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Time Management and Change 101

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istock_000013371056mediumIn the past I have written about the need to make the time required for your change. In particular, I focused on “Stop,” the importance of identifying what you are going to discontinue doing in order to have the time, energy, etc. needed to “start” your change. Today I am presenting a few techniques for increasing your productivity through time management.

I am currently enrolled in Ryan Eliason’s Visionary Business School; this blog is drawn from our time management training, and includes both techniques that were refreshers for me, and ones that were new. Hopefully there are tips here that will help you improve your productivity, and free up time to invest in the changes you are making in your life.

The First Big Questions

Each of us has our own “tricks” for keeping track of what we need to do. Sticky notes; white boarding; to-do lists; Kanban; index cards; file folders; stacks of paper…the options are endless. As we finish each task, we throw out the sticky; erase the white board item; check or cross off the list; move the task along the flow; file the paper; etc. What most of us fail to do, unless we are using an actual project management system, is to ask one simple yet critical question. [Read more…]

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Every Change Has an Expiration Date

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I remember my first personal computer; it was a state-of-the-art dual floppy disk PC manufactured by IBM. In order to run spell-check I had to swap one of the disks out to put in the spell-check disk; my recollection is that there were 10 or more disks for the word processing program. The printer required a special Plexiglas hood that was lined with eggshell crate foam to help manage the noise. At the time many office workers were still on electric typewriters or dedicated word processing machines. That was 1983.

In 1990 I bought my own personal laptop; it was an upgraded model with 20 MB of storage. If I still had it today, that laptop wouldn’t even hold one of the photographs I now take with my digital mirrorless 35mm camera. Part of this post was written on a 120 GB iPad while sitting in a park enjoying the sunshine; it was uploaded to the cloud and then downloaded to a PC when I got home.

In 2004, 90% of American households had landlines; today that number is less than 50%. I am old enough to remember the evolution from 78’s, to 33-1/3’s and 45’s (for my younger readers, all forms of musical records); to eight-track and cassette tapes; to CD’s; to the first iPod, which Steve Jobs boasted was “designed to hold 1,000 songs.” Even that feels outdated today.

Every change has an expiration date. [Read more…]

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Character and Presence: Guest Post by Daryl Conner

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daryl-conner-high-resIt is an honor to publish this guest post by Daryl Conner. For more than four decades Daryl has been a thought leader in the field of change management. I have had the good fortune to study and work with Daryl for much of the past 28 years. Over the last five years, he has increasingly turned his attention to the role that character and presence play in the effectiveness of change practitioners and organizational leaders; Conner Academy serves leaders and practitioners seeking to “raise their game” through a focus on character and presence. In this post Daryl discusses character and presence more generally, encouraging us to consider the role our own character and presence plays whether we are leading, facilitating, or otherwise undergoing change.

There is a quote that “eighty percent of life is showing up.” While showing up is certainly important, it has become clear to me through my years of work in the field of change management that how we show up also plays a critical role both in our ability to influence and to lead others, and in how we experience change ourselves. At the root of how each of us shows up are our character and our presence. [Read more…]

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Advocate Power!

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webIf you want to discuss something discretely, who do you talk to? Chances are, it is not the same person as you talk to when you want to “spread the word.”

Advocates have tremendous power in supporting–or undermining–change, both at the personal and the organizational level. Millennials rely heavily on advocacy; for them, in many cases the power of their social network is significantly greater than the power of positional authority. Social movements–whether it be civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, or any other–are all about advocacy. Lobbying carries advocacy into the halls of government.

While social movements and lobbyists are often highly successful in their advocacy, it is a resource that tends to be under-utilized in personal and organizational change. What would it take to make use of advocate power in these circumstances? [Read more…]

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Commitment is Easy…

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iStock_000014440792SmallOr is it?

How long have you been thinking about this change? Analyzing it? Considering the pros and cons? Shaping it in your mind? Assessing what it will take, and how likely that it will work? Maybe you’ve talked it over with a few people, a spouse or best friend, or (if it is a business change), key colleagues and those who report directly to you.  You’ve decided to move forward. You’re committed!

Or are you?

And what about the people who have to make this journey with you?

Let’s take a look at a few key things about commitment. [Read more…]

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All Change is Political

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It is a rarely spoken truth. All change is political. Power shifts are an inherent part of every change. As I will discuss below, this is as true at the personal level as it is at the organizational and the social levels.

We know this when we think in terms of national change. Certainly it’s true of political races, whether local, statewide, or national. There is not a broad social movement that doesn’t quickly engage—or scare off—politicians. Politics come into play in school board races, in social club elections, and in community-based organizations. They show up in our religious institutions. Parents attempt to coach their children’s athletic teams, or lead their youth groups, in order to have some control over their children’s experience. Those in power run for re-election to retain power. Those out of power run for election to continue the path of a retiring incumbent, to build on but shift the path, or to put things on a completely different path forward.

In our organizations, we have all heard of “office politics.” Every big change messes with them. While it is rarely, if ever, part of the official planning process, these changes result in power shifts which can be of significant magnitude. One place we often do see acknowledgement of the power dynamics of a change is in the leadership of acquired organizations. While it is not unusual for their contributions to be acknowledged, for a significant payment to be made, and for a place to be found in the new organization, it is unusual for them to remain in that new place any longer than necessary to receive the maximum personal benefit; they no longer have the power—the political influence—they had before the acquisition.

But underneath the surface, politics is hard at work during major organizational change. This often starts in the C-suite, where colleagues are vying for power, often at the expense of the change, and even of the organization they are purporting to serve. Following their leaders’ examples, the politics cascades through the organization as rapidly as (or more rapidly than) the change itself.

But how is personal change political? [Read more…]

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