the participants of your meetings to start late?
How do you feel about that?
How do you feel [...]

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Make Results Predictable

by Steven M. Smith

Your organization is in chaos. You want to create pockets of stability. What do you do?
Make the results of meetings predictable.
Winfrey is the manager of a geographically dispersed software development team at the XYZ Corp. Ellsworth, her manager, assigns Winfrey the management responsibility of hosting a biweekly training conference call. The objective is to keep [...]

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The Satir Change Model

by Steven M. Smith

Every organization must deal with change. Virginia Satir, a pioneering family therapist, created a change model to help families process change. Her model fits organizations equally well. This article explains Satir’s model and offers insights into how to more effectively manage the change process.

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