Authored By: Mark Bernardi  

Our work in change implementation is often being the coach, cheerleader, or rumble-strip for the client whose effort is a protracted uphill climb, or long walk against a steady headwind.  It is mostly the role of giving guidance about pace, staying on track, keeping momentum.  It is about giving and garnering the encouragement to complete the marathon.  

One of our first large-scale projects involved a 52 week communications campaign that was loaded onto the shoulders of first line supervisors who didn’t want to participate.  The VP of manufacturing spent a year role-modeling, coaxing, cajoling, and sometimes removing supervisors who could not or would not come around.  Around the “20th Monday” he commented that he never guessed the amount of energy it took to change the habits of a group of people.  Every week it was the same drill.  At the end we were all amazed at how far they had all come, but in the middle months it was all about finding the energy and determination...

Authored by: Mark Bernardi

Someday soon you will be able to fly to the BVI’s, charter a sailboat, turn on your “auto-nav” unit, pick five anchorages, press “set sail,” and follow the instructions broadcast over the boat’s on-board audio system telling you step-by-step how to cast off, turn the engine on, engage the auto-pilot, and crack open your favorite beverage while your boat follows the dotted line to your first port of call…But is it really sailing?  Many commercial pilots ask that question about programmed flight controls and course navigation…Is it really flying?  Can we be satisfied with “just being along for the ride?

So much of how we view life is through the lens of history.  In most cases it is our own personal history, our collection of experiences and emotions.  For the scholar, history can include local, national, or international  experiences that color the way in which we view the current.  I'm not different, I'm innately biased by my experiences and in fact use history to determine future actions.  Organizations are not different. Creating future change is very muuch about history.  The culture within an organization is the result of its history.  The unique stories, the architypes, the reason certain behaviors are reinforced and others discouraged, all have something to say about an organization's ability to execute on a change.  One reason that change efforts fail is that they fail to contemplate the historical context in which change is taking place.  There are many aspects to historical context but the one I'm interested in today is the internal organizational project or initiative history that affects individual...

I recently took one of my children on a road trip to look at colleges.  It was a bittersweet time for me as a parent.  My daughter's enthusiasm evoked in me both an excitement and a melancholy.  Excitement as I considered the great things that were ahead for her and melancholy at the thought of not having her at home.  This upcoming change is not unlike other changes that we are faced with in life. Effective change is really about endings and beginnings or another way of thinking about it is to say it is about embracing and letting go.  Those who have change done to them invoke the "wing walker's rule," which is to not let go of one thing until you firmly have a hold of something else.  The challenge of motivating people to change is to convince others to "let go" of the old way of doing things so that they can embrace the new way.  This has been mentioned in the literature for years.  Connor, in his book, Managing at the Speed of Change, talks about the need for a "burning platform" for change.  The idea that...