K. Taylor Blog
K. Taylor Home > Blog

Change Effort Stuck?

August 13, 2010 – 11:47 am

Transformational change in organizations is hard (major understatement!)– and the more processes, systems, peoples and time involved the greater the level of difficulty. Because of this, it is very typical to initially underestimate any number of things: the time it will take, the people required, the resources needed, the impact to other areas, the amount of coordination required. In the early planning phases we tend to assume the best – things will go quickly, the right people will be available just when you need them, that it’s really not “all that difficult”. And then hard, cold, unrelenting reality sets in.

Once we begin to get a sense of the real scope and scale of the change, these challenges begin to surface in a real way. Quite often much energy and effort have already been expended. Commitments have been made. Plans are in place. People are stretched thin and worn out. So when the hard truth that it will take more than we ever imagined to put the change in place becomes evident – it is a very “inconvenient truth”.

Facing up to this hard reality is a daunting  leadership challenge. Our human propensity is to fight or flight. Fight looks like denying the reality, pushing on without adjustment, asking people to work 14 hours rather than the normal 10. Flight is abandonment, turning back, giving up. Neither is what is needed.

Here are 6 things that do need done.

  1. Yield to the Reality Be brutally honest about the true state. State the obvious. Declare the problem and the intent to fix it. Hiding problems almost always takes more time and energy than naming them and getting focused on a fix.
  2. Pause. Breathe. Slow things down for a moment to go faster later.
  3. Reflect. How much has been done? What is yet to be done? What do we know that was not knowable at kick off? What is getting the way? Why? What has changed? What needs to change to make this happen? What is our most important outcome? How do we get there? The more honest the answers, the more likely your fix will work.
  4. Re-Plan. Pull together the team. Use their much more accurate understanding of the effort to put together a plan that can succeed. Keep a focus on what is really important. Typically this is an adjustment – not a total change of direction.
  5. Recommit. Create fresh energy around the plan by reemphasizing the importance of the big goal. Maintain momentum by identifying shorter term wins that are within sight. Quickly get people moving forward again – this time with a clearer path with fewer obstacles.
  6. Press On. Step by Step. One milestone after another. Demonstrate the will to get this done. Make it clear that turning back is not an option.

And a final note…..don’t forget to look back on occasion and celebrate the progress made.

By Kris Taylor | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

The Power of Quotes

July 19, 2010 – 12:57 pm

 

I love quotes. I collect them. I use them in my e-mail footers. I search for them. I ponder them. Some are from smart and well known people. Others are not.

And here is why I find quotes so powerful.  For me, quotes elegantly capture an essential truth in words that is easy to grasp but not so easy to assimilate. The best quotes are “sticky” in the Dan Heath manner. They are thought compelling. They create an emotional reaction, paint a picture in our mind and cause us for one small moment to look inside ourselves.

I often use quotes in my change work, for all those reasons. Quotes can help us understand and articulate our world view, our core beliefs. They also can point out to us that there are a number of ways of looking at a certain situation.

Here are some of my favorite quotes on change. I encourage you to read through them and identify those which most reflect your personal beliefs about change. Which ones speak to your approach to change? Which do you disagree with? Which present a different way of thinking about change?

“When the drumbeat changes, the dance changes.”   Hausa People

“Opportunities are never lost. The other fellow takes those that you miss.”   Anonymous

“We must change to master change.”   Lyndon Johnson

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”  Seneca

“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and we shall find the way.”   Abraham Lincoln

“We don’t see things the way they are. We see things as we are.”  Anais Nin

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you must put up with the rain.”    Dolly Parton

“The business graveyard is lettered with companies that failed to recognize inevitable changes.”   Anonymous

“All birth is unwilling.”   Pearl Buck

“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”  Eleanor Roosevelt

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”  Helen Keller

“To resist change is like holding your breath….if you persist you will die. We must accept motion, must live with motion, and must know ourselves to be forever moving.”   David Meier

“Before you change your thinking, you must change what goes into your mind.”  Anonymous

“Progress is not created by content people.”  F. Tyger

“Come to the edge,’ he said. They said, ‘We are afraid.’ ‘Come to the edge,’ he said. They came. He pushed them…..and they flew.”    Guillaume Apollinaire

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”   Charles Darwin

By Kris Taylor | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)

Mistakes

June 27, 2010 – 7:26 pm

Mistakes….do you avoid them at all costs? Dread that someone will see you making one?  How often does your fear of making a misstep hold you back or make you freeze in your tracks? Perhaps you give up too easily or don’t even start on something new for fear of making a mistake.

Or do you find that once you’ve made a mistake you get stuck?  You find yourself unable to be brave enough to admit that you’ve made a mistake, stop brooding about it, and correct it.  Is it hard for you to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on?

Individuals and organizations share a proclivity –to avoid risks and maintain the status quo – even if the status quo may be a pretty yucky place. And the fear of making a mistake is often one big reason why.

I’ve taken some big risks and also made my share of mistakes, and found it an interesting exercise to take an inventory of both personal and professional risks and mistakes. Looking back at missteps and blunders….all the way back to grade  school – a few interesting patterns emerge for me.

First is that some of the biggest risks I’ve taken have NOT been mistakes. I counted about 6 BIG risks I’ve taken in my life – and I’d do each of them again. I’ve started 2 companies, made a major career change, and walked away from a good job in corporate America. I’ve taken personal emotional risks for those I love. And I would do each and every one again. That’s not to say they were easy or perfectly executed or even successful in the conventional viewpoint– but in each and every one I took a leap and flew: a bit wobbly at first and sometimes with less than perfect results. The key was that at the end I was better, stronger, smarter and more confident and able than before.

 I also came up with 6 significant MISTAKES – actions or situations for which I would like to have a “do over” or wish I could erase the tape.  I allowed a friend’s rejection in grade school undermine my social confidence for so many years that I am embarrassed to count them. I wallowed in misery for years over a situation I created and refused to stand up to and correct. I failed to see very obvious clues about things that just were not going to happen – and missed other opportunities waiting in vain. I’ve had more than my share of career dead ends.

Seeing the patterns of both successful risks taken and mistakes made – it became clear that my personal “aha” was that my biggest mistake tended not to be the initial action – but the failure to take action to correct the blunder. And 100% of that failure was the way I thought about the situation, my lack of self confidence, and my unwillingness to “own” the problem and consequently the solution.

We will make mistakes…and the higher we aim, the more likely that they will occur. I’d much rather reach high and fail some of the time, than to make the long run mistake of failing to reach high. Recognizing that, I’ve made an agreement with myself that when the inevitable mistakes occur, I will:

  1. Name my beliefs. Surface my self- limiting beliefs. Deal with them more rationally. Cultivate a new belief set that enables positive forward movement.
  2. Fail fast…and then move on.  No wallowing! No waiting to see if things get better. Once I recognize it as a failure, I will take swift action to change course.
  3. Make it Right. Own it. Apologize. Make things whole. Ask forgiveness. Fix it. Do it sooner, rather than later.
  4. Get back in the saddle smarter. Take the time to reflect. Face things square on.  Learn and learn fast. Recognize patterns.
  5. Continue to take calculated risks…even if I may not execute perfectly. Challenge myself again. Try it again from a different angle. Be smarter this time.

 

When I flip the “mistake” exercise upside down – and look at successes in my life – it is clear that not all were perfect from inception – but that I got much better results faster when I practiced the 5 actions above. I started two businesses without knowing all the answers, but learning along the way. I left my corporate job when it no longer was a fit – in very short order. I reflect daily – on what went well, what didn’t and what I learned as a result.

Life is fraught with opportunities to get tripped up – to get ourselves into “pickles”. This happens even more frequently if we intentionally put ourselves “out there”, aim high and try new things.  And although a cliché, the real failure is when we fail to try. Malcolm Forbes looks at it this way: “Failure is success if we learn from it.”

By Kris Taylor | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

The Death of Miss Kim

May 27, 2010 – 1:16 am

It was quick – and relatively painless. Gone, in minutes, after 17 years of being a part of my life. Rarely had my husband reacted so quickly to a request. But at the mere hint that Miss Kim, the lilac tree near our front door should go he sprang into action. Perhaps it was the enticement of using the brute force of his tractor, a chain and lots of horsepower.

An avid gardener, I have an aversion to removing any living thing that has some degree of life to it. No matter how overgrown, scraggly, and ugly. Yet after the shock of loosing Miss Kim, I reveled in the openness of our entry way and looked forward to the growth my hydrangea would experience now that Miss Kim no longer blocked the sun. I felt a degree of lightness, of new possibilities. Sorry, Miss Kim, but I am not missing you at all!

Leaders, too, have similar aversions to killing things that have lost their vitality or purpose, but have been around for a long time. Much easier to design, develop, improve, implement. Much harder to decommission, discontinue, halt or stop doing what has always been done. Even if it doesn’t serve a purpose anymore – at least one that we can discern. I have yet find an organization that did not have practices, policies, processes, tools, meetings, and reports that could go the way of Miss Kim.

Challenge yourself. When you implement something new, be explicit about what goes away and diligent about insisting that it does die. Insist on examining the tasks that consume precious time, energy and resources in your organization. What things have outlived their usefulness? What things do you do that your customers don’t need or value?

Once you identify what needs to go away – take a lesson from my husband. Use the best tools at hand and take quick action. I suspect that the people you lead will cheer – at least once they get over the initial disruption. When was the last time you found ways to do less rather than more?

By Kris Taylor | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (4)