You can tell you’re having an impact on an organization when your words bounce back at you. Now, they don’t have to be your original words. They can be concepts you’ve borrowed from other people. Yet, you’ll know you are having an impact when you hear those words you’ve uttered spreading out through an organization. […]
The newsletter era has begun at Engine For Change. You can sign up today at tinyletter.com/engine-for-change-news or by adding your e-mail into the box at the right. Here’s what the first message said, Back in December 2009, I launched Engine-For-Change.com and wrote, Welcome to Engine-For-Change.com, my new weblog and site for all things related to
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Last week I introduced you to permissive statements, e.g., “Feel free to…give me honest feedback about my blog.” This week I want to introduce you to their companions: assurances (definition: statement to relieve doubt). Anyone can use assurances to set clear yet flexible lines of accountability, both for themselves (e.g., “I will always attend team
This post is simple. If you want people to remember the message of your presentation, create a handout. Last week at SEASPIN, one of the attendees commented on how rare and wonderful the handout was. (I may be paraphrasing, but–hey–it’s my blog.) Today I enjoyed the sound of rustling papers echoing across a full auditorium
I talked all day. From 7:20 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. I talked. It was the first of two #GCDrive make-up sessions. We crammed three days of content into one day and found it cheerfully compacted but still coherent. I say we, speaking for myself and the seven others, because we all seemed to be nodding
Suspending assumptions…meaning to figuratively imagine your assumption dangling before you like a scarf dancing in a light breeze. Can you picture it? Imagine the assumption: Only senior leaders have the organizational knowledge necessary to make real change. Watch it dancing before you. Now, can you picture it falling from your grasp? Why can’t you lead
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The rules of improv are simple: 1. Always agree with and add to the last person’s statement. “Yes, and…” 2. Always make the other people look good. If you’ve watched a comedy improv troupe in action, you know improv results are always unexpected and hilarious. If you apply those same improv rules to your team
A few weeks ago I included Dan Roam’s book Back of the Napkin as a class text meant to spur the students to use doodles in their driving change work. This week a friend sent me this video by Sunni Brown (5:51) where she discusses the value of doodling in the workplace. I love her
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Just when you think you’ve talked to all the groups you need to talk to, shared your change story with all the important stakeholders, and publicized your change effort to death, you’ve really only just begun. Whatever the reason, people forget what they hear only once, can hardly repeat what they’ve heard twice and can
