Getting Change Right E-Book

Seth Kahan

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 316

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

An innovative communication method for making change happen in any organization Getting Change Right presents a new view of leadership communication that says change doesn't flow top-down, bottom-up, or sideways, but inside-out. This is how change spreads through a complex system successfully-the other options are force or failure. Based on years of experience with organizations around the world, change expert Kahan presents a new model of communication, one that moves from a transactional view of information exchange to a collaborative construction of shared understanding. When the right people are having the right conversations and interactions, then they act in concert even though the situations they confront independently are impossible to predict or coordinate. This dynamic practitioner's guide to implementing change * Presents the innovative co-creation communication model for creating change * Reveals how communicating with a company's most valuable players is at the heart of organizational change * Draws on the author's wealth of experience with Fortune 100 companies, leading government agencies, and associations Getting Change Right offers business insights and field-tested, practical techniques that can be put to work immediately.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Figures

Dedication

Foreword

Introduction

Seven Lessons for Getting Change Right

Chapter 1 - Creating Rapid Widespread Engagement

Social Construction in a Nutshell

Penetrating Information Overload

Establishing Flexibility and Responsiveness

Creating a Shared Stake in Success

Laying the Groundwork to a Shared Future

Eight Conversations That Create the Future

Accelerating the Speed of Buy-In

Why Formal Authority and Budget Don’t Matter

Principles for Creating Rapid, Widespread Change

Success Rules

Chapter 2 - Communicating So People Get It and Spread It

Elevator Speeches Only Take You Down

Project Planning Can Be a Costly Diversion

Leading Conversations That Engage

Jump-Starting Bold Conversations

Creating Cascades of Conversations

Interacting with Audiences of Difference Sizes

Success Rules

Chapter 3 - Energizing Your Most Valuable Players

Identifying Your Most Valuable Players

Activating, Equipping, and Energizing Your MVPs

Extraordinary Envoys

Difficult Players: Apathetic, Cynical, and Antagonistic

Success Rules

Chapter 4 - Understanding the Territory of Change

Scouting, Reconnaissance, and the Avant-Garde

Storylistening

The Reconnaissance Report

Case Study: Program Supervision Foundation

Success Rules

Chapter 5 - Accelerating Change Through Performance Communities

Social Learning Systems

Implications for Performance Communities

The Value-Based Contribution Current

Building a Performance Community

Ramping Up Performance Communities

Success Rules

Chapter 6 - Generating Dramatic Surges in Progress

Designing Touchstone Events That Move Professionals

How to Create Touchstone Events with Extraordinary Thrust

Grabbing Attention and Keeping It

Catching People When They Are Ripe

The Single Most Powerful Way to Create a Dramatic Surge

Storytelling to Accelerate Growth

Success Rules

Chapter 7 - Breaking Through Logjams

The Breakthrough Session

Anatomy of a Breakthrough Session

Success Rules

Chapter 8 - WorkLifeSuccess in the Midst of Change

WorkLifeSuccess Is a Way of Being

Approaches for Generating WorkLifeSuccess

Clarity of Purpose

The Power of an Outside Advisor

Success Rules

Appendix A - Sample Strategic Engagement Plan

Appendix B - JumpStart Storytelling

Notes

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Index

Table of Figures

FIGURE 1.1 Shannon and Weaver’s Communication Model

FIGURE 3.1 Change Leadership Team

FIGURE 3.2 Continuum of Champions’ Participation

FIGURE 3.3 Risk/ROI Matrix for Difficult People

FIGURE 5.1 The Value-Based Contribution Current

FIGURE 6.1 Staff Members’ Energy Curve

FIGURE 6.2 Participants’ Energy Curve

More Praise for Getting Change Right

“In this terrific book, Seth Kahan shows that to foster true employee engagement, conversations and human interactions are a lot more valuable than fat budgets and formal authority. Getting Change Right is a practical, hands-on guide for managers and organizations interested in making bold changes.”

—Daniel H. Pink, author, A Whole New Mind and Drive

“Trying to drive change within an organization can be a frustrating experience. Human beings are wired for repetition and so find comfort in the status quo. But change is mandatory—in order to compete we must create—and in order to create we must lead the change. Seth Kahan lays out the principles of ‘getting change right’ and provides practical advice and insight with relevant examples. This book couldn’t be more timely!”

—David Kord Murray, author, Borrowing Brilliance

“Change is a constant and is accelerating at what sometimes seems to be an almost alarming pace. Seth Kahan has provided practical, down-to-earth advice with examples to help leaders execute a change strategy that will result in employee buy-in and positive organizational outcomes.”

—John H. Graham IV CAE, president and CEO, ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership

Copyright © 2010 by Seth Kahan. All rights reserved.

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Portions of this book are taken from posts that appeared in “Leading Change,” the author’s column at fastcompany.com, and are copyright © Mansueto Ventures, LLC.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kahan, Seth.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-60405-2

1. Organizational change. 2. Leadership. I. Title.

HD58.8.K34 2010

658.4’06—dc22

2009051937

HB Printing

For visionaries of all kinds: I hope these tools will make it possible for you to see your ideas come to life

Foreword

Bill George

“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.”

So said Winston Churchill as he helped guide the Allies through the mire of World War II. Has there been another period since when we found ourselves in greater need of political and business leaders who can heed these words?

Our country’s leaders stare down a dismantled financial system and continue to step over the ruins of once-great institutions like Lehman Brothers and General Motors, now bankrupt. To act according to Churchill’s adage and “get change right,” a new generation of leaders must step forward and possess not only an understanding of the areas where change is necessary, but a concept of what form that change must assume.

In my career, I’ve witnessed firsthand different ways that leaders (myself included) attempted to steer their organizations and people through difficult changes. Whether it was the introduction of an innovative new product line or an attempted alteration of entrenched corporate culture, the challenge came not in pinpointing the areas for improvement, but in understanding precisely how to enact lasting solutions to achieve the best end result.

Sometimes we got it right, and sometimes we didn’t. In Getting Change Right, Seth Kahan has developed a series of principles and insights for today’s leaders as they navigate difficult changes in their organizations.

At a time when our country’s leaders need guidance on enacting change—from a long-overdue cull of rewarding short-term practices on Wall Street to a dismantling of the partisan stalemate on Capitol Hill—Seth has emerged with a beacon for today’s leaders and their teams. For everyone from CEOs to mom-and-pop operators, change will come, and Kahan’s insights can help them prepare for its arrival.

As a former CEO, I find a great deal of value in Seth’s approach. By pairing precise step-by-step guidelines with firsthand accounts and academic insights, he has created a no-nonsense reference for first-time leaders and veteran managers alike. What I found most helpful is the book’s accuracy around dealing with the variable personalities you’ll find in a given company. In every lesson, Seth takes into consideration the human elements—the egos, the intricacies of teamwork, and the true spurs for personal motivation—that make or break any corporate undertaking, let alone monumental change.

Calling on expertise and insight honed by years of top-tier management consulting and thought leadership, Seth writes with warm savvy and a rare technical expertise that informs leaders on how they can strategically and logistically enact change the first time around.

Leaders who desire to enact effective, lasting change must be prepared for long-term dedication to their company, and Seth demonstrates how leaders can do so with their values, and leadership teams, intact. I’ve explored authentic leadership values throughout my career and devoted my teaching career to helping future leaders at Harvard Business School develop a concept of “true north,” an internal compass of our beliefs, values, and principles that guide us through life. From his thoughts on “Energizing Your Most Valuable Players” to “Breaking Through Logjams,” Seth’s writing conveys the words and insight of a man who has seen authentic leadership in action.

Seth not only calls on his own vast academic and professional leadership experience, but enlists the firsthand perspectives and anecdotes of other leadership authorities as well. He has amassed a comprehensive guide on change leadership in accordance with one of his own major precepts: enlisting the insights of others to create rapid, widespread engagement. Seth Kahan is a writer who puts his money where his mouth is.

Want to know how to improve your organization’s flexibility and responsiveness? Refer to the six pieces of advice Seth gives on that very subject, which are applicable across any organization or team. Want to know how to find and inspire talented team members? Turn to Chapter Three for a step-by-step guide on how leaders can challenge and motivate top performers to a desired end.

In my career, I’ve discovered that crises offer the prime opportunity for leaders to enact the change they want to see. It is imperative that leaders today recognize the need for institutional change while remaining undaunted by its inevitability. The sailing may not always be smooth, but it will be forward motion. The best leaders know that is sometimes the best they can hope for. And that’s what Seth aptly teaches us all in Getting Change Right. In the final chapter, Seth explores what he calls WorkLifeSuccess, a concept that speaks to the necessity of balance across work life and home life to achieve success in both.

I would not have been nearly as successful or content across my career without my support network of family and friends or the work-life balance I eventually achieved. Values-driven, perspective-enriched leadership does not occur automatically; I believe it is possible only once a leader establishes the sort of balance Seth advocates. Authentic leaders who are capable of getting change right the first time establish equilibrium between the important facets of their work and home lives, as Seth makes clear in his conclusion.

This, I believe, is the crux of Getting Change Right. When striving to enact needed changes in a responsible and decisive way, get the passion, get the know-how, and work diligently to find the right balance for your company and its stakeholders. Thanks, Seth, for a refreshing lesson in change leadership—and good luck to all of you on your changes ahead.

Introduction

Between 1995 and 1997 I participated in two distinctly different change initiatives at the World Bank, both called Knowledge Management. The first one never took off.

The second one changed the organization, and the world, in two short years, demonstrating how a bureaucratic, geographically distributed, multinational, public sector organization can reinvent itself faster than anyone could have planned.

What made the difference in these two initiatives? The short answer is engagement. The second initiative took seriously the need to connect to people, listen as much as to share ideas, and involve as many key people as possible in the realization of their goals.

The first knowledge management team I joined was composed of a few select world-class thought leaders who drew on a dedicated budget to design and implement a powerful new tool they hoped would revolutionize the way business was done. We met in closed meetings, witnessed remarkable demonstrations, and marveled at the power of the Internet to spread knowledge.