Phil is joined by communication and corporate affairs leader Saira Absar to discuss responding to praise during change. Change initiatives can be gruelling and can feel like a succession of uphill battles characterized by tight deadlines, difficult challenges, stretched capabilities, and long hours. Giving and receiving recognition energizes individuals and teams and builds momentum to tackle the next tasks and activities. There is a lot of advice on how to acknowledge people’s efforts but littl...
Oct 16, 2022•30 min
Phil is joined by change and business transformation expert Cathy Brown to discuss negotiating deadlines during change. Setting realistic project timelines requires a thorough understanding of the change and the context in which it is being made. The level of change complexity, resource availability, and operating environment are inputs into creating a fact-based calendar for the timing of deliverables. Negotiating deadlines requires aligning leader and project team expectations with your assess...
Sep 25, 2022•33 min
Phil is joined by change capability development and change execution expert Michelle Yanahan to discuss handling mistakes during change. Mistakes are inevitable when managing change. There are too many moving pieces on different schedules, and run by different people to avoid missteps. Given the stress that major change initiatives inevitably produce, people can default to responses that deflect ownership, compromise resolution, and obscure learning when something goes wrong. This behavior often...
Sep 04, 2022•31 min
Phil is joined by senior engineering and organization change management professional Denis Kelly to discuss competing for resources. Securing adequate resources to implement your plan is one of the most important negotiations impacting your success. Most companies take on larger change agendas than the resources available to implement them. This can lead to insufficient or misaligned resources supporting your change initiative. A large portfolio of change projects can also limit the capacity of ...
Aug 14, 2022•30 min
Phil is joined by business transformation and change management leader Jennifer Rhodes to discuss reporting against a timeline. At the center of every change initiative is a project plan that maps the activities and tasks required to transition people from current to new ways of working. It functions as a work back schedule from the post-launch support to the project kickoff. Teams supporting a change spend significant time reporting against the timeline. Being “ahead of” or “on plan” is the goa...
Jul 25, 2022•33 min
Phil is joined by executive and change leader Stephen Sotto to discuss defining change support. Preparation activities are key enablers of change readiness and adoption. The options are many, including, training, coaching, ways of working sessions, job aids, and simulations. The types and amounts of support need to be appropriate for people’s needs and circumstances. It's a fine balance between too much and too little change assistance. If you provide too much, people get stressed and may choose...
Jul 03, 2022•30 min
Phil is joined by Professor of Organizational Behaviour Dr. Jamie Gruman to discuss overcoming a blocker during change. Blockers are people who raise barriers to organizational change and your success. They either oppose what you are doing or want it done differently. This form of resistance is challenging because it is intentional and leverages the blocker’s influence through authority, relationships, and organization knowledge. Inaction is not a good option because the barriers will remain, an...
Jun 12, 2022•31 min
Phil is joined by change and innovation leader Tim Creasey to discuss how to close a change project. A project team’s effectiveness in transferring responsibilities to operating groups often dictates the level of long-term adoption of new ways of working. Managing the closing of a change project can be challenging because most leaders and project team members may have physically or mentally moved on to their next roles and challenges. Building awareness of the importance of the project's final s...
May 22, 2022•31 min
Phil is joined by HR and change management expert Kathy Repa to discuss how to identify your lessons learned during change. Understanding how our experiences impact outcomes helps build change capacity and skill, and dramatically improves organizational knowledge on how projects work within our cultures. So, how do identify, record and learn from your experiences during a large change initiative? Kathy can be reached at: Email: kathy.shanley@yahoo.com EPISODE TRANSCRIPT PHIL: Hello everyone, wel...
May 01, 2022•31 min
Phil is joined by board member, breakthrough consultant and executive and team coach Stephanie Wilkes to discuss how to make decisions during change. Most transformation post-mortems uncover decisions that led to success or failure. Facts, options, assessment criteria, available time and risk all play roles in the decisions made and the ability to implement them. During large change initiatives, decisions are often made quickly in response to new conditions or information. They require focus, pr...
Apr 10, 2022•32 min
Phil is joined by CFO/COO and change leader Matt Lloyd to discuss how to reward team members during change. People have a need to be recognized for work that is meaningful and is necessary for success. From recognition to gifts, rewards play an important role in maintaining morale, focus, and performance. They acknowledge people’s hard work and give them confidence in their future contributions. Rewards also shape team members’ perceptions of how they were treated, appreciated, and valued, influ...
Mar 20, 2022•32 min
Phil is joined by change management and not-for-profit leader Laura Oliver to discuss how to respond to adjustments during change. Change initiatives typically involve continual revisions. New information emerges, stakeholder needs shift, and requirements change. Many people dive into accommodating the changes without assessing whether they help or hinder the projects and their success. Conversely, reacting quickly and taking action can be more important than extensively assessing options and de...
Mar 06, 2022•30 min
Phil is joined by change and transformation expert Sarah Smith to discuss how to leverage your existing culture during change. An organization’s culture describes how work gets done. It’s a collection of attitudes, beliefs, practices and behaviours that dictate how people treat each other. It is also a source of strength you can tap into because it’s familiar, deeply rooted and has emotional connections with people. So, how do you leverage your existing culture and its strengths to adopt new way...
Feb 20, 2022•31 min
Phil is joined by change expert Brendon Baker to discuss how to identify and apply project lessons learned. Managing the closing of a change project and capturing learnings is challenging because most leaders and project team members have mentally moved on to their next roles and challenges. A lessons-learned exercise is essential for building change capacity and skill in your organization. It documents which approaches and activities worked and should be repeated by other project teams, and whi...
Feb 06, 2022•30 min
Phil is joined by change management expert Yvonne Thevenot to discuss how to optimize your limited time during change. Most people have fewer resources to fulfill their change role than they need. With full calendars and large to-do lists, they must choose the most important activities to spend their time on. Determining which activities offer the most value is one of the biggest personal and project success factors. So, how do you optimize your time on a change initiative to maximize your contr...
Jan 23, 2022•54 sec
Phil is joined by consultant, speaker, and leadership coach Søren Pedersen to discuss how to measure progress during change. Measuring progress is an essential element of good project management. Consistent updates on progress remind leaders and colleagues of the work being done, the success achieved, and the benefits realized once the change is made. It also identifies areas falling short of the plan that need extra resources. The absence of consistent measurement encourages subjective assessme...
Jan 09, 2022•31 min
Phil is joined by learning and development and business management expert David Donaldson to discuss addressing an emergency during change. Since there are many parts in motion during change, it makes sense that sometimes some of those parts just don’t work. Plans are made with the best available information, and many assumptions are created to fill in the unknowns, especially when time is short. In this environment, emergencies are inevitable. They also are risks that can determine the success ...
Dec 26, 2021•29 min
Phil is joined by business and market development expert David Smyth to discuss how to create a Plan B during change. Most change and transition plans don’t go as intended because there are too many variables to predict. Variances can cause delays, extra costs and compromise credibility, especially if you haven’t thought through responses to organizational shifts. So, how do you create a Plan B to avoid major disruptions from unanticipated events and to increase team agility? David can be reache...
Dec 13, 2021•28 min
Phil is joined by business transformation expert Andrew Freedman to discuss how to avoid team burnout. Burnout is a stress-related state of emotional, physical or mental exhaustion. It occurs when the demands of a job are greater than a person’s ability to manage them. Change projects contain environmental factors that can lead to team burnout, such as long hours, tight deadlines and insufficient resources. So, how do you avoid team burnout during change so that people can be their best within c...
Nov 29, 2021•34 min
Phil is joined by change and innovation leader Tim Creasey to discuss how to measure the success of a change initiative. Measuring success is an important part of setting up and managing a change project because it defines tangible indicators of the benefits realized from the initiative. In a rush to get a project going, it’s easy to miss or gloss over this crucial step, making it difficult to demonstrate progress and achievements throughout and after the project. So, how do you measure success ...
Nov 14, 2021•30 min
Phil is joined by leadership researcher and writer Jennifer V. Miller to discuss how to test a leader’s thinking during change. During large change initiatives, leaders often feel pressure to set a destination and quickly marshal resources to get there. As circumstances change, they must make decisions that may change course, shift priorities, or adjust outcomes. Leaders can get excited by or invested in their ideas and potential solutions before thinking through the implications on timelines, r...
Oct 31, 2021•33 min
Phil is joined by Organizational Effectiveness and Talent leader Kate Georgiades to discuss how to help people let go of the past. All big change initiatives require people to think, act and behave differently. To do so, they must let go of current ways of working that are familiar, comfortable and have contributed to their success. If they don’t, they hold onto what they know, become fearful of what they don’t know, and jeopardize adoption of the change that secures its benefits. So, how do you...
Oct 18, 2021•30 min
Phil is joined by entrepreneurship and productivity key opinion leader Rob Napoli to discuss how to impress leaders during change. One of the benefits of working on a major change initiative is exposure to cross-functional leaders. You get the opportunity to learn from their experience and skills as they solve complex challenges during uncertainty. You also get the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and skills as you contribute to the future of your organization. So, how do you impress le...
Sep 21, 2021•33 min
Phil is joined by organizational and talent development leader Sarah Patterson to discuss making training effective during change. All large change initiatives require people to work differently to achieve the desired results. How they think, act and behave are modified to optimize the benefits of what they are adopting—informing people on what will be different forms the foundation of learning. Once they are clear on what’s new, the team can discuss how these changes will affect how their work ...
Sep 06, 2021•34 min
Phil is joined by communications expert Skot Waldron to discuss building team confidence during change. Large change projects require people to work through uncertainty, and their ability to make progress with insufficient information or experience is a must. Moving forward under these conditions requires confidence that the team is skilled and effective at removing barriers to success. It improves focus and galvanizes resolve to make good decisions around the questions that are critical to a ch...
Aug 22, 2021•34 min
Phil is joined by transformation expert Graham Christie to discuss motivating people to care about a change initiative It’s not surprising that many people view new company initiatives as either more work or irrelevant to their success. Most have too many things to accomplish, given the resources available – time, influence, people and money. Without making a personal connection, the change often represents just more work to do. So, how do you get people to care about a change initiative, so the...
Aug 09, 2021•32 min
Phil is joined by leadership expert Jeffrey Hull to discuss establishing team ways of working. Change initiatives are governed by teams with mandates to scope, plan and implement activities to transition their organization from current to future operations. Getting agreement on how teams will work best together aligns expectations, facilitates relationship building and jumpstarts productivity. Unclear team ground rules can lead to conflicting assumptions, tensions, and minimal progress. So, how ...
Jul 26, 2021•31 min
Phil is joined by Human Resources leader Jennifer Waxman to discuss how to join a team during change. Team membership is dynamic, especially during change. Often we are asked to join new or established groups with little notice. Getting to know all members might seem like a given, yet most people don’t do it. They stay in their comfort zone of people they already know or reach out only as needed. Integrating yourself into a team is a skill worth mastering. The sooner you connect with other membe...
Jul 12, 2021•27 min
Phil is joined by IT leader Jesse Gold to discuss how to tell people what to expect during change. People evaluate how well things are going during change based on their expectations. Setting realistic expectations is critical to the success of a change project. If they aren’t clear, people will make assumptions based on their past experiences or current knowledge and will become disappointed if they aren’t met. So, how do you set people’s expectations, including how they will be impacted, what ...
Jun 28, 2021•33 min
Phil is joined by change and innovation leader Tim Creasey to discuss how to engage leaders during change. Leaders have the greatest influence on the success of a change initiative, and without their full support, a project has little chance of succeeding. A leader's lack of visible commitment, reluctance to adopt new behaviours or poor attendance at project review meetings will result in similar actions from their teams. Conversely, an aligned, energized, and fully supportive leader will motiva...
Jun 14, 2021•31 min
