Live Chat with Dr. Pat Zigarmi on Creating a Fast, Flexible, and Nimble Organization
Join Dr. Pat Zigarmi, co-author of the new book, Who Killed Change? right here on LeaderChat beginning at 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time for a 30-minute Q&A session.
Pat will be stopping by right after she finishes her WebEx sponsored webinar on Creating a Fast, Flexible, and Nimble Organization. Over 400 people will be participating in the webinar and many will be gathering here to ask follow-up questions.
If you have a question that you would like to ask Pat, just enter this thread or click on the COMMENTS hyperlink near the title of this post. Type in your question in the space provided and hit SUBMIT COMMENT. Pat will answer as many questions as possible until she has to leave at 10:30 a.m. Pacific.
And if you can’t stay, be sure to stop by later and see all the questions that were asked. Or better yet, hit the RSS FEED button on the right-hand column and receive updates on a weekly basis.
Hi Everyone,
The Webinar should be finished in about 10 minutes, and I’ll be back here to answer your questions.
Hi Pat,
Here’s a question from the webinar. How do you recommend choosing from among several initiatives to focus on?
The best way is to involve others in describing what works now and what could be improved. I would also involve futurists. I would study competitors and data from industry associations. Then I’d use a technique like DeBono’s 6 Hats to evaluate the viable options.
Another question from the webinar. Any thoughts on restarting a change initiative that has been put on hold because of poor progress in prior implementation?
Unfortunately restarting means going back to people’s concerns…and expect the volume to be up on informational, personal and implementation concerns. Now people are a little more cynical and distrusting. Your efforts at involving others to build the right infrastructure and collaborative effort really need to be redoubled.
Any one else out there with a question? A comment?
You mentioned that a lack of urgency was a change killer in many organizations. How can organizations create urgency where people might be complacent about changing?
People need data. They need information about what is and what could be. Many leaders hoard information. But people need to be educated about the gap. I don’t believe that people start out negative. We make them negative because of lack of involvement. We focus on resistors, not on intentionally getting advocates for the change to talk to people who are neutral (or your word complacdent.) There are a lot of good suggestions in Who Killed Change, available for preorder at Amazon.com about how to create urgency.
Hi Pat,
In the webinar we talked about leading a change initiative in an organization–what would you recommend as best practices for an organization to be well prepared for continuous change?
I would organizations to build trust throughout the organization in order to create the capacity to drive continuuous change. Without trust, people won’t share their good ideas with leadership. They will whine to their colleagues about “how bad things are.” They will spot problems but take no responsibility for solving them. I would promote lots more two way dialogue rather than one way communication as a way of doing business.
what is your opinion about the ‘lessons learned’ activity post change? do they get used?
I haven’t seen organizations be too serious about “lessons learned” or after action reviews. I think they are usually onto the next change initiative. But if we could turn these debriefs into “learning moments” we would positively influence how change is done.
Thanks everyone for participating today in our webinar and blog about Who Killed Change and How Leaders Can More Effectively Lead People through Change. Check out Who Killed Change at amazon.com. You’ll have fun reading it.