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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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June20
2019
What I have learned from a failed change
“I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10, 000 ways that won’t work”, said Thomas Edison, who made one of our time’s greatest changes. There is so much truth in that quote. But seriously – who has the time and money for 10, 000 attempts? Nearly a decade ago, I courageously embarked on an adventure of managing the people side of an organisational turnaround. With little preliminary qualifications besides the eagerness that follows ignorance about the complexity of managing a change, I ventured into a journey that ended exactly where we did not want. Here are three take-aways from that educational experience. Lesson #1 : You need top management involvement Though the transition was demanded by top management, we struggled with lack of executive commitment from the get-go. With little direction about where they would like us to end up. With lack of resource allocation to manage ...
Written by
Anna Balk-Møller -
June11
2019
How to set up a CMO (II): Functioning, Shape and Size.
If not coordinated, change efforts are bound to fail. Surviving in a turbulent business landscape takes a solid aptitude to manage current and future changes in a consistent way. A permanent unit, or multiple dedicated touchpoints, can give you leverage over other competitors. Now that you know what a CMO is and why it should be part of the effort to future-proof your organisation, it is time to look at all available format options. In this new instalment, we provide you guidance to find the perfect CMO match in terms of functioning, shape and size. There are no blueprint solutions, only strategies! Centralised, hybrid or decentralised? CMOs can take on different forms, ranging from highly centralised to completely decentralised. In-between hybrids are equally valuable options. Each format yields specific benefits, further summarised in the graph below: Centralised: the CMO is located in a ...
Written by
Vincent PIEDBOEUF -
June04
2019
Don’t fear resistance – Turn it into engagement!
Change is hard, difficult and filled with a lot of human reactions, and we often fear how managers and employees will react. But fear not! If handled right, we can convert the negative energy into engagement and turn the strongest dissenter into a dedicated advocate. Change leadership is a part of your leadership role. When you sign the contract and accept the role as leader of a department or even as part of the C-suit, you automatically sign up for leading change. Still many of us struggle with leading change successfully. And by successfully, I mean changing the individual behaviour for all the managers and employees impacted by a change. When resistance to change is converted into engagement early in the process, we can use the energy to mobilize our organization. Whether it is rolling out the next business strategy, our new company IT solution or implementation or ...
Written by
Malene Kingo Christensen -
May28
2019
What is a CMO and why you should consider setting one up. (I)
Whether you are currently applying CM to projects or just consider the best way to climb the CM maturity ladder, this series of 3 articles is for you.
Change Management Offices, or CMO, are mushrooming. That said, it is not unusual to come across many variations in formulation. Whatever their name – CM Network, CM Division, CM Team or Enterprise CM …, the list goes on –, all refer to the existence of an overarching functional structure that orchestrates CM efforts across the workplace. Yet, there is no one-size fits-all format. Have you ever wondered what extra benefits a CMO can bring to your organisation and how to set up one that will meet your needs? Whether you are currently applying CM to projects or just consider the best way to climb the CM maturity ladder, this series of 3 articles is for you. In this first post, we go back to the basics and explore the reasons why CMOs are more popular than ever before … and their very raison d’être. CMOs: elevated Change Management. ...
Written by
Vincent PIEDBOEUF -
May13
2019
Background. The effort at regulating capital markets in Europe has brought with it substantial reforms. Implemented in 2017, the “MiFID” (Markets in Financial Instruments Directives) legal arsenal was quickly reinforced with new provisions. In a nutshell, MiFID II seeks to strengthen both external and internal controls / reporting, enhance investor protection as well as market transparency, and reform market structures. As the investment industry is undergoing a major facelift, MiFID presents banking actors with challenges that call for a solid Management of Change. What is at stake is long-term sustainability and readiness for change. A partner of choice throughout the transition, NEXUM has put its expertise to work in a number of ways sampled in this post. The challenge. The implementation of MiFIDII has led private banks to implement operational changes and make strategic choices related to their business model/operating model. These structural and organizational ...
Written by
Veronique DI MARIA -
May10
2019
Improve your Change Management impact with data and an evidence-based approach
Change management has matured significantly over the last ten years, and we now have established structures, tools, and processes. But we can mature even more, and I believe that an evidence-based practice will take the discipline to the next level by targeting and improving our activities. When we choose which activities to do and how to design them, most often we are not using the best available knowledge, research, and information and that’s where evidence-based change management (EB-CM) will help. Specifically, EB-CM can add value by 1) Improving our understanding of the change we are facing, 2) improving the design of our activities and 3) effectively monitoring our progress. In some areas of change management, we have to stop guessing and start knowing. EVIDENCE MEETS CHANGE MANAGEMENT The fundamental idea of evidence-based practice is that good quality decisions around change management should be based on a combination ...
Written by
Morten Kamp-Andersen -
April29
2019
Helping Senior Leaders spearhead the change with ADKAR
Change must be endorsed, sponsored and communicated properly. Failure to do so will only fuel resistance and lead to more organisational inertia. Conversely, genuine commitment from senior leaders usually produces a ripple effect which drives the adoption rate of change(s) among employees. We may behave as if these things were self-evident but the fact is that leaders have more often than not a poor understanding of their role. When the injunction to be active and visible throughout the project does not translate into actionable steps, it falls on deaf ears. That is when ADKAR® comes into play and why we dedicate a special post on the best and most effective ways to engage leaders. A quick read with practical insights backed by PROSCI’s research and participants’ hands-on experience[1]. Benefits of equipping senior leaders with ADKAR. Sponsorship is the prime source of success. But what it entails often remains ...
Written by
Vincent PIEDBOEUF -
April02
2019
Are you familiar with these 5 role-based skills in CM?
We have already written extensively about the holistic nature of CM. Change never sits on the shoulders of one single person. There are all sorts of roles meant to ensure a smooth transition to the future envisioned state, ranging from those more specifically dedicated to building CM capacities across the organisation (i.e. leadership sponsors, steering committee) to those involving practical CM implementation (leaders, CM practitioners, project teams, managers, collaborators). If you are not familiar with the skills attached to major roles in CM, here is a short outline. CM maturity comes at a cost and it certainly is closely related to the development of individual aptitudes. # Leadership. Sponsorship is everything. In fact, it is the number one success factor of any change initiative and by a long stretch at that, since it is 3 to 4 times more important than any other factor. Being Active and visible ...
Written by
Vincent Piedboeuf -
April02
2019
Can organisational culture be changed?
Culture is said to be very difficult to change. Because it is. It’s not that cultures are set in stone or don’t transform over time, but making deliberate efforts to adapt an organisational culture is a comprehensive task that require three things: A structured approach to measure culture as the field is discouraging difficult to grasp. Endorsement from the executives as many subsequent actions will need top-level prioritisation. Patience and perseverance as no culture has ever been changed overnight. The first obstacle for changing a culture is comprehending it. We often talk about our culture being this or the other way. But it is typically based on sporadic observations without a deeper understanding of what fuels it. Culture consists of A) behaviour and artefacts, B) core values and strategies (we are conscious about both A and B) shaped by C) an unconscious system of entangled aspects such as, ...
Written by
Anna Balk-Møller