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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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January14
2020
Change Management & Agile Series: Exploring Common Values and Principles.
You are all familiar, at least to some extent, with “Agile”. Iterative development methods have been around for almost four decades. The Agile Manifesto itself was formalised at the turn of the millennium. Originally targeting software development, Agile has grown to become a discipline in its own right, based on a set of values and principles. But how does it articulate with Change Management, the discipline that seeks to maximise adoption and usage of change(s)? Agile clearly finds an echo in Change Management through common values and symmetrical principles. This certainly enables Change management to be an effective method to move to Agile or navigate Agile projects. In fact, we could say that the two disciplines are coextensive, delivering increased value where they intersect. This series of 6 articles offers an in-depth exploration of the intersection between Agile and Change management, down to the nuts and bolts of how to ...
Written by
Vincent PIEDBOEUF -
January13
2020
Do you master the 5 key roles of managers during a change?
Good leadership is the alpha omega during an organizational change. In a study from 2016, 575 change leaders pointed to Leadership Involvement as either “extremely important” or “very important” to the success of their projects. Figur 1: Prosci Best Practices in Change Management 2018 Edition But how can it be that a single group is so important to the success you experience with change? This is due their position as the closest link to employees. Employees go to their managers with questions, uncertainty or confusion during a change. The employees also often adjust their reaction to the change and form their own opinion based on the manager’s attitude. The 5 key roles of a manager during a change This is precisely why it is important for managers and middle managers to be visible and active in any change process. To be that, they need to be prepared and ...
Written by
Stephani Montserrat -
December12
2019
Your digital transformation is also a cultural transformation
Today, most organisations are working with some type of digital transformation. Some are trying to improve collaboration (ex. Office365), work more effectively with customer data (ex. Salesforce.com) or to digitalise the customer journey (ex. custom customer-centric solutions). What all the digital transformations have in common are that they will only succeed if you also work with your organisational culture. Studies supports this intuition Culture’s essential role in the success of digital transformations are not new. On the contrary, it is well-recognised. McKinsey have concluded that “[…] our clients tell us that the main bottleneck in digital transformations is the lack of a strong and common culture.” And not surprisingly, the question “Which are the most significant challenges to meeting digital priorities?” the answer with far the most responses were “Cultural and behavioural challenges”. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have stated that “[…] like any major transformation, a digital transformation requires ...
Written by
Morten Kamp Andersen -
December10
2019
Change saturation is increasingly common and here is what you can do about it.
With more and bigger changes happening at an accelerated pace, overlapping is pretty inevitable. So much so that 73% of respondents to the recent PROSCI’s Best Practices Report have declared that they were close to, or surpassed the point of saturation. Past this point, people are unable to absorb more changes, causing adoption and usage rates to plummet. As fatigue sets in, the effects on the workplace can be devastating. Change saturation can - and should - be addressed if only to mitigate its impact. Here are PROSCI’s 6 recommendations* to get the most of your transformational efforts, present and future! *This article is based on PROSCI’s 6 strategies for reducing change saturation[1]. Make sure to check in-text references to learn more about related issues. It all starts with an extensive inventory. With many projects underway and forthcoming, you need to establish priorities. Making an inventory ...
Written by
Vincent PIEDBOEUF -
November27
2019
You can measure the effectiveness of leadership & extraordinary leaders makes a big difference
Is it possible to measure the effectiveness of leadership? Yes, it is, and it is also quite commonly done. A classical approach for finding a leader’s strength and weaknesses is to conduct a 360 Degree Leadership Assessment. This is an approach to evaluation of leaders where manager, coworkers, colleagues and other stakeholders evaluates skills, effectiveness and influence of a leader. So, the assessment gives a good general idea of how the individual leader is performing. How can you compare leaders? You can compare them on 19 differentiating competencies, such as: Drives for Results, Takes Initiative and Values Diversity. These competencies were found by Joe Folkman and Jack Zenger when they were looking into which competencies that differentiated the best performing leaders (scoring highest on the 360) from the worst performing leaders (scoring lowest on the 360). They compared data from evaluations of 20.000 leaders. The ...
Written by
Kasper Goth -
November25
2019
Change Management Trends: a conversation with Caroline Mørck Jensen
PROSCI’s Global Partners recently met to reflect on Change Management (CM) trends, uncovering challenges and opportunities worldwide. We are excited to bring you a timely and telling conversation with Denmark-based expert & Partner at NEXUM, Caroline Mørck Jensen. Because she plays a very active role in the Benelux, French and Swiss markets, Caroline has a thorough and unique understanding of Western European dynamics. Watch the video interview and read on to expand on key aspects of the discussion! An ever-increasing demand for Change Management. Partners have made very clear that there is a growing awareness and demand for CM globally (also see “Trends in CM” and “CM across Regions and Cultures” articles). Along with change saturation challenges, the need to reinvent the organization while maintaining “business as usual” for all customers is certainly a major issue driving demand for Change Management in Europe (De Jaeger ...
Written by
NEXUM with Caroline Mørck Jensen -
November12
2019
Change Facilitation Systems: Change Management (CM) as an integrated aptitude (III)
Accelerating and overlapping changes, multifaceted opportunities and problems … all of these challenges call for equally sophisticated solutions that combine processes and tools to create a future-proof organisation. Not for nothing do we observe an increasing number of business players choosing to deploy so-called “facilitation systems” through which they acquire new aptitudes to deal with change. In this third instalment dedicated to organisational agility, we explore most common Change Facilitation Systems (CFS) to gain insight into how most innovative organisations approach change-readiness. You will not be surprised to hear that Change Management is an essential contributor. But you might be interested in learning more about the way(s) it is being combined with other aptitudes. Read on to find out! What’s in a word ? On the surface, the term “Change Facilitation System” evokes sophistication, integration and embeddedness. Clearly, it covers multiple situations and setups. Strictly defined, a Change Facilitation ...
Written by
Vincent PIEDBOEUF -
October29
2019
Most agile organisations share these 10 attributes. What about yours?
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity: those are the characteristics that best describe the world we live in. To outlast the shocks and be successful in the long run, organisational agility is of paramount importance. PMI[1] is making a very clear equation between greater agility and performance, performance and advanced competitive advantage. But what exactly does agility – not the method (AGILE), but the buzzing adjective – mean? It is first and foremost a way of being, characterised by flexibility, durability, velocity and adaptability. It comes as no surprise that Change Management consistently ranks as an essential contributor. We have done the homework for you and put together a list of relevant definitions as a prelude to introducing PROSCI’s 10 attributes of agile organisations. Here are the key takeaways we have captured. “Being agile” across and beyond definitions. Hidden behind the sheer number of definitions of “agile” (as ...
Written by
Vincent PIEDBOEUF -
October15
2019
Making a case for organisational agility (I)
You are obviously very familiar with the term agility, that winning combination of flexibility, durability, rapidity and adaptability. Develop it, and you will prosper. But how many times have you heard that there is no need for CM to build organisational agility, just a change platform and the right aptitude? Such an assertion is both false – like saying “you don’t need physical exercise, just stay healthy” – and fraught with serious consequences. To develop a real organisational aptitude, you have to get better at doing CM, grow more expertise and build new skills across the organisation. In this series, we help you make a case for agility, bringing CM into the equation. Start by reviewing triggers and drivers of change. Changes are growing bigger, multiplying at a faster pace than ever before, sometimes overlapping to the point of saturation. In other words, the time span of ...
Written by
Vincent PIEDBOEUF