This is a collection of the top 10 articles I’ve written about Organizational Change. 

The Inclusive Organization and the Reachability Factor

How can you build the right balance between global and local needs, desk-less and desk workers, and the center and the edges? If you can get it right,  it will change the DNA of your organization to one of genuine inclusiveness. You will fortify the sense of common purpose and belonging.  Where do you stand on 10 key technologies and work practices? (Originally published in July 2017  on the Global Peter Drucker Forum Blog).

Simplifying and Socializing Processes

Most organizations are attempting to simplify their processes these days. I looked at the process challenge with the 300 organizations who participated in my 2016 study. It’s clear there is a major challenge ahead for most. 53% say their online work processes are complicated and only 11% say their processes are simple. Why are they so complicated and what changes are coming?

Working Out Loud From the Top – Half a Century Ago – At NASA

“Monday’s Notes” – at NASA in the 1960’”. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, November declared in  1968: “….It may turn out that [the space program’s] most valuable spin-off of all will be human rather than technological: better knowledge of how to plan, coordinate, and monitor the multitudinous and varied activities of the organizations required to accomplish great social undertakings.” Read more here.

Movements, politics and leadership

People start movements in organizations, and organizations run to catch up (or not!). My data shows how top-down decision-making for digital initiatives is still too common, and how it triggers internal politics. This article links to a presentation I gave at the i2Summit in Zurich in November 2017: People lead!

 

Transformation goals: present beats future

The 2016 research involved 311 people from 27 countries. One of the first observations is that implementing fundamentally new business models is clearly on the back burner, as organizations are focusing on what needs to be improved today.  Surprised? More here.

 

The Company Cultures That Help (or Hinder) Digital Transformation

Many companies struggle with digital transformation. It goes against the grain of established ways of working and is a threat to management practices that have existed for decades. To figure out what makes the transition easier for some companies than others, I have correlated the toughest obstacles to change — those considered to be serious and holding us back — into five categories then looked to see work cultures help or hinder.  (Originally published on the Harvard Business Review in August 2015.) See full article.

Change activists or communities? A revealing difference.

A change activist (or agent) is a type of rebel in the work environment. Change activists play an especially critical in organizations with one or more of these characteristics, which in fact are often found together: (1) highly centralized, (2) very closed —with little awareness of the external world, and (3) low digital maturity. Are change agents active in your organization?

Beyond the Individual- A Major Turning Point

Beyond the Individual to the Organizational Commons. The commons upsets the status quo in many organizations. Based on trust, the commons cannot flourish without radical changes in leadership and management practices in most organizations today. We have made progress but have reached a standstill, hopefully temporary.

Would Your Digital Workplace Make It On Kickstarter?

On Kickstarter you do your pitch: tell people why they should back you. This would be quite a new way of funding features and enhancements for a digital workplace. One result for sure is that you would think hard, as would your potential backers, about what the specific project brings to them and how much it’s worth to them!Would you get your budget?

Digital Workplace: Transformational Framework

I gave a talk in 2012 entitled “The digital workplace – a transformational framework”.  When asked to give 3 tags for my talk, I said: Framework, Transformational, Change facilitation. One of my key messages was “Agree on vocabulary within your own organization. Whatever you decide to call it, having common language will save time and help people overcome many obstacles that are sometimes real, but often just a question of understanding.” See the presentation.