Ask Dr. Change

Best of Ask Dr. Change - Season 1.

Leaders have a critical choice to make when initiating change. How they frame and communicate the change impacts how it’s received and embraced by the organization. Understanding the motivation behind change – whether it’s a wake-up call, a threat, a vision of something different, or an inspiration – is paramount. 

Our episode begins with a thought-provoking question from Charles, a seasoned...

This episode surfaces several important issues about how we as consultants and coaches can best support the people tasked with making change. It is critical to consciously shape our role and style so that we meet the needs of our clients in the best way possible. Too often, consultants and coaches have been trained in a specific approach that becomes “one size fits all.” In the context of major change, that doesn’t always work! It ...

Best of Ask Dr. Change - Season 1.

Do your too-busy leaders miss seeing important information that they know they need to make? Many leaders miss, ignore or side-step information that serves as a wake-up call… and instead press the snooze button until things get painful.  

In today's episode, I answer the question: "What triggered the major changes you are leading, and how do we get leaders to pay attention to it earlier?...

Phil Buckley is the model of his theme—Change with Confidence. In this lively interview, Phil and I explore the importance of changing mindsets and behaviors while guiding leaders to engage their organizations in proven strategies for succeeding at transformational change. Phil brings years of experience, and great stories, to illustrate essential approaches when consulting to and leading major change.

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Every project declares a timeline early in its life cycle. However, that declaration too often misses much of what determines its success! Early in your planning, you need to explore and land on an appropriate and realistic pacing strategy. This episode describes the difference between timeline and pacing strategy . It presents the three elements of pacing strategy and how the myriad dynamics influencing the project’s rollout are c...

Phase IX of The Change Leader’s Roadmap: Learn and Course Correct is your guide for wrapping up your project effectively and supporting the organization to continue to uplevel its change leadership capability from have learned from how this project was led. Learning and Course Correcting refers to what occurred in how you handled the work of all four quadrants: Content (Systems), Mindset, Behavior and Culture change. It ensures tha...

Phase VIII: Celebrate and Integrate the New State is key to the full adoption of your solution. Its first Activity focuses on acknowledging the work done to implement the Desire State solution so that people recognize that their reality is now different and they can feel a part of having successfully achieved it in the organization. The second Activity is a key one to enable full adoption. Its first task is designed to support indi...

Phase VII is where you finally get to roll out the Implementation Master Plan to do the work necessary to get your aspired Desired State into place. During Implementation, you will be monitoring both the process of change--the way in which the project is being led and how the organization and your stakeholders are taking on the Desired State’s requirements. You will also be monitoring the Desired State solution you are putting into...

In this bonus episode of Ask Dr. Change, Dr. Linda Ackerman Anderson shares an episode from the Change Signal podcast, hosted by Michael Bungay Stanier. Linda found this particular conversation especially relevant for leaders and consultants engaged in transformational change and wanted to bring it directly to her audience.

The featured episode—“Is Your Organization Change Allergic?”—explores why many organizations don’t simply resi...

Phase VI of the Change Leader’s Roadmap is a continuation of the Impact Analysis work done in Phase V. Here you take the impacts and issues you identified and grouped and determine resolutions to them, translated into actions that can then be compiled into the Implementation Master Plan. Key is integrating actions to accelerate work when it is being implemented. Your plan needs to reflect the four quadrants—actions to address minds...

Phase V of The Change Leader’s Roadmap: Analyze the Impact, takes a deep dive into the actual magnitude of change work that will be triggered by implementing the Desired State design determined in Phase IV. It compares all relevant aspects of the current state—organizational, behavioral, cultural and mindset—with the requirements of the Desired State. The questions and impacts needing further attention are identified, grouped, assi...

Phase IV of The Change Leader’s Roadmap is the Design Phase, where you take your Design Requirements from Phase III to determine the best solution to meet the needs of the future state. This high-level overview is key to ensuring you have a four-quadrant solution that will sustain its value once implemented. Details of the Design Phase are further outlined in Episode 41 of Ask Dr. Change. It covers in-depth the process, structure a...

Phase III of The Change Leader’s Roadmap: Assess the Situation to Determine Design Requirements enables the upcoming Design work for your project to be handled in the most informative and aligned way possible. In it, you are assessing relevant (four quadrant) aspects of the organization and its culture for what already support your desired future state, what blocks it and what might need to be added brand new. It also considers bes...

Phase II of The Change Leader’s Roadmap is designed to inform, enroll and inspire your Project Community and all stakeholders of your project in making the effort successful. It highlights that the project will require changes in people’s mindsets and behavior, which is a unique and essential expectation at project launch. This phase then develops more detailed plans for both Communications and Engagement so that your stakeholders ...

The Change Leader’s Roadmap process has nine phases. This episode presents the critical Upstream work of Phase I: Prepare to Lead the Change. It outlines the six Activities of this Phase and reviews the work of the Tasks for each Activity. While the lengthiest Phase, it sets up the project for success and demonstrates the importance of the leaders engaging in the foundational work to do so.

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