Author Archives: ven00kat

#49 Change management

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When something is broken at work, business process, behavior, business strategy, systems… the list of choices seems endless, your first instinct may be to solve it. Of course, you quickly discover this is not always easy or smooth. The indignation of your seeing a problem that everyone seems to be ignoring is replaced by the frustration of not being able to solve it.

If you are not fostering change, you are not being a leader. However, this is a case where “less” is actually “more.” Meaning, you don’t want a long list of things to change on your daily checklist. That will spread you thin and if you are fatigued, you will not have the strength to build the coalition needed to drive change. Getting people to agree seems to be 80% of the effort. Then solving the problem is another 80%. Wait… that is more than 100%, but you get the point. It is a lot of work to drive meaningful change.

Forget the crusade, pick your spots, buckle up, and knuckle down. Target only the high ROI change efforts. If it takes time, so be it. After all, you are doing your best.

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#48 Whitespace

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It is comforting to come to a predictable work place. Comforting, but boring if done for long periods.

A work place that is 100% predictable is probably not innovating or pushing the envelope. Either their customers are not demanding enough or perhaps there is no competition or other burning platform to rally around to drive change.

If you want to work in a fun and exciting workplace, actively look for “whitespace.” These are the difficult problems that everyone wants solved, but no one wants to step up to solve it. Identify the whitespace, reward those who jump on the opportunity to take over the whitespace. Be sure to set the right priority so that people are not spread thin. Find the right sequence and do the top 2 or 3 items well, instead of doing a number of things badly. The illusion of progress when you do many things, may well turn out to be just that… an illusion.

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