Change This!

ChangeThis has been the home for people with great ideas who wanted to spring them on an unsuspecting world.

Two recent essays deserve particular mention. The first is The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage, Michael Lee Stallard's prescription to improve your organization and the world. Reading it is the best use of your time right this minute, unless you have to give someone the Heimlich Maneuver or perform CPR. In all seriousness, if everyone read Michael's message and took it to heart, the world would become a better place.

If your focus is only on creating dramatic, lasting, positive changes in large companies or organizations (something which usually ends in either outright failure or declaration of victory and acceptance of poor results), then you need to read Mike Kanazawa's People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them. This manifesto reveals many of the key tenets found in his book Big Ideas to Big Results. If you can only read one book on the subject, this should be that one book. You still have to decide what you want to change, but Kanazawa’s book, co-authored with Bob Miles, provide a detailed roadmap for HOW to accomplish the change. I’ve seen a lot of change initiatives, and their Accelerated Corporate Transformation (ACT) process incorporates every key lesson I’ve ever learned. I’ll be posting a review of the book soon, but you can read the manifesto right now.

I wish I’d been able to read both of these pieces earlier in my career. They’re clear and compelling and fun reads. I’ll leave you with a pull quote from People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them:

”Think about it…is your goal to get the most out of your people or the best out of your people? You typically can’t get both.”