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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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May04
2017
Change Management - Foundations (III)
Today’s organizations are likely to be exposed to several cross-functional changes over a very short period of time. You may even have grown familiar with this type of situation. But just how much do you know about Change Management in action? There are many existing approaches to dealing with change. Each stresses on a different aspect of the art of managing in uncertain times, usually overemphasizing one level of change (either individual or project-level activities) over another. PROSCI’s method comprehensively connects the dots by “leveraging change management activities to drive individual transitions”. It is not just an emergency kit in the face of urgent changes but a fully structured method that allows for skills transfers across projects and situations. User-friendly and holistic, PROSCI offers a complete set of processes, tools and research-based assessments that project leaders and business managers can apply to specific projects while diffusing internal CM ...
Written by
Luc De Jaeger -
April18
2017
Change Management - Foundations (II)
Organizations do not change, people do. Change cannot be prescribed on the basis of a new organigram, a new digital strategy or the acquisition of a company. Likewise, no change will ever happen just because it is scheduled for completion at a certain date. Change is not an event. It is a multiphase and multilevel process. Simply put, it requires actions specifically tailored to a given audience at a given time. Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, among others, have long understood what Change Management is. In these countries, a career path in CM leading to the position of Change Management Officer or member of the Executive Committee is entirely possible. Anyone who needs convincing of this has only to take a quick look at LinkedIn. Latin cultures such as ours in Belgium, France, Spain, are clearly lagging behind. In these cultures, Project Management and Change Management have been conflated. And in ...
Written by
Vincent Halluent -
March28
2017
Change Management - Foundations (I)
Like it or not, we live in a very fast-changing world. Factors driving organizational changes can be either external or internal. High volatility and rapid fluctuation are powerful market trends in a context of digitalization and uberization. Organizations are striving not only to adapt but also to improve performance and maximize customer value. Doing more with less has been the motto for the last years, one that comes with substantial challenges as it puts additional strain on collaborators. Stepping into the unknown and getting everyone on board is not an easy task. Uncertainty breeds anxiety and resistance. Left unanswered, this issue translates into even more risks and costs. Resistance is often cited as one of the top obstacles to project success. A compelling message clearly stating the reasons why the organization has to change may pave the way to success. Storytelling is part of the journey. Crafting a ...
Written by
Luc De Jaeger -
March01
2017
The art of managing in uncertain times.
“We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.” Stephen Elop, former Nokia CEO, after Microsoft acquired Nokia. If you have ever been responsible for implementing changes, this will certainly resonate with you. Dealing with uncertainty usually involves assessing operational and financial risks - to name but a few. These analyses assist the decision-making process and help reduce uncertainty-related anxiety. But who, in today’s world, can reasonably claim to be able to measure the risks of a financial crisis? Who can measure business operational risks linked to terrorist attacks? Uncertainty produces anxiety and anxiety breeds resistance. The higher the level of uncertainty, the more likely resistances will block any type of transformational effort. As a result, leaders struggle with the tension between the desire to drive change and the risk of alienating people. There is no getting away from this age-old issue. According to a research gathering ...
Written by
Vincent Halluent -
January17
2017
Dealing with change saturation
Dealing with change saturation: people come first. We have all been there. Urgent calls to make changes lead to multiple programs running alongside and dozens of deriving projects piling upon each other. Charting roles and responsibilities turns into a messy process, producing even messier results. Any new initiative pushes previous projects aside. Some get stuck, others simply fall into oblivion. All in all, this casts a shadow on the company’s commitment to effectively implement new changes. Team members develop a wait-and-see attitude and before they even know it, leaders find themselves facing even more trouble: insufficient returns on investment paired with increasing delay. Needless to say, repeated situations of the sort create a poor track record which makes any new transformation more difficult to deal with. Turbulent and exciting in equal parts, the new era we have entered calls for resilient and adaptive organizations. Fear not. With a clear ...
Written by
Vincent Halluent -
March30
2016
Four tips for building Organizational Change Capability
Building change capability takes more than “want to” or an executive decree. Building change capability takes structure and intent. The risk is that we, as a community, get enamored with the concept of change agility, but we do not do what it takes to actually build it. Building a core competency in change is a transformation for many organizations. It is fundamentally altering how changes are managed and executed. Below are four key tips for building organizational agility, derived from some of the most critical mistakes research participants have seen in organizations that get excited about change capability but come up short when the time comes to truly change how they change. With these tips (and the associated mistakes) on your radar, you will be in a better position to transform how change happens in your organization. 1. SECURE ADEQUATE AND EFFECTIVE SPONSORSHIP In all ...
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March21
2016
Organizational agility as a strategic imperative
We are living in a time of great change. Bigger change. Faster change. More complex change. More cross-functional change. More multi-disciplinary change. At the same time, we are more connected and processing more information than we ever have had in the past. To be successful in this environment of rapid, concurrent and never-ending change, organizations must grow their change agility not just to thrive, but to survive. In fact, senior leaders are starting to acknowledge how important agility is to their success. In a PwC survey of 1150 CEOs, 76% said that their ability to adapt to change will be a key source of competitive advantage in the future. A study by McKinsey found that 9 out of 10 executives said organizational agility was critical to business success and growing in importance over time. And the Project Management Institute's Organizational Agility Report introduced the following equation: greater organizational agility = better ...
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February26
2016
Gestion de la performance : entre leadership et outils de mesure
De nouvelles formes de leadership "Dans un monde où tout est complexe, chaotique, on demande aux dirigeants d'avoir une vision et de prendre les bonnes décisions. Or, notre monde est fait d'incertitudes" a débuté Luc de Jaeger, Founding Partner de la société Nexum Luxembourg. Le paradoxe est alors on ne peut plus clair. Pour trouver la solution, les leaders de demain doivent avant tout gérer et accepter cette incertitude, qui est désormais la norme. La deuxième étape serait alors de connaitre ses peurs…puis prendre conscience que l'on peut déplacer les limites de celles-ci. Dans les situations que nous connaissons actuellement, le leader doit alors donner confiance et transmettre une envie d'oser. Pour cela, il doit "se construire une image en étant transparent, honnête et bienveillant, et même partager ses vulnérabilités" souligne Luc de Jaeger avant de poursuivre : "Pour être crédible dans un monde complexe, il devra faire la part belle à l’expérimentation, ...
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February22
2016
Développez l’agilité dans vos transformations
En tant que partenaire officiel de Prosci et avec la collaboration de la Bourse de Luxembourg, Nexum organise, ce jeudi 25 février, un petit déjeuner-conférence qui se tiendra de 8h à 11h à l’établissement Namur à Hamm. Pierre Schoonbroodt, Chief Financial Officer, nous expliquera comment la Bourse de Luxembourg et sa filiale Fundsquare ont relevé les défis d'une transformation stratégique organisationnelle. Julien Renkin, en charge des équipes projets chez Fundsquare, partagera son expérience de la certification Prosci en conduite du changement. Luc de Jaeger, Associé Fondateur de Nexum, nous présentera en quoi l’agilité peut vous aider à conduire vos transformations efficacement.