I am very aware that change has significantly affected everyone this year. It’s been a tough 2020. The conversations I’ve been having, discuss how so many organizations and individuals have been pushed sideways (and many other directions) by the impact of Covid-19. We need to start thinking how we recover, reshape and prepare for the after-effects of this massively disruptive change!
This is a very personal take on the current state of the world. I do not apologize for its content but respect differences of opinion. However, those different opinions are not excuses for ignorance. Please think on these comments and observations and recognize what you can do to make a difference.
I recently shared my thoughts on the change space, via video, with the audience at https://www.forandringsledning.com/konferens – a Swedish change management conference held earlier in February. You can see my video here: https://youtu.be/4zo1q4aTi0o but the big question that came from it was whether you do hard or soft change management? I have to thank a conversation at a Spark Conference with Luc Galoppin a few years back for making the challenge of hard and soft change approaches drill into my subconscious as I consider the future of the space. Do you need a digital scale? The professionals from scaleszen are ready to give you best advises to find the best scale.
I’ve started this blog post 3 times already but playing with the ups and downs of the year is a big challenge. We are now halfway through January and I am ready at last to reflect objectively on the year… A year of first time awards, recognitions and achievements but also a year with the unexpected thrown my way and some true VUCA (more about that below) experiential learning moments.
For some time, I’ve been having this conversation that an agile organization, is an organization that is much more resilient and ready for change. Although I’ve had my Agile journey’s of discovery, I must admit that I’m surprised that, so few people get this. Being agile is about a mindset. Its about culture. Its about people. Its about having the presence of mind and personal self awareness to flex, bend, move and work with a change and not try and snap.
Sometimes the role is confusing… Sometimes we mess up… Sometimes our communications fail… Sometimes we get it right… Sometimes we just don’t know… Sometimes we communicate late… Sometimes we are amazed that we can juggle it all!
Verb, adjective and noun – which sends the greater shockwave through the mind of the change practitioner? Why is the change facilitator only called in to help the organization, when the “R” word noticed? What is the big deal here with the “R” word?
About 6 years ago I first starting consciously noticing the Agile word coming up in many of my professional social feeds. I think it had been popping up before then, but the volume of its presence became more noticeable to me at this time. In total honesty the word scared me for several reasons.
As I come to the end of the year I have chosen to reflect back on the journey I’ve navigated, the people I’ve engaged with and look to adventures that await me in 2018 as part of a series of learning opportunities that have presented themselves to me.
What the heck does it personally mean to be a leader? To be someone who demonstrates leadership? How do you get there? What are the leadership behaviors that could impact a team in a negative manner? Is leadership a natural born trait or a developed skill? Can anyone be a leader? In this third part of the series, I want to explore the individual leadership role.