Name: Pragmatic Change
Author: Mark Winter

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

Change at the core: connecting to meaning and purpose

"People don't buy WHAT you do; they buy WHY you do it."

There is a striking poignancy to these words, 14 years on from when Simon Sinek enshrined them in TED Talk immortality.

Every client, I will ever work with...I will start with the Why. It's a pragmatic approach: people aren't resistant to change; they're resistant to change that doesn't make sense.

(Luckily, we at Apricot enjoy that 'sense making' work, irrespective of the layers of complexity and emotionally charged narratives of "yesterday".)

"Align change with what matters" is our First Principle of Change, which unsurprisingly mirrors our hallmark Apricot Health Index.

But how does that come to life in an organisational setting? I give my explainer in this article, plus give some tips on how to make even the most mundane of organisational change have some sense of meaning and importance.

#change #meaning #purpose

Org Development, LeadershipMark Winter13 July 2023Purpose, Meaning, ChangeComment

The biggest mistake I see leaders make: the planning fallacy

In crafting up the final touches on Apricot's First Principles of Change (coming soon 👀) I revisited the most consistent guidance I give to leaders and their teams: know what the Planning Fallacy is and actively outsmart it.

The Planning Fallacy is a cognitive bias where individuals underestimate the cost, time, and risks involved in a project while simultaneously overestimating their own previous experience and capabilities.

It's important to grasp the duality of this; we underestimate tangibles and "knowns" (cost, time and risks)...yet we overestimate the intangibles of 'experience' and capability. Take a quick moment to reflect, on how much of organisational life is skewed towards a trust in experience - sometimes for very good reason, but not without consequence.

And the real shocker: if you give highly experienced leaders, new information which challenges their original planning estimates...they tend to be reluctant to change it! 😧

Reasons why this happens and some high-level guidance on mitigating the Planning Fallacy in the full article, but working through the unique cultural nuances and particular 'friction points' within organisations is the kind of work we love ❤️

#change #projectmanagement #organisationaldevelopment

Start small to go big...or go overbudget trying; less IS more when you analyse large and complex projects

If you want to make global impact, then you have to think big. Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg is someone who has spent more time than most, thinking big - mega even. I find his work a fascinating touchstone for my own work with leaders and organisations, especially the ones who need to compete where it's big and complex. Thanks to a recent Sydney Business Insights event, I got brought up to speed on his most recent work "How big things get done", looking at the common failure points and success factors behind over 16,000 major global projects.

LeadershipMark Winter6 April 2023planning fallacy, complexity, prototypingComment

Lessons learned from service design, digital transformation and change

After dialling up the emotion on my goodbye post, thought I'd close off my escient journey by reflecting on my top three invaluable lessons learned from being 'front and centre' to service design, digital transformation and change.

LeadershipMark Winter24 March 2023service design, digital transformation, change managementComment