The Dirty Little Secret Behind the 70% Failure Rate of Change Projects
“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.” —Robert Louis Stevenson A secret is just information you keep to yourself. It becomes “dirty” when you know other people know and they know you know...
View ArticleLooking in the Mirror for Answers to the 70/30 Question
Studies show that the change facilitation profession has had little positive impact on the overall initiative success/failure ratio during the last decade. This is a real problem, and the fact that we...
View ArticlePhysician, Heal Thyself
If you’ve read the first two posts of this series, you may have become a bit uncomfortable with me placing responsibility for at least part of the 70/30 problem squarely on the shoulders of the change...
View ArticleThe Importance of Contracting
“Half the promises people say were never kept, were never made.” —Edgar Watson Howe Regardless of the setting or circumstances, a few things consistently distinguish really successful people: The...
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The Mechanics of Contracting
In my last post, I described the importance of contracting between change facilitators and the sponsors they serve, and I outlined the basic principles involved. Yet, many practitioners are not as...
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The Real Story of the Burning Platform
“It was fry or jump, so I jumped.” — Andy Machon The “burning platform” story has become a permanent part of the organizational change landscape. In this series, I’ll offer some background about how I...
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The Four Kinds of Burning Platforms
When something goes viral, it’s seldom a deliberate act to distort the original meaning. Nonetheless, the message almost always changes to some extent. It’s a natural consequence of thousands of people...
View ArticleUse Pain and Hope to Execute Change
As I described earlier in this series of posts, what drove my original interest in the Piper Alpha event was my desire to find a metaphor to reflect the commitment needed to sustain movement away from...
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Implications for Practitioners Using the Burning-Platform Metaphor
With the previous three posts as a foundation, the following implications may be helpful for change practitioners who wish to use the burning-platform metaphor in their work. 1. When real...
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Remembering the Piper Alpha Disaster
Last week, I finished my series on the burning platform. I included the original story of the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster, which provided the metaphor that I still use today. I certainly feel a debt of...
View ArticleVictimization: A Thorn in the Side of Change Execution
Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter. —Martin Seligan Many challenges and roadblocks hinder the...
View ArticleVictimization Breeds Easily in Work Environments
In this series, we’re talking about the prevalence and consequences of victimization during change. In the first post, I defined a victim (one who feels trapped in negative circumstances with no option...
View ArticleChange Throws Gasoline on the Flames of Victimization
In the two previous posts, I wrote about the negative impact victimization can have on people and organizations. Here, I’ll describe what happens when victimization surfaces during a change initiative,...
View ArticleStemming the Tide of Victimization
This is the final post in this series. The victimization[1] syndrome can be compared to a virus that has infected not only clients, but our profession as well. Transformational change intensifies...
View ArticleAre You Properly Addressing the Really Sticky Issues?
“To confront a person with his own shadow is to show him his own light.” —Author Unknown As professional change facilitators, we take on many roles when performing our duties: SME, educator,...
View ArticleWhen and How to Apply the Provocateur’s Role
If you are not functioning as a provocateur[1] when the need arises, you’re not doing your job. It’s as simple as that. You either don’t know enough about this profession to recognize what you are not...
View ArticleMore on When and How to Apply the Provocateur’s Role
Change practitioners who take on the provocateur’s role must be confrontational when necessary, willing to handle the deep emotions of change, and have tough conversations if called for. This is my...
View ArticleHow to Find and Use Your Voice
We normally think of the word “sovereignty” as applying to states or nations, but the concept can just as easily apply to people and, in particular, professional change agents. Whether we are...
View ArticleThere’s One Thing We Need More Than Sound Methods
As seasoned change practitioners, the main hindrance to becoming more proficient at our craft doesn’t lie in deepening our technical expertise. Instead, it comes from being better prepared to stand...
View ArticleThe Importance of Affirmation
I am in the middle of a series about personal and professional sovereignty[1]. For most people, personal sovereignty requires rewiring some neural circuitry that has been in place since they were...
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