New articles and Products from Change Designs

Roles in change management.

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:00:00 GMT

This article describes the three major roles played in change management.

To get the support they need, each role player in change management needs to play a role which is appropriate to his/her level of skill, political power, and the

When change managers or change agents don't get the support they need, it is often a problem with change management roles.

This article highlights the different roles played in change management:

The role of the leader of a change management department.
The role of a change manager or consultant.
The role of a change agent.

It also shows some of the common problems organizations have with roles in change management.

It also provides links to detailed job profiles of a change agent, change manager or consultant and change leader in the member zone.

Go to article on roles in change management.

Qualitative measures.

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 22:00:00 GMT

How to measure the soft side of an organization.

Anyone involved in change management, strategy implementation, leadership, training, organizational development and managing talent will talk about how difficult it is to find suitable qualitative measures for what they do.

Many leaders use activities to measure the soft aspects in an organization. Some try to put numbers to activities such as :

The number of road shows delivered by the CEO.
The number of workshops given to employees to change a culture.

But these measures don't feel right. Just because a CEO has done a road show or employees have attended a workshop, doesn't mean that employees will now do what is expected of them under a new strategy.

This article shows how measuring impact rather than activities solves the problem of measuring qualitative work.

Go to the article on Qualitative measures...

Change management dashboard - expert system

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:00:00 GMT

A visual change management dashboard.

Assess the effectiveness of the current state of change management on a project and get advice on what you still need to do to ensure success quickly and easily with our expert system.

Unlike other change management dashboards that tick off the activities done by change managers on a project, this change management dashboard measures the impact of change management on the key stakeholders of a change.

You can use this powerful change management dashboard to rate yourself as a change manager. You can also use this dashboard as part your project meetings to assess progress on the people side of a project. By getting the project manager, change manager, a sponsor, middle manager and change agent to complete the dashboard together, you will discuss the differences in how you rate different statements.This will help you all to improve the way you support one another on the project.

The statements in this change management dashboard are drawn from the best and worst practices of change management in projects.

New member tool: New CEO speech. How to prepare your first speech to your management team.

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:00:00 GMT

One of your first tasks as a new CEO, is to gain the trust of your management team. You need to let your team know what you expect from them, and what they can expect from you.

Why a new CEO needs to clarify expectations.

As a new CEO, you may have been appointed by a board of directors, to turn around an organization. To do this, you need the support of your management team. This team is used to working with the previous CEO, who may be different to you.

As a new CEO, you need to let your management team know what you expect from them, and what they can expect from you.

The easiest way to do this, is to deliver a carefully crafted speech in your first meeting with your management team.

Some of the team members may have flourished under the previous CEO, and may be filled with apprehension about your appointment. Other members of the team may have suffered under the leadership of the previous CEO, and may be looking forward to working with someone with a different leadership style. All of your team members are wondering:

Who are you?
What do you expect from them?
What are you intending to change? How this will affect them and their careers?
What can they expect from you?

If you fail to answer these questions during your first meeting with your team, they will try to figure out your expectations themselves.

They will interpret your intentions from your actions, your lack of actions or your body language.

They will waste a great amount of time trying to 'work you out' as they interpret or misinterpret your motives from what you do or say. They will then spend even more time comparing what they think you are about, with other members of the team.

This step by step practical guide for new CEO's or leaders will help you write a powerful speach to present at your first meeting with your management team. A speech that will help you to:

Build trust with your team.
Clarify expectations. Set the tone for a new era under your leadership.
Generate support from your team in tackling the challenges you are likely to face during the next few months.

The tool begins by giving you a series of questions to answer. As you answer these questions you will develop the content you need for your speech. You will clarify for yourself:

What you need to say to win the team's support.
The specific challenges you and your team face.
The behaviours you expect from your team.
What you won't tolerate from your team.
What your team can expect from you.

The member tool then shows you how to shape the information you gave in your answers, into a powerful structured speech.

As a new CEO or leader, first impressions with your management team count.

Make sure your first speech to your management team sets the tone you want as leader.

You will need to be logged in as a member to view this tool. If you are already a member, begin developing your speech as a new CEO.
Or click here to buy a quick membership.

New member tool: Centre of Excellence discussion groups.

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:00:00 GMT

A series of discussion groups for Change Designs members to network with other Change Designs members.

This network is only open to Change Designs members. So you know that the people you are sharing ideas with, or learning from, value the same things you do. Practical ideas and tools, and practical experience.

The idea behind the network is that when you have a difficult situation, challenging goal, problem or question you want to pose to the Change Designs Centre of Excellence, you can post it in the relevant discussion group. Or comment on another member's post.

We have divided the Change Designs Centre of Excellence Network into a number of discussion groups around the following areas:

Change Management and Organizational Development.

Strategic Planning.
Facilitation.
Innovation.
High performance teams.
Personal productivity and development.

Use this forum to share success stories, positive experiences, best practices or something you've learned with other Change Designs members.

How to access this feature.

You will need to be logged in as a member to use the Center of Excellence network. If you are already a member, log in. Then from the member menu, choose the Centre of Excellence Discussion Groups.
Or click here to buy a quick membership.

Member tool. How to assess change and OD competencies.

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:00:00 GMT

How do you assess the level of change management or organizational development competence you need for managing change in your particular organization?

I am often asked for a general template that heads of change management and OD departments can use to assess, grade and develop skills within their teams. Leaders also use competencies as a way of choosing the roles that a person is best able to play. e.g. change champion, change manager, or part of a center of excellence.

In developing change agents, sometimes we take people with the least amount of power, experience, and skills and throw them into extremely complex situations, with the minimum amount of support. Then we wonder why they fail.

This member tool provides a clear way of assessing change management and organizational development competencies using a combination of rational, emotional and spiritual intelligence. (IQ, EQ and SQ).

In developing a table of possible competencies, we recognise that every organization is different. Because the mix of culture, leadership styles and challenges are unique to each organization, so the competences required to manage change will differ from organization to organization. This will therefore affect the roles played by change agents, and the skills they will need to perform their roles.

Use the tables in this member tool to analyze the competencies you will need under head, heart and soul to manage change or implement organizational development strategies in your particular organization.

You will need to be logged in as a member to view this tool. If you are already a member, use the member tool:

Organizational change and development. How to assess the competence your organization needs.
Or click here to buy a quick membership.

Member tool: Questions to ask a project manager before you develop a change management strategy

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:00:00 GMT

The first step in developing a change management strategy for a project, is to get a comprehensive briefing from the project manager.

If you are a change manager, a change management consultant, a change agent, or are involved in developing a strategy to manage the people side of a project, then use these practical questions during your briefing session with the project manager.

How to access this tool.

You will need to be logged in as a member to view this tool. If you are already a member, use the member tool: Change management questions
Or click here to buy a quick membership.

Celebrating failure. By Colette Symanowitz

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Celebrating failure

What lessons can we learn from successful writers, entrepreneurs and innovators? In this inspiring blog post Colette Symanowitz describes how failure is part of the journey to success.

This blog post will inspire anyone who is struggling to achieve something great. Something that requires perseverance and resiliance.

New blog post. Barefoot running- the reward

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:00:00 GMT

I've always had a belief that if you keep doing the right things, for long enough, the rewards will come. What are the right things to do that result in success - for running or for any personal or organizational change?

Blog post: Creating magical moments in a team.

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Creating magical moments in a team

As a facilitator or leader, how often do you get to experience a 'magical moment' with your team?

And what do you do, to create a space that encourages magical moments in your meetings, events or workshops?

Sometimes as facilitators or leaders, we and our teams get to experience something very rare and special. A moment when the team feels powerful, full of energy and truly alive. A moment when we are all inspired by a goal, and obstacles are fascinating puzzles to be solved. A moment when we feel connected in our creativity. A moment when we achieve what we set out to achieve and celebrate our success. I call this a magical moment. As a facilitator, I like to collect magical moments for my memory bank.

Magical moments don't appear in every group session. Like shy children, they avoid formalised, structured adult environments. But magical moments creep in when the leader or facilitator has created an environment in which a group feels:

Member tool: How to write a strategic plan - for CEOs and strategists

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 22:00:00 GMT

How to write a strategic plan. For CEOs and strategists.

How to write a strategic plan for a board of directors, a parent company or a funder.

Developing and presenting a strategic plan is considered one the most important responsibilities of a CEO, a Managing Director or the company strategist, because based on this document the CEO will either gain or lose the support and funding he needs to achieve his plan.

This member tool is not a simplistic one page strategic planning template. Rather this guide is designed to help a CEO or Managing Director to write a comprehensive strategic plan. A strategic plan that you can present with confidence to a board of directors, a parent company, a major shareholder or an external funder.

It shows the full content of a powerful strategic planning document, and describes what to write under each section. Sections include:

Introduction.
Stakeholder analyses.
Trend analyses.
Opportunities.
Scenarios.
KSF.
Competitor analyses
Internal analyses...

How to access this tool.

You will need to be logged in as a member to view this tool. If you are already a member, use the member tool: How to write a strategic plan.
Or click here to buy a quick membership.

Easy article finder. Leadership & management articles

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Articles on leadership and management Looking for leadership & management articles around a particular topic? Here is an easy way to find an article on a topic you are interested in.

An overview of all the articles on the Change Designs web portal is presented on a visual pin board.

You can filter articles by topics such as strategy, change & leadership, innovation, organization, team, me, case studies and member tools. You can also search and highlight key words in each article.

Use our easy article finder to find what you are looking for - quickly.

New blog: The best of both worlds.

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Digital and physical world of work

We are living in two different worlds. With all the different media available to us, how do we choose the best way to connect with others. How do we know when to use digital media, and when to use a personal touch?

About 2 years ago, my business partner bluntly told me that it was time I changed my paradigm. I had to understand that people are mobile. They want to be able to get things when they want, where they want, on whatever device they are using, and at a very cheap price. So, as a business, we had to start creating products and services for this new mobile world. For someone who was successful in a physical world, this new world didn't make business sense.

Then I bought an iPhone and entered the digital world. I soon became a convert. This is why:

Strategy implementation case study

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:00:00 GMT

A case study of a strategy implementation intervention for a CEO, and his executive and management teams.

The CEO was disappointed. He had spent months with his executive team developing a new organizational strategy. He'd then spent weeks flying around the country on a road show to communicate the new strategy. He'd set up a number of projects to implement the strategy. Strategic objectives were put into each of is executives balanced score cards. But now, since months later, he felt quite frustrated. He realised that he alone was driving the strategy.

This case study describes a two-day intervention which was designed to get the executive and management teams to develop a detailed, yet coordinated implementation plan. One that they would drive together.

OD Interventions case study: An employee morale problem

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 22:00:00 GMT

A case study of an OD intervention used to solve an employee morale problem.

I was called into a hospital by their HR manager. The hospital needed to improve morale amongst its nurses. But what started off as a morale problem, became more complex as I spoke to different stakeholders. The client wanted to solve the problem in a one day workshop for their managers. This case study provides details about:

The organizational problem
The thinking behind the design of the OD intervention.
The constraints I needed to work within.
The tools I used during the workshop.
The workshop design.
How I used a systems thinking tool called The Change Puzzle to achieve multiple benefits quickly.
What came out.