A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about creating a compelling vision story, with the underlying assumption that the vision is often crafted by a leader and their leadership team. While that may often be the case, I’ve found the sooner leaders engage everyone in the organization in making the vision part of their collective … Continue reading Make it OUR story
Avoid the tyranny of too many good ideas
“Try not to do too many things at once. Know what you want, the number one thing today and tomorrow. Persevere and get it done.” –George Allen In my work consulting with leadership teams in higher education over the last 30 years, it seems that one of the biggest challenges for leaders is to narrow … Continue reading Avoid the tyranny of too many good ideas
Building skills for managing change
Last week I shared a post about the importance of communicating for buy-in; however, that is just one part of managing change! Successful change in organizations also requires new behaviors, new mind-sets, new skills and new abilities. They are one of the key building blocks that sustainable change efforts are built upon. But what can … Continue reading Building skills for managing change
Communicating for buy-in
In my experience, many people view change as loss. This is true, even if it is a very positive change. Think about your own experience in leading or being a part of change efforts. Have you ever heard people express concerns, like: “We’re already doing our best, how can we do more?”“What are those people … Continue reading Communicating for buy-in
Build a change engine!
Research has shown that 70% of all change efforts fail. So faced with that daunting statistic, what can leaders do to ensure that their change effort is successful? According to a 2010 transformational change survey conducted by McKinsey and Company, organizations that implemented successful change efforts had three elements in common. 1) STRUCTURE: The change … Continue reading Build a change engine!
Seek out diverse perspectives
Seeking out diverse perspectives can give leaders an important edge in today’s world. Whether embarking on a enterprise-wide change initiative or making decisions that will impact a unit, organization, or community, diverse perspectives can give us the information we need to be more effective. They can keep us honest, keep us from moving into groupthink, … Continue reading Seek out diverse perspectives
Know your WHY
“It all starts with clarity. You have to know WHY you do WHAT you do… people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it, so it follows that if you don’t know WHY you do WHAT you do, how will anyone else?” – Simon Sinek, Start With Why Do you follow what … Continue reading Know your WHY
Rios Consulting 