Blog
Free content for food for thought. Read our latest blog articles, we have a lot to say.
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Articles
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June14
2021
ProCulture: Transforming culture in organisations, elevating Change Management.
Change is never easy. You only make it happen if you make it stick. And that is the hard part of Change Management. There are many reasons why change initiatives fail to deliver lasting results. Think of change fatigue, a lack of change capabilities or insufficient input from frontline employees[1]. Coming top of the list, those are major roadblocks along the change journey. Yet, the key to long-term success has a lot to see with our surroundings and the way we do things “here and now”: culture. A whopping 84% of the respondents to a large-scale survey led by the Katzenbach Center said that culture is critical to business success – and to Change Management, for that matter. But less than half thought that culture was effectively managed. Clearly, people are aware of the importance of culture. So why is it so painfully obvious that organisations overlook culture, or ...
Written by
Renaud de Lombaert -
June07
2021
"Aryan is a Moron – Aryan is Indian".
“He never delivers what we have agreed on, his polite acceptance is false, and I do not trust him. And now his colleague Brinda missed a deadline. It seems that Indian people are difficult to work with.” One of the major tripwires of intercultural collaboration is the risk of drawing conclusions where none should be drawn. To detect patterns where there are no correlations. And such biases are indeed counterproductive for both working relationship and business success. Despite the difficulties of collaborating across border, we really want to do just that. Because an intercultural workforce is an undeniable business advantage. The correlation between diversity and financial results are proven again and again. According to a study by Boston Consulting Group, diversity improves the bottom line with up to 19%. McKinsey has shown that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely ...
Written by
Anna Balk-Møller -
May25
2021
Driving Enterprise Change Management: how Volvo Trucks did it, how you can do it.
Some organisations are more responsive, more agile, more resilient. They thrive in VUCA environments (Volatile, Uncertainty, Complex, Ambiguous). And they keep thriving in times of crisis. Change is part of their DNA. But none of them got there by chance. Building enterprise-wide change management capability takes structured and intentional efforts. This is a battle that is fought on many different fronts, from developing leadership competencies to establishing robust change sponsorship to streamlining CM processes. The case of Volvo Trucks shows what it really takes. A journey Volvo Trucks and NEXUM embarked on two years ago and that was accelerated by PROSCI’s Strategic Alignment Workshop. Let’s discuss ECM, how to go about it, how Volvo Trucks did it … and what it can do for you. Enterprise Change Management (ECM), in a nutshell ECM makes Change Management the norm. ECM refers to “the systematic deployment of Change ...
Written by
Peter Harbo Clausen -
May11
2021
Your path to a successful change: Introducing ADKAR Blueprint.
Organisations don’t change. People do. You may have heard it a thousand times, yet the people side of change is often overlooked. Designing, developing, and delivering the technical solution syphons off most available resources, leaving adoption and usage to chance – a sure formula for failure. Part of the problem is the common misconception that we cannot solve human challenges using structured approaches so easily. And when everything looks fuzzy, nothing gets done. 20 years of research into what makes change happen – and makes it successful – has led our partner PROSCI to design the ADKAR model. Regardless of whether you are familiar with ADKAR, this post gives you the ultimate “Blueprint” for structuring your change … and making it stick. ADKAR: What true and lasting change is made of 5 letters, 5 steps, 5 building blocks. In ADKAR’s model, the change process looks ...
Written by
Morten Kamp Andersen -
April19
2021
What to do when change sponsors lack time and resources.
Sponsors can make or break your change. As a Change Manager, you know all that too well. As a Project Manager, you may wonder why a given initiative is going - or has gone - haywire. Research shows that sponsorship is the number one indicator of a project long-term success. It is thus absolutely vital to understand sponsorship challenges, starting the most commonly cited: the lack of time and dedicated resources. Drawing on insights from our partner PROSCI, this post tells you all you need to know to mitigate the impact and keep your project on track. 4 things that happen when sponsors lack time and/or resources Expect the project to stagger or be brought to a standstill. Overall, the project “slows and stalls”. After all, people mirror the behaviour of their leaders. Good sponsors lead by example, are active and visible throughout the project and communicate ...
Written by
Vincent Piedboeuf -
April12
2021
How to make a good leader extraordinary? Cross-training is the key.
Strengths-based leadership development is an innovative approach to effective leadership development. Unlike traditional leader development programs which places focus on the improvement of weaknesses, we advocate an approach that strengthens existing competencies within a leader. In our blog 19 Competencies that Differentiate the Best Leaders from the Worst, we presented the evidence behind the strengths-based approach to leadership development as well as the 19 differentiating competencies, that separate the 10% best leaders from the 10% worst. So how do you move from good to extraordinary? The strengths-based method demands an alternative approach compared to the traditional focus on weaknesses. Going from 8 to 10 on a ten-point scale takes a different mindset, approach and form of training than what is needed to go from 2 to 4. We call that cross-training. Running as a real-life example of the need for cross-training To grasp the concept of cross-training, ...
Written by
Morten Kamp Andersen -
April09
2021
19 Competencies that Differentiate the Best Leaders from the Worst.
Effective leaders make a huge difference. Their efforts are reflected directly in employee engagement, customer satisfaction, profits, and the list continues. Hence, organisations that want to rank the best need to have the best and most effective leaders at all levels. We term such leaders as extraordinary. But how do you go from good to extraordinary? In this article, we will introduce the Strengths-based approach to Leadership Development as well as the evidence behind it. But most importantly, we will help you identify which competencies are worth developing. Here's why you should focus your energy on developing your strengths If we look at the evidence for the effectiveness of leader development, we can clearly see that the development of a strength is the most effective approach towards leader development (see Figure 1). In a study conducted by Zenger & Folkman (2020), leaders were divided into two groups: ...
Written by
Morten Kamp Andersen -
April06
2021
Why and how to develop a leader from good to extraordinary?
Managing change is the highest expression of leadership, according to Zenger and Folkman. I other words, there will be no successful change without great leaders, whatever the change is. When we consider the impact of top executives and managers, at every level on an organisation, in driving change successfully, we can easily adhere to the idea that leadership development is a strategic imperative for any organisation. Because research of 1, 600, 000 feedback assessments correlating to approximately 135, 000 managers’ performance metrics demonstrate how crucial the influence of leaders on employee engagement is, independently from the type of business of their company. Ultimately better leadership generates better business outcomes, higher revenue and profitability. But what is a good leader, and how can any leader develop his leadership capacity? The first good news is that great leaders are not just born with this capacity. It ...
Written by
Morten Kamp Andersen -
March03
2021
The ultimate Checklist to Agile for Change Managers.
Change Managers, change in Agile starts with you! In Agile, Change Management looks and feels completely different to the traditional practices of CM. You cannot afford to do things the way you normally would. Get ready to develop new skills and a brand-new mindset. Prepare to adjust to the frantic pace of Agile. But don’t worry, we know that this is right up your alley. And to help you fast track your efforts, here is the ultimate checklist of recommendations, based on PROSCI’s insights. Before you start, hear what other Change Managers have to say There nothing like listening to old “veterans” to get things right from the start. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. So, let’s first take stock of the main challenges of adapting CM to Agile - four classics that encapsulate Change Managers’ experiences worldwide: Know that CM has to become ...
Written by
Morten Kamp Andersen