PLAY is Serious Business!
It’s vacation season and hopefully you’re getting some well-deserved rest and relaxation. On vacation it’s easy to switch into play mode – chillax, unwind, and have fun. But what about at work? Doesn’t seem to evoke those same ways of being. Especially for those of us in the trenches charged with the demanding task of […]
Change Your Language, Change Your Life
The holiday season can be filled with joy and happiness – and it can also be brimming with overwhelm and obligation. The year-end can be experienced with a sense of well-deserved peace and closure – or regret or resignation about goals not accomplished. We can sometimes even feel all these emotions at the same time! […]
Voting for Change? Elect the Right Rewards!
Observing the current U.S. presidential campaign has me thinking about Steven Kerr’s classic article, On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B, which many have summarized as “it’s the reward system, stupid!” In the article Kerr provides examples of reward systems spanning from politics to sports to organizational life “that are fouled up in […]
Join Me in Congratulating the First 500 CCMP Graduates! – September 2016
Here’s a hearty CONGRATS to the first 500 Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP) graduates! Your accomplishment is hugely important for our field of Change Management, its practitioners worldwide, and the organizations we serve. Thank you for leading the way and doing all the hard work to achieve the CCMP credential. Why is the CCMP relevant? As […]
How Can Changing Your Mindset Help You Lead Change? – July 2016
As William James observed about the budding field of psychology over a century ago, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” In this century, thanks to the work of Carol Dweck, we know that by changing how we think, we can change whether we succeed. And as Change Leaders, whether […]
Leading Change when Lives are on the Line: Lessons from Dallas Police Chief David Brown – June 2016
“In one of the toughest jobs imaginable – police chief of a major city – during one of that city’s greatest crises ever, David Brown has provided a textbook lesson in leadership. Calm and cool, resolute and steely-eyed, candid and courageous and humble and compassionate, Dallas’ top cop has been pitch-perfect in handling an outrageously […]
3 Tactics to Overcome Leadership Blind Spots – May 2016
Image you are driving down the road in your car, and you start to change lanes. Suddenly you hear a loud “honk,” see another car in the lane you are turning into, and need to quickly swerve to avoid an accident. What happened? You didn’t notice the other car, because it was in your blind […]
Quit HORSING Around – Lead Change Now!- February 2016
I’m always excited to learn how people are applying Change Intelligence in their lives and organizations to make a positive difference, and I get a special thrill when a CQ Certification Program graduate creates an innovative and impactful way to bring CQ to their clients and workplaces. One particularly compelling example is Gerri Steadman, executive coach […]
Why I am Optimistic for 2016 – December 2015
Watch the news and it’s easy to be cynical – wars, crime, disease, natural disasters. And yet, is this the reality of modern life, or the interpretation of it that’s reported? Considering violence, as Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker notes, “things really are getting better…..headlines are a poor guide to history. People’s sense of danger is warped by the […]
How Does an Engaged Work Culture Thrive for 25 Years? – September 2015
How Does an Engaged Work Culture Thrive for 25 Years? Twenty-five years ago the ground broke in a cornfield in Indiana for an innovative new type of steel mill. Nippon Steel of Japan and Inland Steel of the U.S. partnered with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) to construct I/N Tek and I/N Kote. The […]