"A big milestone for Ford today, after mortgaging nearly all Ford assets and borrowing $23.5 billion from their banks, Moody’s Investor’s Service has lifted the Ford credit rating to investment grade." The blue oval is back. Change leaders take risks, sometimes very big ones. Ford exemplified this by avoiding backruptcy and borrowing from the government. Excerpts: In 2006, Ford put it all on the line. We began the Ford turnaround plan by mortgaging nearly all of our assets and borrowed $23.5 billion from our banks – a “giant home improvement loan,” as Ford CEO Alan Mulally likes to call it. This allowed us to pour that money into research and development so we could make world class cars that people want and value. You’re seeing the results of that success now with the global Fiesta and Focus, the all-new Ford Explorer, the fuel efficient and technologically capable new Ford Escape and the new 2013 Ford Fusion, due out later this year. Along with our factories and equipment, one of the assets Ford mortgaged was our none other than our iconic logo – the blue oval. The blue oval has long been associated with Ford and as a brand logo, it’s recognized worldwide. The script in the middle of the oval was taken from the original script created in 1912 and has been part of the Ford heritage for a century. And since Ford returned to profitability beginning in 2009, we have been paying down our debt against that loan. But because Ford credit had been below investment grade since 2005, the banks would not return those assets to us – including the blue oval – until at least three credit rating firms granted Ford investment grade status. Last month, Fitch’s was the second to restore Ford to that level. Today, we received notice that Moody’s Investor’s Service has lifted the Ford credit rating to investment grade. The blue oval is back. 
Leadership Required: Why the CEO needs to drive communication and culture change to improve customer experience. A simple but not simplistic 3 point list of a leader's role in communicating with all hands in culture change. From Experience Required™ Excerpted: The CEO’s role must be one of brand champion...[to] ensure that the company’s brand strategy is implemented, instead of becoming just another “thing” that everyone should do. Here are three things leaders can start to do today to ensure greater success: #1. Be visible. #2. Give feedback regularly. Giving their work greater meaning helps them realize they’re working for a company they can be proud of. #3. Demonstrate quick wins. You have to walk the talk and show you’re prepared to make changes that improve the experience. Once your employees realize their input is valued, they’ll open up more and be more motivated to follow your example. 
"How’s your leadership working on in your VUCA world (Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous)? " Liz Guthridge has written a great post on leading in a VUCA world; VCUA stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, a term coined by the US Army War College in the weeks before September 11, 2001. Liz & I discussed the need for collaboration and community across disciplines to succeed in a VUCA world in connection with our recent panel + Open Space presentation we did for a global change conference on Success Secrets of Trusted Change Advisors. __________________________ VUCA can provide threats [and] offer opportunities, especially if you translate VUCA as “vision, understanding, clarity and agility.” ~ Dr. Bob Johansen __________________________ Here are some excerpts of her take on the insightful presentation by one of our keynote presenters: "Leading in a VUCA world" is a popular phrase with Bob Johansen, a distinguished fellow and former president of Institute for the Future. According to Dr. Johansen, who shared his 2020 forecast at the Association of Change Management Professionals global conference this week, our VUCA world is not going away. In fact it’s just going to spin faster during the next decade. In his talk “External Future Forces That Will Disrupt the Practice of Change Management,” Dr. Johansen noted that VUCA is not necessarily doom and gloom. While VUCA can provide threats, it also can offer opportunities, especially if you translate VUCA as “vision, understanding, clarity and agility.” As for his two big 2022 predictions for organizational change agents, they are: 1. “The digital natives (now 16 years or younger) will create new practices to make change through gaming.” (The other key phrase besides gaming in this sentence is “make.” Dr. Johansen predicts that a culture of makers will drive the next generation of change. And as a result, leaders need to show the “maker instinct” trait.) 2. “Reciprocity-based innovation will focus on the economic, social and psychological value of reciprocity.” (Two important traits for leaders are smart-mob organizing and commons creating. Think Creative Commons.) Dr. Johansen challenged the 825 of us in attendance to figure out how to help people and organizations adapt to these changes and others. To do this, we should watch our terms and our questions. Read Liz's full post here. 
The gem in this Forbes post focusing on reconciling disciplined execution with innovation is that it concludes with how much it IS about control when collaborative group methods, Agile included, are used. Excerpts: The solutions that the experts have offered to the problem of reconciling disciplined execution with innovation have all tended to be various ways of increasing or modifying control over an increasing number of ideas:
...[It IS about] giving greater freedom to those people doing the work to exercise their talents and creativity, but doing so within short cycles so that those doing the work can themselves see whether they are making progress or not.
...control thrives on non-transparency. ...introducing (real) Agile means exposing all of the non-transparent tricks that hierarchical managers play on their subordinates to maintain power. Is it any wonder that Agile isn’t naturally popular with the command-and-control gang? Photo credit: Agile Boston event, by IT Event Photography Boston 
A reminder, we have a companion ScoopIt site that is all about change tools & resources. Here's a sample. If you like it, feel free to follow us there as well as suggest good posts to enrich what we post as useful change management tools to share. Reference from CMRsite.com ScoopIt: It's been awhile since I've been able to track the original source of this helpful model that was listed without an attribution in the Worthington-Brighton Change Tools book in the late 90s. Here's the source: The Managing Complex Change model was copyrighted by Dr. Mary Lippitt, founder and president of Enterprise Management, Ltd., in 1987. Many experienced practitioners appreciate how it has categories for the many symptoms of ineffective change, which is why I think I've seen it at least a dozen times over the years. A helpful handout in pdf. is available at this link: http://www.prevention.org/inc/Publications/documents/Forum_Winter_04_Managing.pdf 
"I asked the 'change elite,' how many of you know about/have participated in an Open Space event?" - Deb (curator of this newsletter) Well, among change practitioners, only about 8 - 10 hands were raised in a group of over 150 attendees at the global Association of Change Management Practitioners in Las Vegas this past week, (April 1-4, 2012) where we discussed Success Secrets of Trusted Change Advisors. I'm just back from Las Vegas this week, and wanted to share this preliminary view from the "change elite," heh, with you. _____________________ "First people need to know you, then like you, then trust you." _____________________ Preliminary photos from our Open Space event are also shared on this link. Chip Heath, coined us as the "change elite" - that would be all of us attending ACMP 2012 conference. Heh. Professor Heath, Stanford, is the author of Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard, and was our first keynote speaker this past Sunday. What a pleasure it was to offer Open Space to such an audience of over 150 following an energized, robust Q & A discussion with an elite group of panel-mates as well, a mix of change leader internals at major, well-known large companies and external consultants. I was in a middle role, as I functioned as a hybrid internal/external while I worked at the University of Michigan in Organization Development:
And yes, it was Vegas. I've include ONE photo on this post of my Las Vegas tour, the day before the conference started. (As they say, what happens in Vegas, stays on Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and now, ScoopIt.) We also welcome you to the discussion via our new "Trusted Advisors" LinkedIn discussion group, which is an open, join-able group. Check out the session Slideshare there, that includes our Open Space and Trusted Advisors handout, which I'll also upload to my Reveln blog soon in .pdf format. Photo credit: Deb Nystrom, Reveln Consulting Thanks for stopping by! 
"Do you want sustained cultural change ? Until the operations change, NOTHING will stick." Yeah, yeah. Change consultants know that cultural change can kickstart with organizational changes or strategic changes that look powerful & imply true change. But it is the work in the trenches, the operations changes that make the difference for going the distance. ____________________________ “Building a team that combined the old and the new was critical to our success." ____________________________ Excerpted, a few of the golden gems: [Operations] is often the most difficult part of the change process because operations involve ingrained habits, practices, and systems. It’s worth the effort because corporate culture is the only truly sustainable competitive advantage. [DN: I'd add leader behaviors for innovation, coaching & team collaboration support.] From the Equifax case study: “Building a team that combined the old and the new was critical to our success. It was critical for me as a leader to not underestimate the people part, getting people to engage, be willing to support and sustain the change. Strategy and execution has to be joined by a very strong psychological conversion of beliefs, from the old patterns to the new.” 
While researching his forthcoming book — Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck — co-author Anthony Tjan made a fascinating discovery: a surprising number of company founders and business-builders attribute much of their success to luck. ... There are ways that leaders create their own luck, as listed on the innovation leadership companion post on Innovations & Institutions, Will it Blend. Becoming disconnected on the way to the top, as co-author Anthony Tjan describes, is one way for leaders to lose their luck. Excerpted: Almost 25% of those we surveyed came out as "luck-dominant" on the Entrepreneurial Aptitude Test we devised; many more gave luck at least partial credit. ...Here's the paradox: Once they have made it to the top — after they've reached high levels of entrepreneurial or corporate success — leaders often become disconnected from the crucial lucky qualities and relationships that helped get them there in the first place. By definition, the top is less of a journey and more of an arrival point. A newfound reputation is difficult to risk. We've identified seven attributes, and they are among the most difficult ones for leaders to master and maintain. They are: humility, intellectual curiosity, optimism, vulnerability, authenticity, generosity, and openness. The post defines these and begs the question: How do leaders reconnect to the reality, attitude, and relationships that can sustain and take their company's excellence to a new place? Author: Anthony Tjan is CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball and vice chairman of the advisory firm Parthenon. 
These privately held up-and-comers have compelling business models, strong management teams, marquee customers, strategic partners and precious investment capital. As profiled on the Social Media Learning Lab, it's gratifying to see the social media example, Smashburger, as a top runner on this list for Forbes: Smashburger, tops Forbe's new list of America’s 100 Most Promising Companies–privately held up-and-comers. Since 2007, the Denver-headquartered patty chain will have grown to 143 locations (half company-owned, half franchised) and $54 million in annual revenue by the end of 2011. Another 450 franchise agreements are already on the books. The companies on our AMPC list hail from 22 industries, with software-and-services taking the biggest slice (35%). Facts:
The excerpted post below is part of a two part series that offers change and innovation adoption rate tools. What I like about Kevin's 2-part series is that it is not about the unconvincing ROI, return on investment metric. It is about the powerful effect of stories, examples and case studies that inspire and "spark ...imagination. His first post focuses on the five (5) factors to use to predict the rate of adoption. The second post offers tools and templates to give you an adoption rate measurement. ___________________________ Contrary to popular belief, an ROI will not convince them. ...it is stories and examples and case studies which spark their imagination. ~ Kevin Jones, vinJones.com ___________________________ Also keep in mind that change and innovation are quite different from each other. This is particularly highlighted in our two curation streams: Innovation in Institutions, Will it Blend? and the one you are reading, Change Leadership Watch. We are also highlighting Kevin's tools on CMRsite.com, a non-partisan change management resources site. Excerpts: The Adoption Index 1)“Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes." The degree of relative advantage may be measured in economic terms, but social prestige factors, convenience, and satisfaction are also important factors.” 2)“Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters.” 3)“Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use.” Read the full post for all five factors and the link to part 2 of the series that offers adoption rate tools. via vinjones.com 
"'Innovation campuses' are springing up everywhere" especially in the Midwest.
...the intentional cohabitation of academics and industry is key to all of them, something university leaders say made the ambitious and expensive projects palatable to legislators and voters even as the economy and higher ed appropriations shrunk.
Here's sampling of what is under contruction, via Inside Higher Ed:
...many [are] in the Midwest and almost all involving fancy new buildings and partnerships between public colleges and private corporations.
Public research universities have long had ties to state industries, and technology transfer is widespread in higher education. The new innovation campuses include:
Via Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) 
"Leader lessons from those who were too slow to adapt to new ways of sharing the message." Higher education and churches are exemplars of slow change. There are many examples of higher education disruption in this curation stream. Here's the first church-based example with more to come. The lessons apply to all change leaders, especially considering the pervasiveness of culture & belief in institutions of all types. Excerpted:
Tom Standage of The Economist magazine wrote an article comparing the Protestant Reformation to the current use of social media in the Arab Spring.
Martin Luther, he says, was a relatively unknown cleric who took advantage of the hottest technology of 1517. He wrote short articles and theses, printed short and punchy pamphlets and also developed catchy hymns to pass his message along.
Tom points out three major ways that the Reformation-age use of printing parallels our own social media.
1) he connected directly with the everyman, writing in German, not Latin. He lead singing that stuck with people. He wrote short, non-theological works to make powerful points.
2) When the church wanted to refute Luther, they wrote in Latin and attacked his theology. ...church leaders understood, but failed to capture the everyman...
3) Finally, ...Martin Luther ultimately could not control his own message. ...On the negative side, this lead to a bloody peasant's rebellion that Luther had to distance himself from. On the positive side, ...the Reformation was free to spread out of Germany and across the world.
That Fast Company identifies GenFlux seems a is a renegade idea way disrupting traditional HR staffing / people concepts for organizations. Think "churn" as a way of being. "The future of business is pure chaos. ...So it seems...today. GenFlux is a mind-set that embraces instability...even enjoys--recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions." A variety of careers & ages are profiled in Fast Co's piece. I remember back when "white water change" and "pinch-points of change," were 90's terms tossed out while working on the latest reorganization, staffing change or technology installation, followed by the brand, is "you" in so many words. Excerpts: "There's a difference between the broadcast and networked worlds," danah boyd (lower case by intention) and Senior Researcher at Microsoft, says. "Command and control and hierarchical structures are being disintegrated. Big companies are trying to make that slow down. They have massive internal structural issues." ...From classrooms arranged in rows of seats to tenured professors, from the assembly line to the way we promote executives, we have been trained to expect an orderly life. Thrivers are the members of Generation Flux, who are less a demographic designation than a psychographic one. GenFlux is a mind-set that embraces instability, that tolerates--and even enjoys--recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions. ...To be successful, businesses and individuals will have to work at it. This is no simple task. The vast bulk of our institutions--educational, corporate, political--are not built for flux. Few traditional career tactics train us for an era where the most important skill is the ability to acquire new skills. "I don't have any personal challenges about throwing away the past. If you're not changing, you're giving others a chance to catch up." ~ Pete Cashmore, founder of the widely popular, Mashable, with more than 2 million twitter followers |
"Change success: Putting leadership development at the heart of a major operations-improvement effort paid off in BIG boost in income for a global industrial company." Once again, a smart leadership investment pays off during a major change implementation boosting income by about $1.5 billion a year. Excerpts from the case example: Too often senior executives overlook the “softer” skills their leaders will need to disseminate changes throughout the organization and make them stick. These skills include:
______________________________ The senior team had to look beyond technical improvements and focus on helping the company’s leaders... ______________________________ In this case example, drives for improvement carried a stigma of incompetence, current performance was considered “good enough”, and conflict tended to be passive-aggressive. There was also a pervasive fear of making mistakes—reinforced by the company’s strong culture of safety and of risk aversion. The senior team had to look beyond technical improvements and focus on helping the company’s leaders to master the personal behavioral changes needed to support the operational ones. The company mounted an intense, immersive, and individualized leadership program. The results are still unfolding, but after three years the company estimates that the improvement program has already boosted annual pretax operating income by about $1.5 billion a year. Furthermore, executives see the new leadership behavior as crucial to that ongoing success. Read the full story here. 
"We've discovered that some things matter much less than you may suspect when building a great team. Getting the smartest people, for example." It's the how, the what, not so much! HBR has a new issue out this month, April 2012 on teams. In my LinkedIn review of what's new, I see buzz about updates to the team models and traditions of the likes of Belbin, Tuckman, Gibb-Dannemiller and crew. Excerpted from a pre-publication blog post by Alex "Sandy" Pentland: "...I've encountered teams that are "clicking." I've experienced the "buzz" of a group that's blazing away with new ideas in a way that makes it seem they can read each others' minds." ____________________________ HOW we communicate turns out to be the most important predictor of team success, and as important as all other factors combined, including intelligence, personality, skill, and content of discussions. ____________________________ MIT's Human Dynamics Laboratory used wearable electronic sensors to capture how people communicate in real time. Not only did they determine the characteristics that make up great teams, but they also described those characteristics mathematically. What's more, we've discovered that some things matter much less than you may suspect when building a great team. Getting the smartest people, for example. Our data show that great teams:
...According to our data, it's as true for humans as for bees: How we communicate turns out to be the most important predictor of team success, and as important as all other factors combined, including intelligence, personality, skill, and content of discussions. The old adage that it's not what you say, but how you say it, turns out to be mathematically correct. Read the full blog post, The Hard Science of Teamwork, here. 
The power of a story to teach, reinforce culture, and reward behavior, is central for how this bank executive leads at City National Bank in Los Angeles. This reminds me of the power of the story by consulting colleague, Dr. Rick Fenwick, of Fenwick-Koller Associates. We recently completed another round of Team Concept training for the UAW workers at GM Powertrain. Our 4 day session is nuanced by story, Rick's colorful examples as well as stories shared by team members, learning about managing team experiences, including tools to help. Goldsmith's example below embeds recognition and reward of the story into the culture of City National Bank. Excerpt: Russell Goldsmith is chairman and chief executive of City National Bank in Los Angeles. In its “Story Idol” competition, he says, employees talk about “what they did that promoted teamwork or helped a client by going the extra mile.” _____________________________ We [taught] people how to share stories [including] something called “Story Idol,” and every quarter there’s a competition... _____________________________ ...we have a lot of great stories to tell. If you look up City National, one of the stories you will see is the story of Frank Sinatra’s son who was kidnapped. The first C.E.O., Al Hart, was a real friend of Frank Sinatra’s and famously opened the vault on a Saturday and got the ransom money. That happened in the early ’60s, but people are still telling that story. It’s a source of pride. We brought in consultants to teach people how to share stories in a more organized way that underscored the culture. We do something called “Story Idol,” and every quarter there’s a competition among our 79 offices. It’s a way to give colleagues a pat on the back and a moment in the sun for doing the right thing, and it democratizes and decentralizes positive reinforcement. _____________________________ ...what matters most is the recognition, and the respect from your peers as you stand on the stage in front of 300 people. _____________________________ The people who submit the winning stories [Story Idol competition] all get iPads. The winners themselves ...get significant cash awards. But what matters most is the recognition, and the respect from your peers as you stand on the stage in front of 300 people. Read the full post via the New York Times by author ADAM BRYANT here. === Thanks to my change colleague, Liz Guthridge, @LizGuthridge, for the heads up. If you have a change leader that merits a look via this curation stream, let me know via DebNystrom@Reveln.com or suggest it as a curation post in ScoopIt. More about us, on the Fenwick Koller Associates team with Reveln Consulting is here. 
Factors that truly differentiate top firms. It's the leader teams! Excerpts: Of the investment professionals we surveyed, fully 94% agree with the statement: "Culture is important to our firm's success." Why do they think so? For them, the key benefit is "effective decision making." Both are interesting findings from an industry often seen as celebrating lone geniuses and superstars. The same "elite" six firms that demonstrated superior cultures also posted senior leadership teamwork scores that are significantly higher than average. In particular, they distinguished themselves from the rest of the investment industry on five dimensions. Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/where_teamwork_thrives_in_the.html?awid=9186393578493521766-3271 
Few companies decide to adopt new strategies without being forced to by financial trauma. What can we learn from those rare companies that achieve both successful major change and superior long-term financial performance? Excerpted research includes: Cadbury Schweppes, Tesco and Smith & Nephew all displayed the rare combination of making strategic transformations and, at the same time, achieving strong performance year after year for 20 years relative to industry peers around the world. FINDINGS
Sloan's goal was to draw insights from the small subset of high performers that successfully transformed themselves. Among other things, they wanted to understand the role of history — for example, which management processes and capabilities do companies need to develop over time. . Together, these advantages helped them establish the virtuous cycle of strategic transformation that their counterparts could not. (See “A Virtuous Cycle for Strategic Transformation.”) . Source: Achieving Successful Strategic Transformation By Gerry Johnson, George S. Yip and Manuel Hensmans Photo Credit: MIT Sloan Management Review, March 20, 2012
How can you be fully prepared to help assess senior-level leaders for change roles? Daryl Conner, one of the earliest practitioners, author and consultancy for the modern change management practice, is sharing gems in a 2 part series about change leader behaviors. __________________________ ...surfacing obstacles and addressing risks are inherent to successfully managing change __________________________ The lists of Leader behaviors are useful references when looking at the leader case studies and examples on this curation stream. Here are some excerpts from Daryl's 2 part series: .
. - Ensures people understand that surfacing obstacles and addressing risks are inherent to successfully managing change
- Instills a culture where problems that are surfaced and mitigated early are seen in a positive light, rather than as something to be hidden
"Managers’ leadership behaviors & operational decisions get to the root of the problem with failing change efforts including cultural transformations." “…studies show that upper management is only aware of about 4% of all the problems...” From a post today by Graham Garrison: .
.
. In change, it's getting both the leadership & management behaviors & actions to aligned realization, reference Daryl Conner (Managing at the Speed of Change) and his Commitment Curve. Garrision highlights: .
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.
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. It is in the tactical and operational structures of IT, metrics/measurement, org structure and HR (compensation, what gets people hired, fired, and promoted) where leadership & manager values become "rhetoric or reality," says Garrison. 
"Introducing students as young as 13 to the principles of EI can have an significant impact on behaviour and academic performance. The benefits only increase as the students mature towards school leaving age." This HR article captures the systemic nature of our education system and the need for long term thinking, especially with the decline of creativity in the U.S. Excerpts: Dr Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania found that scores on a test of optimism in 500 UPENN freshmen were a better predictor of actual grades during their first year than SAT scores or high school grades. ...There is no doubt that by measuring and developing key emotional elements such as self-awareness, empathy, adaptability, relationship skills and optimism (none of which you will find on the curriculum of most schools today!) [improves] our predictions around which students will succeed and which may need more support. ...we can actually improve academic results and, even more importantly, prepare our young people better for higher education or the workplace. 
Donors to the 100th campaign of the Neediest Cases Fund responded in greater numbers than in past years, helping the fund top $7 million for the first time in five years. The New York Times has good news to report with its 100th campaign to do good. It did what a now multi-platform publishing business does best, share stories about:
. Donors responded in greater numbers than in the past three campaigns, reversing a trend of falling totals and helping the fund top $7 million for the first time in five years. . Perhaps this good news mirrors hope for our US economy as well? . Michael Golden, the president of the fund and vice chairman of The New York Times Company said, “...readers and viewers of The New York Times are touched by these stories and want to help people that they don’t know in this time when there is a lot of misfortune.”
Leading change is about being connecting to and engaging everyone affected by the change, a strength of social media.
Change leaders have engaged infrastructure that includes social media in other examples on this newsletter curation stream including IBM, Proctor & Gamble and Apple.
Excerpts: Acceptance of change – processes, services, working relationships, policies and more - can be accelerated across the organization through the real-time sharing of experiences.
Social networking and collaboration applications are extremely effective ways of bringing employees together to perform new processes and to share experiences – both the successes and the temporary setbacks. People with common interests or related roles can form communities to learn from and support one another.
Deb: At key points, it's important to create the environments and provide several good tools that allow staff to do this for themselves, instead of attempting to engineer all of this from the top. Social media policies and guidelines help immensely. Via the Change Samurai
Having a strong domestic manufacturing base is vital to the United States maintaining its world leadership in innovation. I've heard people in Michigan and Ohio talk about the need to reclaim US based manufacturing. Seeing and experiencing the impact of GM, Ford and Chrysler on the systemic health of the US economy, and the moderation of hubris in these organization, is convincing, as is Willy Shih's essay. Manufacturing is also quite different than it was in the 50s. GM's Akerson also has a bit to say about the politized nature of the car industry's recovery. It's helpful to review his perspective. Excerpted from Willy Shih's blog: Manufacturing provides the foundation for many kinds of innovations. If manufacturing processes are immature or the know-how needed to develop the product or process to produce the product is tacit and not well codified, you cannot innovate in a country if the factories are on the other side of the world. R&D and manufacturing must be located close to each other so their people can together figure out how to develop a product that can be manufactured at a cost and level of quality that will make it a commercial success. Source: Willy C. Shih is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. Prior to joining HBS, he spent 28 years in the IT and consumer electronics industry, where he worked as an executive at Thomson, Kodak, IBM, Digital Equipment, and Silicon Graphics. 
It's creativity vs. experience as a new flock of leaders take their companies to public markets. |
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