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Change Happens

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iStock_000017918955SmallChange happens. No big insight there. Change happens all the time. Nothing new there. Change happens. Everyone knows that.

Yes, everyone knows that change happens, and that it happens all the time. And yet all too often, we lose sight of that fact and its implications. Today’s post focuses on what “change happens” means to you, and how you might approach change differently in the future. We’ll briefly look at different responses to changes that happen, and the consequences of them. And, we’ll look at how the acknowledgement that change happens can lead you to more successful outcomes.

“There Are Changes I Avoid”

Not every change has to be embraced. In fact, in today’s ever-changing environment, I encourage my clients to avoid any change that is not essential. But that is the tricky part. What is an essential change? [Read more…]

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Overview: Live the New Reality

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24088599_lEach change journey comes to an end. If it has been successful, you will be living the new reality that you defined when you created your change story. In The Art of Pilgrimage, Phil Cousineau wrote, “The challenge is to learn how to carry over the quality of the journey into your everyday life. The art of pilgrimage is the craft of taking time seriously, elegantly.” With this, my 100th post, I pass on some of the ways I have learned to carry those lessons over. [Read more…]

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Overview: Take the Change Journey

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iStock_000000326591SmallSometimes, “Just do it” is good advice. It may even work with smaller, incremental change. But when faced with a really large change–whether personal or organizational–it is a recipe for disaster.

Over the last few weeks we have looked at what is needed before stepping off on a difficult change journey: Overview: Create Your Change Story, Overview: Prepare for the Change Journey, and Overview: Plan the Change Journey. (Additional posts about these topics can be found by scrolling below each overview.) Today I am addressing some of the key lessons I have learned over the years about the change journey itself. [Read more…]

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Overview: Plan the Change Journey

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15845979_lMan plans, and the gods laugh.

There is a lot that solid planning can do, and much that it cannot. Here are some of the key things that I have learned about change planning over the 40+ years I have been developing–and executing– change-related plans. (For more insights on change planning, see my Plan the Journey blog posts.)

Remember, you have your change story. You have early elements of preparation: you’ve inventoried your anchors; your resources, resource needs, and resource gaps; and the changes you will need to make; you have developed an initial set of milestones. All of these serve as input to your planning process.

Plan for What You Don’t Want!

One of the big mistakes we often make when planning a change is failing to think about what we don’t want to happen. Sometimes we catch the absence of this planning when we come face-to-face with an “Oh, No!” And, sometimes we only discover it after the fact. [Read more…]

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Overview: Prepare for the Change Journey

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WOops!!ait!

How can you prepare for the journey when you haven’t yet planned it?

The truth is, you can’t…at least not fully.

At the same time, if you begin by planning, it’s likely that the only things you will prepare for are what you have planned…and I have seen that have disastrous results. Preparation and planning are highly intertwined; my recommendation is to always start with some very specific elements of preparation. Then when you get into the planning (which we will discuss next week), it becomes a much more effective process. [Read more…]

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Overview: Create Your Change Story

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Back to school. Blank notepad book, pen on wooden background

While a well-developed change story cannot guarantee the success of a change, a poorly developed one almost always ensures a less-than-optimum outcome if not outright failure.

We know the power of story; we create stories for ourselves all the time, and we often share them with others. There’s the story about that important conversation you’re going to have with a significant other, or your boss, or a co-worker, or a client later today. You’ve probably replayed it in your head a dozen times or more, and in the retelling you have felt more and more prepared, or more and more scared. There’s the story about what you’re going to do to relax this coming weekend, or on the next vacation. That one gets retold every time you feel over-worked or over-stressed; it lets you catch your breath and puts a smile on your face, at least for a moment. There is (or was) the story of “happily ever after,” the first draft appearing before the emotion of the first kiss wore off. Stories have power.

So what is a change story, why is it important, who writes it, when is it written, and how is it used? [Read more…]

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