Implementation · Leading change

Assessing a team’s readiness to adopt agile practices over coffee

I just finished an article on assessing the likelihood that a team will successfully adopt a change, such as a new process.  So this arrtice provides an example of how the approach I discussed might work in practice. Lets say that my client, Jenny, wants to implement “Agile practices” in her organisation.  So she buys offers me… Continue reading Assessing a team’s readiness to adopt agile practices over coffee

Advertisement
Implementation · Leading change

Rating a team’s readiness for change

I have just written a couple of articles about understanding a team’s existing world. But how does that relate to the likelihood of a new initiative being adopted? How do we actually know if a particular group will accept, adopt and sustain a new way of working? And what can we do to increase the… Continue reading Rating a team’s readiness for change

Consulting · Investigation · Leading change · Techniques

The 7-S framework (+2) for evaluating change readiness

I recently explained the “Arenas of Change”  approach that I often use to understand a team and its environment. So I thought it might be a good time to discuss another approach that I often use - the 7-S framework developed by McKinsey Consulting. For a proper explanation of the approach and its use and background, it… Continue reading The 7-S framework (+2) for evaluating change readiness

Idea management · Implementation · Investigation · Leading change

The Arenas of Change for assessing change readiness

To communicate effectively, you should align your message to your audience. And to drive effective change, you should align your change to the drivers and constraints faced by those you are planning to impact. But, as I discuss in a long-winded recent article, that is easier said than done. And unfortunately my solution here is… Continue reading The Arenas of Change for assessing change readiness

Idea management · Implementation

Is change hard because people are stupid?

When I first got involved in projects, I used to get frustrated that people so often did the opposite of what was needed. We would roll out a new tool, and they would go back to manual processing; we would roll out a new process, and they would go back to making errors and causing… Continue reading Is change hard because people are stupid?

Arguing · Reflection

It may be logical, but does it make sense?

If you have been reading my blog, you have probably heard just about all you want to hear about logic for a while. But I suffer from the opposite problem – Logic-o-philia (not a real word). But a comment on a recent article reminded me that I can be completely logical, and still not get… Continue reading It may be logical, but does it make sense?

Arguing · Investigation

Bad logic. Some common fallacies

I was talking about assessing documents (and statements) to see whether they are “logical”. Critics of “logical communication” will quite rightly make the point that a document can be logical, but boring, irrelevant and completely un-compelling. This is true and I should get to talking about it soon. But before I do I wanted to… Continue reading Bad logic. Some common fallacies

Arguing · Investigation · Techniques

Assessing the logic of a whole document

In my last article (“Is that logical?”) I discussed a way to test the logic of a statement. But a document filled with logical statements can still be gobbledegook if the statements are not linked together logically. So how can we assess the overall logic of a document? The first step is to look at… Continue reading Assessing the logic of a whole document

Arguing · Investigation

Is that logical?

(Editors note – this is not the article I promised to write on “Arenas of Change” – I got distracted by the wondrous world of logic). I promised a class that I would write something on “The Arenas of Change”, which is a theory about how teams interpret reality. The theory is based on the… Continue reading Is that logical?