Jennifer Frahm Collaborations

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog

Mark Twain.

or my Dad.

Last week my beautiful papa bear lost his fight with cancer.  We are heartbroken. But as anybody who has nursed a loved one with cancer will tell you, relieved. Relieved that the pain, and loss of dignity and pride will not continue.

My Dad was a remarkable man in so many ways. I reckon most of us think the same about our dads. But mine really really was.

Born into a relatively poor family with a father who took off when he was seven, Dad was the oldest and left school very early to work and provide support for the rest of the family.  With many entrepreneurial pursuits on the go as a little one, he got serious with a trade and went on to become a Master Builder. Later he would move into home improvements, and then the swimming pool industry.  He was still working when the disease (well two diseases struck actually, he was diagnosed with Leukemia (AML) and Lung cancer at the same time), and wound up his last business from a hospital bed.  And while many people will always associate Kerry Frahm with Kerry Frahm the Builder, the Pool Shop guy, the Pool Builder, these are not the identities that I wish to highlight here.

Kerry Frahm - the father

One of the bittersweet aspects of a cancer diagnosis is that you get time to have many conversations.  Dad was shocked and outraged by his diagnosis. He had not yet retired and had big plans. My generation makes the pursuit of pleasure and ongoing activity - instant gratification. His generation stored it up “for after“. And so sadly for me, Dad had many regrets and time to dwell on them.

I’m pleased he talked about them though, as we could refute or challenge his version of the events. One was that he was not a very present father, nor one of these “modern fathers”. Yet, my memories include a father who did the dishes every night and tested my brother and I on antonyms, homonyms, similes and spelling as we wiped the dishes. I also recall many nights him on bathing / shower duty - with the three of us singing Hey Jude and Little White Bull repeatedly as we did so.  If there was anything to regret I believe it should be the green eggflips he used to make us. Dad was also the provider of French toast, banana fritters and the best steak sangers. Although I must admit the steak sangers got a little bit poncey as he aged (blame the herb garden passion).

He was the most present of fathers and far more modern than most I meet. And never did a day, a phone call, or time spent together go past where my brother and I did not know how fiercely he loved us and how incredibly proud he was of us

Kerry Frahm - the lover of women

It’s not as saucy as it sounds. Dad was a lover of women, and while I am sure some could speak to his Casanova days pre-meeting Mum, I mean more of his proclivity to put the women in his life on pedestals.  He adored and worshipped my mother to his last day. Married 45 years last month, it could be suffocating to watch at times.  But I too had my pedestal, and soon so did my sister-in-law, Fiona. His adoration and pride in his three granddaughters (Jessica, Caitlin and Grace) was extreme.  He also adored his sister-in-law Joy, and of course his mother Jess was always revered by him. Even his mother-in-law Faye, had a special place in heart, and he would speak to her positive attributes frequently.  He encouraged feminism in all forms - and exhibited in it special gifts. Many of my feminist slogan fridge magnets came from him. Imagine my delight one Christmas Day with a special gift just from Dad, the book ” How to succeed in business without a Penis”. Noted. Thanks Dad.  But he introduced family friendly work practice when it was a rarity in small business for his staff members because he wanted women to feel they could work if they wanted.  I had assumed that coming from a working single mother family has influenced his respect and admiration for women greatly. Certainly he was not constrained by notions of gender rigid roles.

Kerry Frahm - the giver.

He may not have always been the easiest to live with, or work with, but he was exceedingly generous to all who were in his life. Sadly, his generosity and insistence on thinking the best of people was taken advantage of several times in his career and personal life, even while he was bedridden in hospital.  He was the embodiment of grace though, deeply disappointed he would simply let it go. Dad created opportunities for people who would not be employed by others, he gave of his time to build sporting communities and he gave his opinion to all regardless of whether it was asked for or not!

Kerry Frahm - the enthusiast.

Dad took to ideas and interests with unbridled enthusiasm and passion.  Baseball, tee-ball, amateur theatre, speedway, solar energy, water chemistry, bonsai, permaculture, the zodiac, salad dressings, ten pin bowling, big words and climate change to name but a few. With a skerrick of formal schooling, he taught himself on any topic he perceived as interesting. Taught and mastered. And lectured. On all. Frequently. One of his greatest joys in his last six months was the establishment of a massive backyard garden with the help of his brother Chris.  The delight and excitement of having five varieties of tomatoes striking would be known throughout the whole of the hospital.

Kerry Frahm - the legacy.

Dad was a man of extreme pride, and short of patience. He was hilariously funny and quick of wit and it didn’t matter how much morphine he was getting in the last days he was firing off one liners that snuck up on you, with a wicked glint in his eye. In his last days he was adamant that he didn’t want people coming up to the room and being morose and moribund (his words not mine).  Nor did he want people feeling pity for him. He focused intently on those who visited to make sure that all left with a good last view of him.

Everyone who has come across Dad, will have their own take-away message.  Obviously, some will not be as biased as mine.  The legacy lessons for me come from the breadth of my 41 years with him and certainly the last 7 months.

1)   Be enthusiastic. Find stuff to do that makes your eyes sparkle and makes people groan that you are still going on about it.

2)   Be expressive of your love, pride and appreciation of people.

3)   Don’t wait for later. It may not come.

4)   Try new stuff always.  Jobs, careers, recipes, sports.

5)   Give people the benefit of the doubt.  You never know what impact it will have for them in the long run.

Thanks Papa Bear, love you dearly and always.

Last Wednesday night saw the latest meet up of Melbourne members of the Change Management Professionals(CMP). CMP is a loosely organised community of people who work in change management. What unites us is a belief that you improve the practice of change management when you share stories and experience. We are very fortunate to have the patronage of SHK who provide a lovely environment in which to meet - board room, white boards, wine and snacks.

The topic of the evening was Sponsor Engagement. Deftly facilitated by Vicki Young, the group explored the reasons why Sponsor Engaement fails and what we can do to improve it.

I promised to blog on it, but the conversations were so rich and varying, branching off on divergent paths I’m not sure I can do that justice. Hopefully those in attendance can leave some of their thoughts in the comments if I highlight the key points!

Why does a lack of sponsor engagement occur?

• Relevance of change to the strategy is missing
• Insufficient business case for change
• Sponsor lacks courage and self awareness
• Sponsor has competing priorities - day job v project or change initiative
• Sponsor is not from the right area
• Lack of understanding of the role
• They have inherited something bad
• Do not understand good communication
• Insufficient guidelines / support for sponsor
• Lack of authority / credibility
• Sponsor is ahead of the change curve and doesn’t realise the rest of the employees are not with him/her

What have you done about a lack of sponsor engagement?

• Established KPIs
• Have regular one on ones
• Build a relationship
• Build rapport and trust
• Draw upon your experience
• Educate the Sponsor on change management
• Ensure sound governance
• Draw on data (eg PROSCI studies)
• Be frank and fearless

After brainstorming these topics the group broke up into five subgroups and picked a reason for lack of engagement and shared their stories. I’m going to hold off until next post to share my group’s discussion. Suffice to say, micro phrases and emotional toxicity will feature.

It was a terrific night - with a real generosity of experience shared in a very respectful setting. Next meeting we will be discussing stakeholder stereotypes  and the data and tools we use to influence them!

If you work in change management, whether it be from a Project perspective, or HR / L & D / OCM /OD background and you wish to join in drop me a line and I’ll put you on the mailing list.

So at the end of June, I got my first invite to Google +. Actually I got three simultaneously.  I had heard about the new offering a little earlier and understood it was Google’s approach to world domination via social networking and was here to decimate Facebook, and possibly Twitter, maybe LinkedIn

So I logged on / in and had a bit of a play.  Not much, because I couldn’t see much to play with.  I asked my connections what should I do with it. Mel Pay kindly pointed me to her analytic post on the benefits. It’s going to be a corker because it integrates with Google Apps. That didn’t work for me - I find Google apps a bit difficult to use. Don’t ask me why, I’m normally good with these things!

Jason Berek Lewis told me he liked it as it meant he could partition his different interest groups and differentiate the messaging.

More contacts mean better use of Circles to segment messages you send out over the Google+ network. That’s what attracts me to Google+ - I can easily send different messages to Family, Professional Contacts, Healthcare Comms/Social Media contacts, etc.

That made me sad. What group would I be placed in? Would I still see his Proud Papa messages, his geeky comic references? I don’t work in health care but I quite enjoy occasional posts on health care. They make me think and educate me. Ring-fencing by interest seemed exclusionary and well, not social.  As some-one who works with organisations I borrow from biologists, neuropsychs, sociologists and economists to do the things I do. Would being segmented into other people’s perceptions of what circle I should be in reduce my access to multi-disciplinary ideas?

Robert Scoble posts on how Google + won’t take off with “normal” people. It’s for serious geeks. And as some-one who has always been kind of an outlier, it’s kinda cool to be in the average range.

But he is right. The switching costs are simply too high for the average person. Because we have invested so much on other platforms. I’ve already segmented - business colleagues / acquaintances and tailored status updates on LinkedIn. Interesting people on Twitter. Real friends and occasional family members on Facebook.

Social media apostasy requires a step change innovation / benefit.

And I just don’t see it with Google +. It is incremental at best - for the average user. At least at this stage.

And I’m not seeing as much social behavior on Google +, it’s all very broadcast. I have to say all of those people who I don’t know who are adding me to circles? Freaking me out. Nothing social going on there. Which is very odd I know, because I don’t get freaked out by people following me on Twitter. Once again I feel the need to yell, ” I am not a baseball card to be collected!!”

Of course the parallels to the early stage adoption of Twitter, and if I recall, Facebook are similar. You have to use it more to get it. People were tweeting what they had for breakfast before they engaged in real conversations with followers.  Of course conversation is not the only valid social behavior online - there’s always room for observation and lurking.

People need to trust you’ll be around long enough to engage with you in a social fashion. And it is only in Beta stage.

But you tell me, what am I missing. What do you see as the step change innovation that will bring an average user along? Bring a business along. Change social media faith. Help me see the light. Because G+ whizz I just don’t see it for now…

A friend was lamenting recently the amount of time wasted in meetings. While the use and style of meetings is often culturally bound (both corporate and country culture), the manner in which they are carried out is often less effective than it should be. So here are seven points that I find contribute to more effective meetings. Perhaps it’s time for you to do an audit of your meeting practice?

1) Clarity of purpose

What are we trying to achieve here? Having shared agreement on the purpose and objective of the meeting keeps people on track.

2) Focus on output

What do we need to leave this meeting with to make it a valuable use of our time. Start with the end in mind.

3) Mindful of time.

Who will be the time keeper? Do you have allocated time points - or are you comfortable letting the meeting simply flow?

4) Mindful of process

Do you have a facilitator who will ensure that all voices are heard, draw out the quiet, dampen the dominant & drive the agreed outcome

5) Thoughtful composition

Is everybody who should be here here? Who is here who should not be? What roles will the participants play?

6) Anti-Groupthink

Do you have some-one confident enough to be the dissenting voice. Will your chair actively seek out opposing ideas?

7) Agenda or none?

This relates to first point - an agenda can be restrictive if not aligned to the purpose of the meeting. Some of the best meetings simply agree on the outcome and purpose and allow for emergent conversations.

If this all seems a bit overwhelming - just address the following: What one question could you ask to change the effectiveness of your workplace meetings? I’m willing tio bet that simply asking the question will improve your practice.

(and share in the comments of course!)

How do you start a Conversation of Change?When lunching with a colleague last week, we discussed the difficult conversations we sometimes have to have regarding performance. She was relating what she said and her approach and I was thinking about how it differed to a conversation of change. And so she asked me - well how do you start a conversation of change?

I find it useful to think about what you want to use a conversation of change for…is it to:

• Test an assumption?
• Explore a possibility?
• Identify a gap?

Whether it is at a personal level, a team level or a organisational level there are a number of phrases that can start and sustain a conversation of change.

• What if?
• Why is that?
• How would things be different if…
• Tell me more…

Not all conversations are easy ones to have. If the conversation is anticipated to be a difficult one then it helps to take stock before the conversation and ensure that you:

• are coming from a position of mutual respect,
• have a positive intent behind the conversation and
• retain a spirit of inquiry.

I am  influenced by the work of David Bohm, Peter Senge and Chris Argryis in this regard. But I would love to hear from you about the phrases that you find helpful in a conversation of change? Do share…

 Empathy. Walk a mile in another man’s shoes.

We were brainstorming a topic for the next CMP meetup and Vicki Young, of Planpower suggested:

as change managers and change leaders we often have to work to overcome resistance to change. In the situation where you are personally impacted by organisational change did you find yourself ignoring it, resisting it, filling the communication void with your own thoughts? What did you learn from your own reactions that you can apply to your Change Management and Change Leader work and what would you have done differently?

How apt. Some of you have noticed a distinct drop off  of the change nuggets, and blog posts. Twelve weeks ago, my father was diagnosed with two very serious illnesses (because Frahms never do anything by half!).  Suddenly the change manager had to manage pretty huge transformative change. Change that doesn’t lend itself to glass half full or a positive spin.  Shock. Loss. Denial. Bargaining. And then of course acceptance.

I, of course, drew process maps for the doctors (to improve the provision of information), facilitated complex decision making, researched alternative options and managed the family stakeholders. Celebrated milestones in a minor way. Because that’s what I do. And I worked the whiteboard.

But how did I feel when faced with the change. Pretty ordinary. When faced with significant change over which I have very little control I bunkered down to doing what had to be done. No overextending myself, no strategic visioning, no entrepreneurial pursuits, limited communication (comparatively).

And so to answer Vicki’s question - What did I learn from my reactions? 

When bringing in large scale transformative change that will incur loss and often emotional resistance:

• Tell it as it is - don’t spin
• Validate the emotions
• Repeat the information and provide additional sources where possible
• Keep the door open for questions.
• Don’t expect high performance for some time

For now, we’re holding steady, and I have accepted that I can’t plan or control my family’s future. It’s one day at a time, and will be until such a time some-body tells us otherwise.  I can plan and “control” the rhythm of change nuggets series and my blogging, and my intent is this shall resume on a fortnightly basis.

A huge thank you to the clients, colleagues  and friends who have been so wonderfully understanding and supportive during this time.

Awww. Who doesn’t love a happy ending? For those who stumble on this post, you may wish to read the earlier one. For those who have been waiting for the sequel - here it is in Renae’s own words…

Hi James, Phil and Jen WOWO, what a rollercoaster, and I tell you the final straight was the best. The wrap up of events…. 

1. Thanks to Phil for the Limo at the Airport - the best airport transfer ever!!Thanks also to James and Phil for meeting us there, a very pleasant surprise and it was great to finally meet you both.  

2. Cathy at Airlie Apartments was sensational. Hospitality was fantastic and the rooms were great. We could not have wanted anything more, they were perfect! I have jumped on Trip Advisor and provide a review of Airlie Apartments and the generous hospitality. She even drove us to the marina for the ceremony and to the airport to leave 

3. Sharon from Guardian was fabulous. I just got off the phone with her and the stories sound great. I hope it is recognition of our the community has banded together. We even made it into the social pages, getting snapped at Capers on Saturday night!! 

4. SV Domino…..WOW. Julie and Reg were amazing. Fussea Buggers catering and Julie provided great nibbles to get us through our nerves, several cups of tea, and reg gave us a nice smooth ride to Lovers Cove. Julie even did me a rose bouquet totally unexpected and the boys had button hole roses. They were both wonderful and could not have done more to help us out!  I have provided a ripper of a review on Trip Advisor 

5. Daydream - Christine and Brad were waiting for us on our arrival. They had the place set up beautifully! They allocated us an extra hour as photos took so long and did so with no dramas at all. They were great and an awesome venue.  

6. Waterline on Shingley Restaurant! WOW, what an experience. 4 hours of dining BLISS. Awesome food & seafood, my favourite. Sam’s hospitality was great, and the Chef even came out for a chat and to ask our opinion of the food. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves, awesome wine and 3 yummy courses! I have provided a review on Trip Advisor  

7. Ziggy Ziegler Photography - was fabulous! His photos are amazing. He was there from when we boarded to the restaurant. His photos are out of this world and on Friday, yes one day after the Wedding, he provided us with an extremely generous package of 360 printed photos, a CD of all photos, and his favourites blown up. I will send some through. He was wonderful spending time with him and learning some tricks of the trade!

 8. Ivan Conway - Ivan has been very flexible over the last month. He was very professional and worked well with Ziggy as they have worked together before.  

9. Voyager - Stephan and his crew were awesome….the trip was great and Helen from Tropix photography gave us some extra special attention taking some great fun shots on Whitehaven beach and a package of 10 free printouts and a disc. I have messaged and uploaded some stuff to their facebook site for Tropix and Voyager 

10. General Airlie Businesses…..We have some outstanding meals all based on recommendations: Ship Wrecked, Coral Sea Resort Restaurant, Capers, and Sirocco Restaurant!! We went and spent (!) at the Airlie Beach markets on Saturday, I did the run out to Cannonvale and Matt and I did the Whitsunday’s Trial Run on Sunday.  We posted this blog before we left  http://brisbanerunsquad.blogspot.com/ All in all the Wedding and Honeymoon ended up perfect, better than we ever would have expected thanks to 3 people…….. JAMES, PHIL AND JEN!!! You are all champions, and maybe should go into business as wedding planners  We are definitely coming back to Airlie Beach for our 1 year anniversary! 

And yay you Renae and Matt! Has been quite the experience and with 74 FB likes and over 500 post views, it has really shown that when the content is compelling and people can relate, the story takes off. I look forward to celebrating at your wedding party this weekend!

Greetings all,

This is a personal tale, but one that has some lessons for consumers and those in organisations still wondering if they should engage in social media.

Friday morning, my day started with a distressed email from my good friend Renae. Renae’s wedding was meant to be in 3 weeks, but the package provider had gone broke, and she and her parents had lost a substantial sum of money (eg the vendor had requested upfront payment).

I know at least half of you that read this blog are US, Canada and UK based — so by way of explanation I’ll provide the back story.

Renae and Matt initially wanted a sailing wedding in the Greek Isles. Who wouldn’t hey? Well with all of the devastation done to the Queensland Tourism Industry with Cyclone Yasi, they decided to spend locally to assist the rebuilding efforts. They booked a package with a Whitsunday private yacht company which included 7 days sailing, and a ceremony at Henning Island, with a reception lunch and and accomodation for themselves and parents at Hamilton Island.  The yacht company asked for payment in full and confirmed all bookings and issued accomodation vouchers through Renae & Matt’s  fab travel agent Fit4Travel.

 The Whitsundays is a glorious area — and Hamilton Island lovely. For those of you who followed Oprah’s travels down under, it was the place where they witnessed the frisky koala, and drove around the palm trees in buggies.  Who would not want to get married there? I grew up in the region, and can say without a doubt the most wonderful and relaxing holiday I have ever taken was a chartered yacht holdiday around the Whitsundays. I saw the Year 2000 in on Hamilton Island (and yes, I recall it well!).

Anyway, the vendor went bust on Monday. Yes, Renae and Matt did have travel insurance but there is a little bitsy clause in it which excludes insolvency for certain reasons. Natural disaster would be part of it.

Anyway after a week of unsuccessfully trying to find out their position with Hamilton Island, they find out that Hamilton Island never got the accom vouchers. So Renae asks me if I have a contact at Tourism Queensland.

So at 10.40 I tweet:

jenfrahm jen frahm

Oh dear. A friend has lost $10k booking a wedding in whitsundays to support qld tourism. Biz closed down Monday. Wedding in 3 wks. Ideas?

6 May

at 10.42 @QldWhitsundays respond

@QLDWhitsundays Whitsundays Online

@jenfrahm Jen, I am sure I can help your friend out up here - have already been in contact with some folk re her situation

A lesson for business - it is never too early to set up listening platforms (searches, software etc) for keywords in your industry.  Even if you are not sure how to engage at this stage, and what content to include, get listening.  Whitsundays Online were extremely quick off the mark and proactive, which meant I could let my followers know the situation was inhand and prevent a bad news tweet travelling further. This became positive promotion for @QldWhitsundays when my followers RTd the good news. A big thank you to @GeoffBarbaro, @ClaytonTFord, @Merendi, @SusanLambe, @Auntie_ABC and @marketingisus for their RTs and encouragement.

About 22 tweets later, James from @QLDWhitsunday (Whitsunday’s Online) and Phil Batty  had worked extremely hard to rally the local industry and ensure there were alternatives. They stayed in frequent contact with me  to assure that the local industry was very disturbed by this, and there were many offers of help coming in. One gorgeous marriage celebrant @CelebrantWhit had offered her services, and take a look at her gallery — how truly divine!

At this point we don’t know what the status of the accomodation at Hamilton Island. The @HamiltonIsland team have been silent, as have any other contacts there  – this may be that they do not have the freedom to engage with stakeholders without permission, or that they are just trying to ascertain the size of the problem (eg it may be more than Renae and Matt). Either way, the lack of engagement is disquieting, and may be quite unnerving for those who have accomodation vouchers for Hamilton Island.

Update 8 May 3.24 pm. Apparently Hamilton Island advised Fit4U on Friday afternoon that they would not be honouring the accomodation vouchers : - (

Update 8 May 4.31 pm @HamiltonIsland twitter account gets in touch and apologies for the delay and explains they’ll have to speak with Reservation Manager in the office. Thanks @HamiltonIsland, we appreciate this.

Update 10 May 1.00pm Hamilton Island reservation offered the same rooms at a reduced rate, but unfortunately as Matt & Renae have already lost the $10K plus, they are not in a position to outlay anything else. It’s over to Whitsunday Online and Phil Batty to see what help they can get in alternatives.

It is also interesting that none of the official accounts for Queensland Tourism or Whitsunday Tourism have engaged with the discussion. Given they are putting a lot of money into advertising to bring people back to the area, you think they would want to reassure that it is safe to invest in.

For the benefit of these social media teams, try  David Park’s e-book Reputation Renegades and David Meerman Scott’s e-book on his new best seller  Real Time Marketing and PR.  Immediacy of response matters.

So where are we at?

Renae and Matt are incredibly grateful for the efforts of James at Whitsunday Online and Phil Batty. Renae and Matt run the Brisbane Run Squad, and it is looking like there will be a ‘Thank You Whitsundays” Run organised after the happy event and it is rumoured the Bride shall be running in white ; - )

Here in Australia, it is Mother’s Day and Renae and Matt’s mums are hoping they will get some good news on their accomodations, and not notification they have lost their money…fingers crossed ladies!!

If you are planning a vacation or holiday, then The Whitsundays is still a most glorious place to visit. Yes, the industry has been dealt a blow with the cyclone and floods, but it is  for the most part a resilient, and industrious community who are working 24/7 to ensure that visitors have the happiest of memories. It may pay at the moment to book direct with vendors at the moment, rather than use package deals. And do check the small print in the travel insurance. I don’t believe the risk of booking something in the Whitsundays is any greater than booking something in the Greek Isles.

 Update 14 May: I am informed that if the business who you book through is a registered tourist business and something like this happens, then you will be able to access a fund that has been set up for this type of thing. Unfortunately for Renae and Matt, the vendor who they booked through was not a registered tourist business. Ask the question and check before you pay the $$!

Fingers crossed on the accomodation, I’ll update with new as it comes and hopefully some lovely wedding pics in about 3 weeks time…

Update 14 May: So Whitsundays Online and Phil Batty have organised accomodation at the very lovely Airlie Apartments for all concerned,and  something special for the whole party via Voyager IV the day after the wedding. I believe there is a yacht being organised to take them to Henning Island for the actual wedding. Onya James and Phil and three cheers for Airlie Apartments and Voyager.

After this blog was posted, Renae sent a link with a letter to Jan Jarratt, the Minister for the Whitsundays. The Minister rang Renae very soon after receiving it, and has been in frequent contact as has now the CEO of Whitsunday Tourism.

In follow up to the last post, here are the next two barriers I see as being critical to overcome before we (as a community of change managers) can sell the value of change. They both relate to competing tension of change management. Competing tensions are hard. They are hard because neither side is the right one, they are always two aspects of organisation that require careful balance. And a little too much emphasis on one, means we go belly up!

 3) The competing tension between BAU and Transformation

Business as usual (BAU) has very different requirements of a change manager than transformation programs do. By BAU change I am talking about continuous improvement, six sigma, lean, and innovation programs. Transformative change is that which is large scale, ambitious and makes substantive change to the culture, structure or business model of the organisation. The tools, style and role of the change manager is distinctly different. It therefore follows that value of change management differs. And we need to be distinct in articulating this difference.

How do we progress?

Getting over this hurdle starts with recognising the difference and being clear on role and responsibilities. Hire those that are fit for purpose. Educate the business stakeholders on how the two change goals differ.

4) The competing tension between organisational values

The last hurdle to cover is the competing values within our organisations. Our organisations want to be innovative but also follow “proper process”.  Agility clashes with governance, competiveness fights with safety. These competing values frustrate us, and confuse us with how we are meant to work.

How do we progress? 

Focus on the bridging values. Bridging values are ones that have some connection with the two competing values. So if for instance you are working in an organisation that wishes to embrace agility (speed, reactive) and safety (slow, proactive) focus on a value that can align with each, for example ‘quality’. Quality and agility do not compete, nor does quality and safety. Use a bridging quality to define your change management activities.

So that was the gist of the thought provokers in the presentation. As I indicated, it was a really inspiring community of change managers and I am keen to see if this is an outlier or an indication of new level of maturity of the industry as a whole… I guess time will tell?

A week or so ago, I was fortunate to be invited to speak at a change community forum initiated by three companies in the energy industry in Queensland (Energex, Ergon and SPARQ).  The forum was a group of change managers working for each of the companies and the brief was to “challenge their thinking” and answer the question:

How do we as change practitioners demonstrate the value of managing change for the organisation to ensure efforts and leadership are channelled in making the changes stick?

The approach I took was to first conduct a gap analysis - understand where the change community was currently and where they wanted to get to. In order to bridge that gap my proposition was that there were a number of hurdles to get over if a community of change managers have any hope of demonstrating the value of change.

This post deals with the first two barriers to demonstrating value of change and some initial thoughts on clearing them. Your thoughts and comments are as always most welcome and I am happy to integrate them into this post.

1) Fragmentation of disciplinary background.

Change managers come from a broad range of disciplines (pyschology, project management, training, communications, management). This diversity of background means that we each define “value of change management in different ways”.  More disturbingly, it is not uncommon to describe another change manager as “not a real change manager”.  This professional sniping and “othering” means that we often send mixed messages to our stakeholders.

How do we progress? 

When we appreciate how we differ, then we can present a consistent message on the value of what we offer as a profession.  Within the community we need to start speaking up for each other - talking up the benefits of people who have different backgrounds to ourselves.

It also raises the issue of accreditation. Accreditation of change managers is a topic that I personally feel somewhat queasy about. My concern is that it caters for the lowest common denominator (LCD), and encourages a cookie-cutter approach to change managers. However, it does provide our stakeholders with a legitimacy that is currently missing. Our stakeholders hold accreditations and trust in the process. Whether you like the idea or not, it may a necessary step to demonstrating value. And while the catering for the LCD does not enthrall me - a consistent baseline is better than none. It provides a basis for which to improve.

2) Heterophily.

Heterophily is a concept popularised by innovation researcher Everett Rogers. Heterophily is the degree to which two individuals differ. A highly heterophilious organisation can be beneficial in that it the differences encourage creative friction and innovation. However, for change managers this can be challenging as we differ from our stakeholders. They don’t understand us. We’re not like them. Two tribes may not go to war, but they certainly dont have a shared understanding of what value is!

How do we progress? 

At the risk of being heretical I say “throw out your change management jargon”. What is the problem that the stakeholder is wanting to solve? Recast your tactics, strategies, diagnostics and artefacts in the language of your significant other. Focus on translation, then education.

Often as change managers we fly in capes a-blowin, do our super hero magic and fly out again. Stop. Ground yourself - when you do great work let your stakeholders know what you have done, and then introduce your language. It is easier to understand the value of change managent after it has occurred.

Next post I’ll look at the last two barriers - the competing values within organisations, and the competing tensions between Business As Usual (BAU) change and transformational change.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts - what else can we do as a community of change managers to progress these hurdles?