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Every day brings fresh challenges and navigating them can feel daunting. For lessons on driving change, we can look back to childhood days on the playground, specifically the overhead ladder. Perched high above the ground, this playground feature challenges kids to reach forward, swing with strength, and let go to grasp the next rung. It’s […]

In Management by Motivation (1968), Saul Gellerman highlighted a gap in the effective use of personnel that echoes our Quote of the Week by Jay Forester.  Where Forester put the effective use of personnel at only 10%, Gellerman qualitatively describes the opportunity to get much more and better results from personnel, calling it a “reservoir

If a company’s competitive situation worsens or technological changes require new products and new processes, the organization may need the help of its own employees. Unfortunately, if it has trained them to be indifferent and apathetic, it is unlikely to be able to elicit their cooperation. Even if the employees have information that would be

Everywhere, the Power Paradox ensnares.  We assume that others are powerful, and we are weak. The truth is that others are less powerful than we think they are, and we are more powerful than we have imagined. We take these assumptions of who does and doesn’t have power for granted and never test them. We

10%! That’s how effective Jay Forester, the founder of system dynamics, thought organizations were at using the best of their employees. He wrote that in 1961. More than 60 years later, if you’re struggling to meet your commitments with the people, time, and resources you have now, this quote should give you hope. You don’t

The rate of change is increasing; it’s hard to keep up. Grounded in the well-known tactics for change managers and change leaders, many organizations are working tirelessly to meet the demanding pace of change. Where are people turning for insights to help them keep up with, and accelerate ahead of, the rate of change? Change

Responsibility is a unique concept… You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you… If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the

Middle Managers.  That’s the most often given answer to the question, “Who most resists change in your organization?” It would be easy to go along with the crowd and turn middle managers into the villains of our change story, but something doesn’t seem right.  It seems too easy to scapegoat them, individually and collectively.  Instead,