http://handspring.com.au Business and organisational change Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:15:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Have you found yourself dealing with the fallout of change? It’s one of the hardest parts of leadership...recognising the need to change and taking the necessary actions and then dealing with the fallout - the shock, denial, anger, and fear that often follow a big change announcement. It’s time consuming ... http://handspring.com.au/ouch-does-change-have-to-hurt/ I spend a lot of time acting as the change ‘expert’ for people and organisations. Yet when my own change program started to go wrong, I learned a few new things about professional mastery. Maybe you have been there? You are working on something you care about. You think it is ... http://handspring.com.au/confessions-of-a-change-manager/ “Removing bugs from the system only works to preserve the system” That’s what Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey say in their book, How the way we talk can change the way we work*. But what if our goal is to actually change ‘the system’ - our patterns of thought? The tool that ... http://handspring.com.au/overcoming-your-immunity-to-change/ My muscles ache, I am short of breath, and my shirt is soaked with perspiration. No, I am not having a heart attack, it’s just my squash night. But as I sit on the bench recovering from my game, I am not thinking about my aches and pains, I am thinking ... http://handspring.com.au/leadership-lessons-from-the-squash-court/ Negativity, protectionism, and defensiveness - all barriers to organisational change, right?  Or are they? Those 'heated' moments and conversations in our work (and personal) lives are often the places we avoid.  As managers, we ignore them, or change the topic, or take it 'off line'.  But the reality is that these ... http://handspring.com.au/working-with-conflict-when-its-time-to-stir-the-pot/ The leader arrives late; there is no agenda; people aren’t sure why they are there; everyone is talking about their own pet issue and no one is listening to each other.  Sound familiar?  This is how it was when I attended my first meeting of 2011.  And, I suspect you’ve ... http://handspring.com.au/meeting-etiquette-hows-your-form/ It is often at the point of 'go-live' where IT change actually fails.  The project team is tired (and often over budget).   They start to plan the celebration party and think about their next project or much-needed holiday.  But, don't celebrate just yet.  The users are only just starting to use ... http://handspring.com.au/it-change-lesson-3-dont-celebrate-too-early/ Slow response, unclear terminology, and functional gaps - these are common constraints that introduce resistance to new technology. And why not? We all have limited time to learn new things while trying to get our jobs done. When technology feels constraining, rather than empowering, people tend to ... http://handspring.com.au/it-change-lesson-2-support-creative-problem-solving/ Goals—those internal ideas people hold that drive their actions. Everyone in your project has them...developers, designers, project managers, users, and leaders.  The challenge is getting all of these goals to line up in a way that gets everyone focused on the same ones at the same time. In technology implementations, we often get caught up ... http://handspring.com.au/it-change-lesson-1-align-your-goals/ The software is selected, the hardware is installed and the training has been delivered.   Yet 70% of IT change projects never achieve desired results.  Worse, there is a general lack of agreement on how and why technology succeeds and fails in organizations, Earlier this year I undertook a research project ... http://handspring.com.au/it-change-improving-your-odds/