Have you ever wondered how you can bring hope and optimism to your team without wearing rose tinted glasses? In the brutal environment of a Vietnamese POW camp, two men survived under the harshest conditions, but with very different inner compasses. Admiral Jim...
“I feel like we’re this close to figuring this all out”, the CEO says smiling. And then she adds after a little pause, “even though I know it’s much more complex and we aren’t.” Everyone on the Board is smiling now, because they are all aware of their own conflicting...
“The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener.” Bill O'Brien, former CEO of Hanover Insurance, famously said this. It underscores that not only does it matter what leaders do and how they do it, but that their interior condition,...
Culture change is no mean feat. But when a system sees itself from all of its stakeholders’ perspectives, it find the answers to its challenges within.
Regina Vogel and I spent time this week with a group of young leaders who will be a crucial part of a Theory U initiative in the Irish public sector. As we engaged with them and got to know them, we noticed that they were conscious of their newness and that others...
In today’s change weary environment, the latest top down initiative easily triggers cynicism and fear which inform questions that all come down to this:
What’s the real agenda here?
In 1987, Alcoa’s new CEO transformed the steel company from a problem child into an innovative industry leader.
Bill O’Brien, former CEO of Hanover Insurance, observed of his efforts to lead transformational change in his organisation, that “the success of an intervention depends on the inner condition of the intervener.” To make clear what this means, O’Brien is making the...
Change is about an external, situational event: something old stops, something new begins. Transition is about the psychological reorientation which takes place inside of us as we adapt to the change. The distinction between the two matters because this is where the rhetoric of change and psychological safety and DEI and leadership meets reality.
When change leaders get caught up in resistance to change, they fail to shift the organisation towards the desired destination. That’s why they need to build their muscle of…