As a change manager, my passion is to guide and facilitate change. I’m convinced, after all, that change is what drives progress, growth, and innovation. But lately, I find myself facing a different kind of challenge—one that sometimes goes against the grain of my role: I started advising against too much change. It might seem… Read More »
As change managers we know: In the labyrinth of organizational dynamics, the secret to success often lies NOT in the robustness of strategies or the sophistication of technologies but in the HUMAN ELEMENT: the collective will of the employees. A recent article by McKinsey, “Going all in: Why employee ‘will’ can make or break transformations,”… Read More »
When I first stepped into the Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart as an intern, it truly felt as though I had entered a foreign country, replete with its own language, customs, and unspoken rules. Since that initial experience, I’ve navigated through other corporate giants like Bayer, Fresenius, and Roche. Each was unique in its own right,… Read More »
In the medical world, the placebo effect is well-known for demonstrating how positive expectations can lead to real improvements in health. Interestingly, this psychological phenomenon has significant implications for change management. By understanding and utilizing the placebo effect within organizational change initiatives, leaders can profoundly influence how changes are perceived and embraced by their teams.… Read More »
The name might sound strange, but I’m sure you have come across this effect many times in your daily private and business life: Lake Wobegon Effect (in social psychology also called illusory superiority). It describes the human tendency to overestimate one’s own abilities and achievements in relation to others. Among many others, it has been… Read More »
I felt inspired this week by an opinion piece written by Jan C. Weilbacher in this month’s issue of Changement (German only) and want to share these insights. In his article, Jan tries to encourage the transfer of learnings and best practices from marketing to change management. To underpin this he differentiates the dark side… Read More »
Communicating change is true teamwork. Changing routines – sometimes even beliefs and mindsets – is not an easy (t)ask, and it takes constant communication, education, and leadership to make it happen. I keep emphasizing that all organizational change is nothing less but the sum of many small and individual changes. And convincing an individual to… Read More »
I recently stumbled across the story of E.F. Borisch. He was a product manager for Milwaukee Gear Company – a middle-size gearbox manufacturer in the US. Apparently frustrated with the level of progress in his own company, he sat down and wrote the article Fifty Reasons Why We Cannot Change which was published in the… Read More »
When you look around your organisation at the moment, there is one fact hard to ignore – change weariness is increasing. It was even before Corona but is now receiving a critical push with the pandemic. When you reflect on your own situation, you might even notice it in your own thinking and behaviour. And… Read More »
Yes, it’s this time of the year again… So happy new year first of all! At the same time, I’m sure you have used the last days or at least the last hours to think of what’s coming in 2021 and what you would like to do or achieve. I’m also quite sure you have… Read More »