Posts tagged change

Mask Shaming

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Well, it looks like Mask Shaming has become a thing…

I’m hearing from people personally and seeing posts on social media of people shaming others not wearing masks in public.

So, when all this started, the governments were like, “Don’t go out and start wearing masks, they don’t work.”

Then the governments were like, “Stop buying up all the masks, you’re depleting the supply for health care workers.”

Then the governments were like, “We don’t have enough masks for health care workers and we’re engaging companies to adjust manufacturing processes to make them.”

Now the governments are like, “We recommend everyone wear a mask when in public.”

This week, Laredo TX, the first in the US to do so, made it illegal for people to be in public without a mask — up to a $1K fine. LA in CA instituting the same rule today.

Oh, by the way, Laredo only had 18 confirmed cases when they passed that ruling.

Suddenly, anyone not wearing a mask has become a pariah in the community.

Good luck finding a mask!

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants #change #coronavirus #covid19

Change Readiness

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Was your company ready for this current change or is it reacting and thus managing the change?

Cigar Talk with Crosscutter Enterprises is back.

If you are managing #change in today’s business world, you are probably behind the times and late to the party.

In today’s business world, changes are hitting companies in such a way that they simply can’t keep up.

The old world of managing change is long gone.

But being ready for change is a lot more of up front work — much like planning — and many companies don’t take that time to make it happen.

Change readiness is like growing grass. If you have a plot of weed-filled dirt, simply throwing grass seed on the ground and watering it probably won’t be too successful.

You need to remove the weeds, till the dirt, fertilize the ground, and then spread your seeds for best results.

What are you doing now to ensure you business is ready for the changes after the coronavirus crisis is over?

Change Readiness starts with building awareness, desire, knowledge, and ability early.

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants

What Will Change?

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How will our  world change due to the coronavirus ⛑ crisis?

My Predictions:

More people will find remote online employment versus employment in a brick and mortar business.

Businesses will also move more to remote workers and reduce their costly footprints.

Homeschooling is going to step up for sure.

If teaching K-12 remotely works, people are going to question the public burden of costly infrastructure–we might see physical campuses simplyngo away.

Grocery and supplies delivery will significantly increase.

People will store more nonperishable food and consumables in their homes.

Expect more home downsizing.

Eating at home and healthier will increase.

The streaming video industry will grow significantly to serve much more people — things like movie theaters will decline.

Trust in government will hit the single digits.

Your thoughts?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants

Ready, Set, Change

Change Management

Recently, someone asked on LinkedIn, “How do you build change readiness.”

In today’s business world if you are managing the change, you really are too late. A successful business in today’s market must be able to change quickly and change often. They need to view change as part of their daily lives.

If you are still focusing on managing every change that impacts your company, you are probably complaining about things like change overload and saturation. More than likely, you are prioritizing change efforts based on available resources and prioritizing the changes where possible.

If this is you, more than likely, your communication channels are overloaded with change and your employees and customers are numb to your constant change efforts to the point that they’re tuning you out.

This is because the world is changing too fast for the old way of doing business–managing change.

In today’s world, you need to put the change managers out of business by building a constant state of change readiness.

It’s too hard…

I don’t know how to do that…

No one is ready for that…

Those re just some of the arguments I would expect. The fact is, change readiness is a change in itself and it’s led by the change managers themselves. This is one of the reasons it is so difficult–the ones who lead the change now have to change their approach and they are having trouble changing themselves.

It really is pretty simple. For those that understand the ADKAR approach, I will use that model to explain. You can apply any model here to he the same effect–no need to relearn anything yourself.

First, your case for change needs to evolve from the project-focused case for change to the strategic-focused case for change. Instead of developing a new case for change for every change effort, take a look at the last several reasons for your change and you will probably find a higher set of the same reasons.

Perhaps your company is growing too fast or it’s bleeding money? Perhaps technology is changing quickly and your company needs to constantly keep up. Maybe regulatory compliance is constantly changing and it has been driving your need for change. These are the strategic reasons that your company needs to change so often. The project reasons are simply tactical responses to these change drivers.

Define these strategic reasons for change and then share them constantly with your employees. Instead of constantly creating new cases for change, develop one and make employees and customers aware of why you must enter a level of constant change. To be able to change on a dime.

Now that you have your burning platform, as they say, talk to you audiences about this need. Listen to them, encourage them, show them how being ready to change is better than the constant start and stop methods of the past. Build management and communication routines into the daily operations that actually make change the norm instead of something you do when change comes along. Everyone will eventually move to the new operating model because this is the way you do business now.

If you build the awareness for the need, but don’t change the way you operate every day, then your audience will see the need as just words. Also, the stakeholders for this change are all employees and all customers. You are not targeting a group of just those affected like in a tactical change. No, you are making ready everyone I your company–even your supply chain needs to be ready to change.

This new operating model designed for constant retooling caused by incremental change will build the desire for the employees.

Last, comes the skills of those who work for the company–employees and suppliers. You need to focus on ups killing in areas that they may not normally work today. Building skills in analysis, change, process, and relationships can help them be more nimble and agile. Teaching project management and process improvement basics to everyone, not just the select cadre of leads in these areas gives them the tools they need to make changes themselves and constantly improve what they do everyday.

You also need to engage your learning systems to be more resilient to provide quicker training delivery on new processes and tools. Almost moving to a just in time training development and delivery model.

This give the company that knowledge edge that they need to implement the immediate changes at a rapid pace.

If you have the employees this ready all the time, then change can happen much faster and in tighter circles than ever before. You can relax communication around specific changes and simply beat the strategic change drum to a constant pace and weave in the tactical activities as a constant stream of examples of how effective you are at meeting the new demand.

This is an organization that is ready for change.

Are you ready?

Continuous Improvement Development for Leadership and Professionals

CIC Process Improvement

Train your leaders first to change the culture

Oftentimes we get leadership support to an initiative to change the culture, but they don’t have the actual skills to implement the changes they’re supporting.  Before you can expect your front-line employees to live a culture of continuous improvement, you have to develop your leaders, managers, and professionals.  Everything we’ve discussed over the past six blogs have built to this.  See how building a culture of continuous improvement starts with developing leadership and professionals.

http://ngs.edu/2014/06/20/building-culture-continuous-improvement-continuous-improvement-development-leadership-professionals/

Leaders set the environment for a culture of continuous improvement

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Everyone always wants to blame the failure to set a culture, or a bad culture, on leadership.  Leaders are responsible for setting the culture, but it takes more than leadership.  That being said, learn how leader set the environment that allows for a continuous improvement culture.

http://ngs.edu/2014/05/16/building-a-culture-of-continuous-improvement-culture-begins-with-leadership/

Change Agents need to learn to Embrace Change

Change Management Meandering Genius

I have been dealing with major changes most of my life. This blog is dedicated to those who work in the world of change and are not themselves ready to accept and implement changes happening to them. Yes, they exist.

When I was in elementary school (my second to last year) my parents moved from Berkley, MI, to Beverly Hills, MI. That moved me from one school district to another. The new school was further ahead in studies, which significantly put me behind my last year of school. One of the things the new school had already adopted that my old school had not was New Math.

The next year I went to Junior High and then to High School, but of course, the changes affecting were now starting to occurring with frequency.

My parents also traveled/camped a lot when I was a kid and I travelled all over the United States in everything from popup campers to truck campers to fifth wheels to motor homes.

I went to college for a year to Northern Michigan University and then moved back home and went to work. I wasn’t very dedicated in college. I went to a few classes at night with Oakland Community College. These were my first two colleges that I attended up to this point. All total, I attended 11 colleges since graduating high school.

At home, for about three years, I worked seven different jobs. After jumping around from job to job, I finally decided to join the Air Force at the age of 22. Basic Training was only four weeks then and I was over to technical training for another four weeks. At least those two trainings were at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX. Then I was in a month of pipeline training at Fort Dix, NJ–Ground Combat Skills Training.

My first real Air Force assignment was in Ft Worth, TX, at Carswell AFB. There I worked the longest in one job–three years. Even though I spent six years at Carswell, I had five separate jobs, to include being one of the last 30 active duty members that closed the active duty portion of that base. In the two years I was at my next assignment in the states, Vandenberg AFB, CA, I worked on the flight line for six months and then as the Staff NCO for a year and a half.

It was then off to an undisclosed location in Turkey for a year–at least there I only did one job, although I did try to get on the staff while I was there, which would have been two different jobs in one year.

After Turkey, I ended up in Germany in the USAFE Elite Guard at Ramstein AB, but I was only there for eight months and retrained from Security Forces to Manpower and Quality and moved from the headquarters to the wing staff. In another less than three years, I was up at headquarters staff again, but not after having two very distinctly different jobs on the wing staff (running the wing’s quality training program to being a dedicated manpower and quality consultant to four units). In the two years I was at the headquarters, I also did a year in two jobs…one running competitive sourcing and privatization and the other managing the major command’s strategic planning activities.

My last assignment was here in San Antonio, TX, at Lackland AFB–specifically Security Hill and Air Intelligence Agency. In my six years there, until I retired, I did two years in plans and programs as the senior war planner for Air Force Intel, two years as the superintendent of a speech writing and special projects staff for the general, and two years running their premier enlisted awards program.

Even after retirement, I was only in Booz Allen Hamilton for three years before I ended up at USAA, where I have been for two years and I’m now working a totally different job there then I started.

All total, I attended 11 different colleges, lived in 8 different cities, visited to 14 countries and 43 states, and I’ve lost count of the number of jobs I have held.

That’s a lot of change. When I was really young, I wouldn’t say I handled or embraced the change, but by the time I was in the Air Force, I actually started to look forward to the change. Today, I find myself uniquely suited for my job as a change agent.

Now I know my experiences are not typical, but if you have chosen a role in work as a change agent–you work in strategy, change, process, performance, project managent, or the like–you should be expected to not just accept change, but champion it.

When change affects you…how do you handle it?

As a change agent, let me apply a little Prosci ADKAR questioning to you:

Are you currently aware of what is going on in your organization strategically that has fully prepared you for possible change?

Do you recognize that in all change, there are great opportunities and have you built your desire to change by examining the positive aspects of any potential changes, versus dwelling on the negative?

Have you spent the time ensuring you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to accept and embrace whatever change comes your way, giving you the ability to make the change quickly and step up to whatever opportunity is presented?

Do you recognize that all change is good if you focus on the positive and not the negative?

If you are a change agent–you exist in a line of work that drives changes to others and you should be able to answer yes to all of these questions.

If you cannot answer yes, or you are going through a change that you are negative about and other change agents have to do everything in their power to lead you through the change, you need to reconsider your role. It is your job to devise and implement change. You, more than anyone, should be fully prepared to accept and implement change that affects you.

I have seen people that are not ready, but are in the role of a change agent.

To those people–you know who you are because of how you answered the questions above–either change how you react to change or change jobs. It really is that simple. As a change agent, you need to always be ahead of and ready to implement any change that impacts you in the same way expect it from others. This will help you better understand how to help others implement change and become more change ready.

I know that many people out there might have not had such a change-filled life as I have. However, you have chosen a field that is built on change–embrace it or get off the bus.

Culture, most important aspect of establishing continuous improvement

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We talk about “culture” all the time and there is often a misconception of what culture is.  According to Gallup, 30% of the US workforce is can be considered engaged in their work.  A Continuous Improvement Culture depends on an employee based that is engaged.  Building and Sustaining and Quality Culture had over twice as many sessions as three of the other theme and focus areas at the recent ASQ Conference, which presents it as one of the most important aspects in quality today.  Continue on my journey with National Graduate School as we explore my Continuous Improvement Culture Model and discuss ways to drive this culture into your organization.

http://ngs.edu/2014/05/08/building-culture-continuous-improvement-culture-building/

Blogging Weekly with National Graduate School

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john knottsHappy Cinco de Mayo!

I am now a weekly guest blogger with National Graduate School.  Please check out my blog there.

Follow us as we explore how to build a culture of continuous improvement.

Building a culture of continuous improvement isn’t easy and can take a considerable amount of time.  However, it’s very possible and results can be felt within weeks of embarking on the journey.  Over John’s 25 plus years of experience, he’s developed a model rooted in strategy and designed to build this culture in any organization.  Join John and National Graduate School as we weekly explore this model and ways to drive this type of culture.  We look forward to your thoughts and inputs along this journey, so join us and watch for our future blogs about once a week with the tag line “CIC.”

http://ngs.edu/2014/05/01/building-culture-continuous-improvement/

Persistence and multi modal in change pays off

Change Management Meandering Genius

Noise…that is the biggest problem in change…noise.

Many people who are concerned about the change, for whatever reason, tend to make a lot of noise.

This noise is something that we tend to react to and that causes us to slow down.

My advice in change is this…

1. Be persistent. Set a standard in meetings to have very complete minutes so those that don’t attend can only complain that they didn’t read the minutes’ not that you are moving forward without them. Have milestones and stick to them. Drive to decisions in meetings that feed the milestones and make sure that everyone knows what the milestone roadmap looks like. Don’t be pressured to deliver more or less than plan unless it completely fits…if you will hit your milestones, there is nothing you need to prove.

2. Operate in a multi modal structure. Identify all the change impacts and then develop plans in an agile function to address the risks of those impacts. Use various ways…meetings, leaders, communications, and special events to overcome the risks.

People will challenge you that you are not prepared for or you don’t have a plan to deal with something down the road, but having the plan to address it and addressing the current impact is a plan. Don’t let them stall your current effort in order to boil the ocean.

Don’t let them convince you to communicate to more people than you need to at this moment. There is a time and a place…releasing a lot of information at once to people not currently impacted by change decisions just produces more noise and now you are responding to it.

Keep moving. Those against change don’t want you to move forward so they win when the process is stalled and you start missing milestones. Essentially it’s like proof to them that this was a bad idea all along. The only reason milestones should be slipped is when external factors, not people slow them down.

Never say, “If this doesn’t work, we can always go back.” This is like throwing gasoline on a smoldering fire. You have just added significant fuel to give those against the change a glimmer of hope that if they derail this just enough, life will return to their expected normal. Out with the old and in with the new. Good ideas that are properly researched are good ideas…but good ideas fail when enough people significantly stall the ideas. Don’t give them this kind of rope.

Being persistent and having an agile multi modal approach to change will succeed. You will be frustrated and start to question–believe in the change and press forward. Not blindly, but with persistence.