A primary role of change leaders is to blow the whistle early when a program is at risk of failure (see last week’s article). To prevent failures, wise leaders run a pre-mortem to minimize risk.You are likely familiar with the term post-mortem: An investigation of the cause of death. While...
Your Initiative Needs a Canary
“Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) can be credited with many of the agency’s most flamboyant successes in planetary science. That’s why the aerospace world was surprised last year by the lab’s failure to deliver an asteroid probe on time, a stumble that NASA responded to by postponing a JPL-led Venus mission....
How to recharge your soul
I’m sitting at Gate D21 of the Las Vegas airport waiting to board. Motion catches my eye - a person emerging from a recently landed flight is waving vigorously at the person beside me. He gets up and waving back hurries to embrace his friend. Massive grins ensue. I look...
A Path Through Chaos
“Today I’m pleased to present a new vision for our company! We are going to make our competition look like junior players when we roll out service capabilities they’ve only dreamed of! To do that, we will replace several of our major systems, overhaul our data, introduce cutting-edge AI capabilities,...
Take Your Garbage With You
It doesn’t take long to notice the absence of something in Japan we take for granted: garbage cans. Traveling from Tokyo to Hiroshima, train announcements reminded us to take our garbage when disembarking. No cans in the stations and none along the streets. The only receptacles available were for recycling....
Make the Future Tasty
Returning to Japan has been a fantastic experience punctuated by fabulous food. If you’ve never been, small restaurants are everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. Choices are endless.When you’re looking for a good restaurant in another country, how do you decide? We navigated by sight. It’s common in Japan for restaurants to...
Change Leadership Embraces AI
I hate the phrase “Change is hard.” It’s a stupid statement that teaches people to fear change and resist. Consider that the AI tool ChatGTP cracked one million users within five days of launch. That’s rapid adoption - faster than any other app. Not hard at all for many people. We adapt...
I’m Afraid! Resistance Part 3
In the previous two weeks, we covered the first two common resistance responses to change: I can’t and I won’t. What’s left once you’ve cleared those barriers? The toughest one of all: I’m afraid.Consider what accompanies the fear response: Narrowed vision Survival mentality Avoidance It’s pretty hard to get someone to adapt when they...
I won’t! Resistance Part 2
If you search for images of resistance, you inevitably end up with raised fists, and people working out with stretchy bands. They’re both right. Resistance is not one-dimensional, and it’s not all bad, despite the negative connotations we associate with the word. Last week we looked at the first resistance response: I...
The Three Responses to Resistance
TRY THIS EXERCISE: I commonly ask people learning about change to consider this scenario: An older man with a cane is standing at the side of the road on a busy street. When you offer to help, he refuses. Why?Typical responses include: He’s afraid of the traffic He doesn’t know me,...
