The Practice of Gratitude
Abundance Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I enjoy the gathering of family and friends and look forward to the feast, especially the leftovers.  More importantly, I love the reason for the day itself.  It is a time to express gratitude for the abundance we have in our lives. Thanksgiving also is a change manager’s holiday because in my experience, I have found that leaders wh

The Power of Stories During Times of Change
Duke Energy CEO James Rogers   One of the basic principles of most change leaders is that we can use rational discourse to influence the motivations and desires of people.    Present employees with a sound, logical line of reasoning and they will develop a broader understanding of a situation and make both the technical and behavioral changes required.  This thought is founded upon one of the most basic assumptions of science:  We can have objective knowledge of the world and everything that’s in it. According to the latest research in neuroscience, however, such knowledge is impossible.  The only world

Statistics, Studies and Denial
I am often asked by executives and project leaders to share the results of the latest research studies on change management.  Sometimes they are interested because they want to understand the risks associated with not budgeting to address the human side of change.  Other times they know the risks all too well and are looking to make the business case for additional change management resources to support a project. In all cases, however,

Managing The Balance Between Conflict and Creativity
Creativity.  Innovation.  Change.  These words represent the standard demands of our current workplaces.  Organizations have spent millions of dollars and countless hours attempting to infuse employees with the mindset and techniques required to live and breathe these values. But the very fuel that feeds these familiar mandates, however, inevitably produces conflict.  Individuals develop new ideas that clash with the tried and true.  Department innovators step on toes outside their functional domain.  Project teams bicker as they identify requirements and solutions.  And employees compete for control in the leadership vacuum left by right-sized organizations.