Name: Pragmatic Change
Author: Mark Winter

Illuminate the Change: Making decisions visibly as a leader

"Seeing is believing". And within the organisations we work with, people want to believe; believe in the purpose, believe in their leaders, believe in their own personal convictions about this place that they've decided to commit the majority of their waking hours towards.

When we illuminate our decision-making process, we make our leadership of change believable. That's because we're not just shedding light on the outcomes; we're spotlighting the rationale, the inclusivity, the rigour, and the alignment with organisational values that underpin those outcomes. We’re demonstrating how decisions align with the change objectives and how they contribute to the broader vision of the organisation.

More importantly and on the flipside...in the absence of being told the story, people will make up their own!

Our Sixth Principle of Change is "Make decisions visibly", so this article spotlights some of our favourite decision-making tools and pragmatic tips on how to give a sense of visibility for even the most sensitive of changes.

Change, Leadership, Org DevelopmentMark Winter23 August 2023Change, Agile, LeadershipComment

A leadership fear: Changing the change

"Seeing is believing". And within the organisations we work with, people want to believe. Believe in the purpose, believe in their leaders, believe in their own personal convictions about this place that they've decided to commit the majority of their waking hours towards.

When we illuminate our decision-making process, we make our leadership of change believable. That's because we're not just shedding light on the outcomes; we're spotlighting the rationale, the inclusivity, the rigour, and the alignment with organisational values that underpin those outcomes. We’re demonstrating how decisions align with the change objectives and how they contribute to the broader vision of the organisation.

More importantly and on the flipside...in the absence of being told the story, people will make up their own!

Our Sixth Principle of Change is "Make decisions visibly", so this article spotlights some of our favourite decision making tools and gives pragmatic tips on how to give visibility, for even the most sensitive of changes.

Change, LeadershipMark Winter14 August 2023Change, Failure, StrategyComment

"That doesn't work here": just how creative should you be when experimenting with Change?

"Nice idea...but that doesn't work here"

Fair enough, it's your organisation and your culture...so I'll believe you. But I also take guidance from a Thomas Edison quote: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Neither of us has time or budget for 10,000 failed ways, so let's run some well thought out change experiments and get successful change happening sooner and smoother! In this article I introduce our Fourth Principle of Change, which is underpinned by creativity: "Learn Together through Experimentation." I lay out my top five Change experiments (aka: spoiler alerts for working with me...) and give ways to get started in even the most conservative environment.

If you've got a poor change culture or the 'bad vibes' are still lingering in the hallways from the last organisational change, then I'd argue you can't afford to ignore creative approaches to change; reasons stands that if you do the same things, you'll get the same results. #changeleadership #leanchange #leadership

Change, LeadershipMark Winter1 August 2023Creativity, Change, Agile, Lean Change

Leadership and Change: How to empower contribution in harmony

Everyone is considered...but not everyone gets a say

Imagine this: You've got an incredibly passionate team member...raring to go, championing the change and supporting the team. Their energy is infectious...but let's be real, it's not always helpful.

Sometimes that person just isn't close enough to impacted business processes or they lack the technical expertise, to really contribute in a meaningful way. Or maybe, as blunt as it can be, they just aren't respected amongst their peers and colleagues; to the point where their 'brand' affects the change messaging.

Artful leadership will find a way to still harness that enthusiasm and hence our third Principe of Change is "Empower everyone to contribute appropriately"

In this article I walk you through your role as a conductor of the orchestra in change leadership; you cannot play all the instruments yourself (aka: build all the inputs to change), so your role is about helping people keep in synchronisation and to "do their best solo work" when it's their time.

#changeleadership #organisationaldevelopment #leadership

Leadership, ChangeMark Winter25 July 2023Leadership, Change, ConflictComment