Have you heard our clients describe what happens when they work with us?   Empowered Leadership: From Uncertainty to A Confident Leadership Transition When Janet and Michelle approached me about their year-long leadership transition at a regional educational association, they balanced enthusiasm with healthy skepticism. “We’ve worked together effectively for...

Have you heard our clients describe what happens when they work with us?   Beyond Solutions – How This Team Transformed From Within At our first meeting, the CEO of a 200-person financial services firm shared a powerful realization: their company had fallen out of alignment with the diverse, multicultural...

  In a recent newsletter, I introduced the concept of “personal resilience” as a foundational element for organizational strength. This post is part of a series exploring more concrete ways to develop this critical capacity. As leaders, we often focus on organizational systems while neglecting the foundation upon which they...

Have you heard our clients describe what happens when they work with us?   Rebuilding from the Ground Up: Revitalizing an Academic Department When James accepted the interim chair position at a prestigious university department, he inherited what many would consider a leadership vacuum—the department had lost not only its...

  “Psychological safety is the belief that in a group you’re a part of you can ask a question, make a mistake, take a risk, ask for help without fear of embarrassment, exclusion, or retribution.” The Psychological Safety Playbook   Interested to learn more about Psychological Safety and the different it makes in the...

Have you heard our clients describe what happens when they work with us?   Transforming Uncertainty into Clarity Sarah, a leader at a national nonprofit, faced a daunting challenge. As the eighth leader of her function in just 4 years, she was charged with leading a successful turnaround. The organization...

Have you heard our clients describe what happens when they work with us?   Unlocking Potential: From Resistance to Cohesion When Sam stepped into his new leadership role at a global pharmaceutical company, he inherited more than a team—he inherited a tribe. With deep loyalties to their previous leader and...

How hard can it be to develop a plan? You’d be surprised at just how challenging it can be! There are so many things that can go wrong – both in the process of developing the plan, and in the process of implementing the plan. But I think there is one...

Leadership Transitions can be hard. Even The Walt Disney Company has stumbled, as this article points out,  highlighting its efforts to land on the right path. types of organizational change The problem: companies are not aware that they are engaging in ‘magical thinking’ when it comes to leadership transitions. Organizations,...

  Unleashing Collective Wisdom: Using “Wise Crowds” to Supercharge your Leadership In today’s fast-paced environment, leaders are continually confronted by new and unfamiliar situations. This means that they are also looking for guidance on how to deal with these novel challenges. When you are facing something you’ve not encountered before,...

Congratulations! You’ve done it! organizational change leadership You’re at the end of your change initiative, and, despite earlier concerns, things have ended successfully! How are you going to celebrate this accomplishment? Here are some ideas of activities that you can do together as a team! Team lunch or dinner: Organize...

What happens at the end of an organizational change initiative? If you search online or through books and articles on managing change, there are surprisingly few resources to guide change leaders. organizational change leadership However, the ending phase of change (the Harvesting phase in the RCA Seasons of Growth framework)...

The end is in sight! The finish line is close! At last, you can declare success and bring this change initiative to an end! Or can you? What might happen to all of the hard work that you and the team have put into this project? We’re in the final phase...

“Here’s what’s happening, and here’s what you can expect.” examples of organizational change   With these words, the pilot on a recent flight let us know that there was going to be a delay. She explained why (storms on our flight path), how long we could expect to be delayed...

Implementing organizational change doesn’t have to be challenging. If you’re a leader interested in how to do this well, I’ve got 5 insider tips to share with you. Change is the only constant, the old adage goes. Organizations need to change to meet new demands, and an evolving marketplace. When...

What can we learn from gardeners about organizational change and leadership? Actually, quite a lot! Gardeners are stewards of the land. And good leaders recognize that they are stewards of their teams and organizations. (Even if they are founders, they will most likely pass it on to someone else at...

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” Katzenbach and Smith (2015) The Wisdom of Teams I find this such a helpful description of a team! It is simple, clear,...

Will a Mackenzie Scott grant to your nonprofit make you MORE or LESS attractive to other donors? Ever since Mackenzie Scott began making unexpected Transformational Gifts to nonprofits in 2019/2020 (a total of about $16 billion so far), some have had a concern that these gifts will somehow ‘chase away’...

Oof – that was unexpected! Who knew there was going to be so much resistance to this organizational change? Have you ever been in this situation? You recently launched a change initiative with great fanfare! You’ve been planning this change for a while, but the response is less enthusiastic than...

You’re excited about the future! You’ve got an ambitious strategy to grow and scale a proven program so that you can reach many more people! But are you really ready for growth? The unfortunate reality is that too many organizations find themselves overwhelmed by the practical challenges of managing growth....