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 Leading People Through Change. This is a special government-focused webinar that looks at the unique challenges encountered when leading change in a government setting. Over 200 people will be participating in the webinar and most 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 Pat–here’s a question from the webinar–are there any differences cross culturally when leading people through change?
Hi Pat–In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge that government agencies face when leading people through change?
Government agencies certainly have to operate in the confusion and cross-fire of politics. That makes it more challenging. And, I wonder if the culture of the agency would significantly impact the success of the change. Although we’ve certainly seen that compelling leaders can influence the culture. Perhaps the challenge is to create hope, demonstrate respect and leverage the experience and know how that most government workers have.
I would be interested in knowing if the question asker sees cultural differences in people’s responses to change or in practices for leading change. Personally, I have introduced the Blanchard model to people from Asia, Europe, Latin America and the USA and there seems to be universal face validity to the concerns model. I would guess that in some cultures there is less of an imperative to have a “voice” in planning the change, but that is a real guess.
Pat makes a good point about the cultural differences of RESPONDING to change versus LEADING change. I think people of all cultures have similar reactions to change (the need for info about the change, the personal impact, how it will be implemented in the organization, etc.). The manner and style of how the change effort is lead could certainly be shaped by cultural variables. It takes a savvy leader, especially one working in a culturally diverse environment, to think through how his/her leadership style needs to adapt to the needs of the follower.
Can you ever seen a situation where an organization has had too many people involved in the change process?
What is a typical timeline for a high involvement change process? How much time should an organization plan to spend on implementing change the way you have described?
Different change initiatives take different amounts of time. I just heard about an organization that used high involvement change to accomplish a project in 3 months that had taken 18 months with top down change and then failed miserably.
A friend of mine actually involved 500 people in a change effort which tested my limits, but she found ways for people to “own” different parts of the overall change strategy. I actually think high involvement results in more options, a stronger business case, and the right best practices and infrastructure to lead change effectively. The art of involvement is clarifying who owns the decisions – using SLII is it consulting, then the leader decides or true consensus. I think it is hard to lead change with true consensus – all agree. All differences in opinions are heard.
Hi Pat–here’s another question from the webinar–“I believe in the importance of getting feedback from people impacted by the change–what are best practices for demonstrating that you are using it?
The proof is in the pudding as they say. They have to see that the change builds on their great ideas, uses them in some ways or if not, at least there is an explanation of why the advice was not followed.
Any final questions for Pat? Just click on COMMENTS above and you will open a box where you can ask your question.
Thank you for attending today’s webinar. Please let us know your feedback on Who Killed Change which is available through whokilledchange.com. If you buy 25 books right now in the month of July, you can receive a free virtual keynote for your group. Ask us about this. And enjoy tracking down the people who kill change in your organization1