Podcast

Corporate CPR Episode 86: How Organizations Need To Get A Stronger Change Discipline

/ Jana

On today’s episode we are talking about how organizations need to get a stronger change discipline. 

Jennifer Ayres, founder, and CEO of Senscient, is a culture and change expert. She and her senior-level team design and deliver deliberate, calibrated engagements that optimize meaning at work for every individual and ignites peak performance throughout the organization. Jennifer has over 20 years global management consulting experience, much of it focused helping leaders in organizations unlock the magic in their organization. She is results oriented with a proven track record for partnering with leaders to define vision and align cultural behaviors to business outcomes. Jennifer is often engaged to lead complex, challenging organizational transformations in unstructured and emerging situations. She specializes in leadership alignment, executive coaching, organizational development, and change management.

Top 10 Takeaways:

  1. Case studies are essential for understanding the reasons behind failed change initiatives and improving change management practices.
  2. Unsuccessful change initiatives often result from inadequate planning, unclear business outcomes, and poor stakeholder engagement.
  3. Pressure from leaders and urgent business needs can lead to rushed planning and exclusion of key stakeholders.
  4. Properly explaining the “why” of the change during project kickoffs is crucial to avoid confusion, apathy, and disengagement among employees.
  5. To overcome resistance and improve projects, organizations should provide training and awareness for technology-focused teams and promote an IT business partner mindset.
  6. Re-engaging stakeholders and thorough planning can lead to successful change implementations and improved project outcomes.
  7. Transparency and acknowledging challenges are vital for successful engagements.
  8. When facing difficulties, leaders should pause and gather more perspectives from stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the project.
  9. Managing naysayers, especially influential individuals, requires empathy, curiosity, and psychological safety to foster trust and open communication.
  10. The psychological impact of change on employees must be considered and nurtured throughout the project to build a positive culture.

Additionally, the conversation provided the following insights on effective communication and the role of change teams and champions:

  1. Effective communication requires considering different channels and subcultures within the organization to reach all stakeholders.
  2. Holistic change management goes beyond just training and communications, involving intentional communities like engagement networks and change agent groups.
  3. Ensure that change teams and champions understand their remit and have visible support from senior leaders to increase their effectiveness.
  4. Regular touchpoints and recognition for their efforts can help engage change teams and champions in the project’s success.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. If you are a leader responsible for change at your organization, make sure you really focus on the “why.”

2. There is a cost to addressing change, but a bigger cost to not implemented change. 

3. Assume positive intent for people going into these programs. There is a reason they are resisting change. 

How to get in touch with Jennifer:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifercahillayres/

Website: https://senscientglobal.com/

Email: hello@sencientglobal.com

Corporate CPR Episode 83: How To Have Staying Power

/ Jana

On today’s show we talk about how to have staying power with Steve Gaffney.

Steven Gaffney is the founder, president, and CEO of the Steven Gaffney Company, a leading specialist in internal communication tactics that help manage and maintain change. He works with top executives and leaders in industry and government, helping organizations like NASA and Citigroup increase morale and productivity to collaborate and succeed in their goals. Steven is the author of six books, including Be a Change Champion: 10 Factors for Sustaining the Boom and Avoiding the Bust of Change. He has been interviewed and quoted in a range of major news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CBS, NBC, FOX, and others, appearing regularly on “Let’s Talk Live.”

Key Takeaways:

  1. Unspoken Communication: Addressing the unsaid is crucial for improving communication and organizational dynamics. By encouraging open dialogue and addressing underlying issues, organizations can foster better understanding and collaboration among team members.
  2. Conditionally Powerful vs. Unconditionally Powerful: Being unconditionally powerful means focusing on what can be done to overcome challenges, regardless of existing conditions. It involves taking proactive actions and not letting external factors limit one’s capabilities and potential for success.
  3. Awareness and Responsibility: Making individuals aware of their conditional mindset empowers them to take 100% responsibility for their actions and reactions. By recognizing the influence, they have over their own lives, individuals can proactively make changes and take control of their outcomes.
  4. Controlling the Self: The only thing individuals can truly control is themselves. By focusing on their own behavior and reactions, individuals can positively influence the dynamics around them and contribute to a more positive and productive environment.
  5. Quitting vs. Persevering: The decision to quit or persevere is personal, but claiming to have tried everything can limit potential growth. It is important to remain open to new possibilities, solutions, and experiences, even when faced with challenges, in order to continue progressing and achieving goals.
  6. Learning from experiences: Analyzing past successes and failures helps identify what works and what doesn’t. By drawing lessons from experiences, individuals and organizations can improve their strategies and approaches in the future.
  7. Expanding the frame: Considering the bigger picture and ultimate goals when facing challenges allows for the exploration of new possibilities and alternative approaches. By broadening the perspective, individuals can find innovative solutions and make better decisions.
  8. Taking action and iterating: High-performing teams prioritize taking action and iterating quickly. They value progress over endless discussions, enabling them to test different approaches, gather feedback, and make adjustments for continuous improvement.
  9. Motivation through speed: Taking action and making progress, even if imperfect, creates momentum and a sense of achievement. Speed can inspire and energize individuals and teams, leading to improved quality and market responsiveness through faster feedback loops.
  10. Bias for action: Having a bias for action involves prioritizing tangible steps forward over excessive planning or indecision. It encourages a mindset of agility, adaptability, and continuous improvement, recognizing that action is necessary for progress and learning.

Top 3 Takeaways:

  1. Be unconditionally powerful – make the unaware, aware.
  2. Focus on honest communication – get the unsaid, said. 
  3. Create high achieving teams versus high performing teams. 

How to get in touch with Steven:

Email: info@stevengaffney.com

Website: https://www.stevengaffney.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevengaffneycompany       

Corporate CPR Episode 72: Why We Need a New Type of Leadership to Manage Corporate Change

/ Jana

On today’s show, we discuss why we need a new type of leadership to manage corporate change.

Lata Hamilton is a change leadership and confidence expert and founder and CEO of Passion Pioneers and creator of the Leading Successful Change program. Her change leadership training Leading Successful Change helps women carve their own paths for change in career, leadership and life. Lata is a Change Management Consultant, Leadership Trainer, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner, and Confidence Coach.

Lata is based in Sidney, Australia and has led change with some of Australia’s biggest companies on their major Transformation and Organisational Change projects with agile, fit-for-purpose, practical Change Management strategies, plans and approaches. She’s worked on changes that have impacted over 100,000 people, operating model changes impacting thousands, global cultural transformations, and digital transformation that is literally change the way that we work.

Key Takeaways

Change management as we know it, has to change:

• The old standard of change management is regimented and relies on the idea of change projects being a step-by-step process for managing change. Which is not based on real life.

• Organizational change requires fluidly and flexibility instead of strict processes and timelines so you can add value in the moment.

• We need to shift our mindset from “managing change” (how are we going to manage a process or project to some desired outcome) to embrace a more holistic view of “inspiring change” (how are we going to change hearts and minds and engage people through all levels of the organization)

Focus on the experience you want to create with the change, not on specific dates and times:

• Instead of thinking the change project starts and ends, think about the experience you want to create and the benefits you want to see from the experience. For example – for training, instead of thinking of it from a time/deadline perspective, think of it from an experience perspective and plan out a journey for a particular team member.

• Focusing on the experience works because the actual delivery of the change is not the success. The success comes from realizing the benefit of the change and using it to engage people correctly, so they are switched on for now and for the future.

How do you prepare an organization for changes caused by automation?

• Open people’s minds to the possibility of change early on. • Create a change vision at group level and an individual level.

• Provide inspiration to give people a reason to believe and hope in the future of the organization.

• Leadership should be highly involved in communication to build trust. If employees trust their leaders, they will follow them through tough/uncertain times.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1) Wake People Up. Look to empower people. Take a new approach – how can we focus on getting an emotional shift and emotional transformation now and in the future?

2) Think about the communications you use. Take every opportunity to build trust when you are in a project or not. Change doesn’t have a start and end date. It’s always rolling, and you are always paving the way for new changes.

3) Leading change is hard. If you are working in any change leader position, take care of yourself and take time to build your internal confidence. To be able to lead change with other people you need to be able to step up i to your leadership and your internal strength in the process.

Connect with Lata:

Website: https://www.latahamilton.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latahamilton

Corporate CPR Episode 47: Navigating the Culture Wars with Jim Terry

/ Jana

On today’s show, we discuss how to best navigate the culture wars in your organization.

Jim Terry is a Strategic Communications Executive with nearly three decades of experience working in the state, local, and federal politics – including serving as the Political Director for the US Presidential campaign. A veteran of Capitol Hill, Jim has a special knack for helping businesses and organizations navigate the turbulence at the intersection of business and politics. From taxes to the culture wars, Jim has a unique approach to communicating in today’s outrage-driven environment, including the 5 opportunities most businesses are missing. Jim has appeared on Fox News, CNN, and countless talk radio show across the country and has testified before Congress on multiple occasions.

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Corporate CPR Episode 46: How Changing Customer Interactions Can Increase Revenue

/ Jana

On today’s show, we discuss how changing customer interactions can increase revenue.

National design firm Mancini Duffy – with a 100+-year-old history and tech-forward approach – is a full-service design firm specializing in architecture, planning, and interior design. Headquartered in New York City with regional offices in Millburn and Red Bank, New Jersey, the practice complements its century of expertise with contemporary entrepreneurial spirit and technological skill for clients in the commercial, education, financial and professional services, retail, healthcare, multi-family residential, restoration, institutional, religious, sports, tech and media sectors.

Jeff Anderson is an Associate and Design Lab Developer at Mancini Duffy. At Mancini, he conducts design research and develops architectural visualization tools. Jeff’s also an educator, architectural designer, and AR/VR software developer. He currently teaches in the Graduate Architecture & Urban Design program at Pratt Institute and the Graduate Architecture Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeff is a Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of The Toolbelt. A patent-pending software that allows Mancini’s clients to explore and manipulate 3D models in Virtual Reality to visualize and make design modifications for their projects together in real-time. Utilizing The Toolbelt, Mancini’s designers can do in 3 hours what it takes most 3 weeks to do.

He holds a Master of Architecture II from Princeton University, and both a Master of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture with Honors and Distinction from the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State University.

Michael Kipfer is a Principal at Mancini, where he spearheads research and development efforts at Mancini. A co-founder of Mancini’s research and development arm, the Design Lab, Michael pushes the boundaries within architecture and design. The Design Lab was born by exploring and adapting technology such as artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing, and drones to communicate seamlessly between the client and the architect. The space is where the incubation of ideas merge with technology to develop cutting-edge services and encourage dynamic collaboration with clients. 

In addition, Kipfer works with in-house software developers and designers to integrate technology into the firm’s everyday operations using Mancini’s unique 360 Design Process and patent-pending The Toolbelt software. 

Kipfer received his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Kentucky and Master in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Corporate CPR Episode 36: How to Effectively Make Data-Driven Decisions with Tarush Agarwal

/ Jana

On today’s show, we discuss how to effectively make data-driven decisions.

Tarush Agarwal is one of the leading experts in leveraging data for exponential growth, with over ten years of experience in the field. After graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2011, he became the first data engineer on the analytics team at Salesforce.com. Data was in its infancy, and the log metric framework which Tarush built was critical in allowing Salesforce to analyse data across customers and provide benchmarks across different industries and verticals

Most recently Tarush led Data for WeWork, one of the fastest growing companies in the world. WeWork leveraged data to be able to grow 10x in 3 years, supporting a footprint of 800+ offices in 120+ cities in 23+ countries with over 12,000 employees. Tarush scaled the data org from 2 to 100+ and their unique approach allowed them to stay lean while supporting every functional area of the business. In 2019 he moved to China to help establish WeWork’s Asia operations and focus on the hyper growing Chinese market.

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Corporate CPR Episode 34: Create a Thriving Culture to Avoid Burnout with Michele Molitor

/ Jana

On today’s show, we discuss how leaders can create a thriving culture to prevent employee burnout in their organizations. 

Michele Molitor is the founder and CEO of Nectar Consulting Inc., and co-author of the best-selling book “Breakthrough Healing”. She works with executives and entrepreneurs bringing more than 25 years of experience, intuitive insights, and strategic business savvy to their success. She is an expert at enhancing the capacity of leaders, to build high performing teams and exponentially increase bottom-line results.

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Corporate CPR Episode 33: Strategies for Improving Employee Retention with Richard Huffman

/ Jana

Richard Huffman is the CEO and Founder of Celebree School. He started Celebree School in 1994 and over the course of two decades, grew the brand from a single owned preschool into Maryland’s largest, privately held chain of childcare centers. In 2019, Huffman expanded the Celebree School brand into a franchise model and after just two years, he has been able to award 60 new franchise territories in that time. The franchise brand has already received numerous industry accolades, including the 2021 Fran-Tastic 500 Award by FranServe, and is on track to open to 100 new schools by 2025. 

On today’s show, we discuss how employee retention ties back to the bigger vision of the company.

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Corporate CPR Episode 31: Engaging Employees Through Connection with Tara Davidson

/ Jana

Tara Davidson is a global human resources leader with Castellan Solutions with a passion for working alongside teams who value people to drive culture, engagement, revenue, and growth. Originally from the northeast, she has lived in the southeast for over 25 years and has 20+ years of experience in the industry of supporting employees, leaders, and managers to make sure they optimize human performance.

On today’s show we discuss ways to connect with employees, both remotely and in person, in order to maximize employee retention. 

Key Takeaways

  • Engaged employees as a key factor for business success.
  • How to intentionally create connection points with virtual workers for maximum employee engagement. Weekly check-ins provide opportunities for resolving challenges, prioritizing projects, recognizing peers, and rewarding employees.
  • Why it’s important for the business to create personal interaction among employees, whether in person or virtually.
  • Key factors to employee feedback: Ask for the feedback, focus on a few key factors, and make sure the employees know that their feedback is causing action.
  • Tools recommended for making engagement a topic year-round: platforms like 15Five.com and donut.com, quarterly self-reviews, consistent recognition for wins, and tying these things to the company values.
  • Top 3 tips on keeping employees connected – frequent conversations about what’s working and what’s not, provide incentives for coming to the office, giving grace for mistakes.

Connect with Tara Davidson
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-davidson/
Company website – https://castellanbc.com/about/leadership/