Pittsburgh-based Highmark Health generates some $19 billion in annual revenues and employs about 50,000 people across the nation. The healthcare company serves 50 million people in all 50 states. Highmark’s diversified portfolio includes businesses in health insurance, healthcare delivery, retail…
Change Management
Hiring the Way You Always Have Gets You More of What You Have
I was reading through a job description the other day that mentioned innovation 3+ times. However, as I read the description, I saw this: “Must have 5-7 years’ experience.” My thought was: Innovation or tenure — you tell me. Organizations…
Flatarchie, Holacracy and Virtual: 3 Emerging Business Structures That Might Work For You
With millennials now moving rapidly into management positions and the “fourth industrial revolution” just on the threshold, according to the World Economic Forum, traditional business practices and structures are under pressure to change like never before. But suddenly changing up…
You Need the ‘Informal Leaders’ to Get Things Done
Everyone is familiar with the term C-suite. The C-suite is populated with the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer… The list goes on and on. The people who inhabit the C-suite are the formal leaders of the…
How Change Agents Helped These Companies Transform Their Culture
Changing an organization’s culture is considered one of the most difficult challenges for leaders, and those with experience will confirm that it can be a massive undertaking. Whatever challenges the organization is facing — low morale among staff, bad behavior…
7 Ways to Make Your Project Fail and 7 Ways to Prevent That
Wonder why some projects fail while others are successful? Like the 7 deadly sins, this article from Toledo Solutions lists 7 of the most common ways to ensure a project fail — and they all come down to people and…
Spicing Up the ‘Change Equation’ For Today’s Organization
Meaningful organizational change is the result of an optimum mix of several factors. Some of them are internal and largely controllable, whereas, others are external and primarily uncontrollable due to their susceptibility to outside influences. The desire to elevate an…
7 Culture Insights for Positive Change and 3 Reasons Change Fails
This post is a salute to passionate and experienced culture and performance change agents. You understand the power of culture in organizations and the challenge, frustration, restlessness, and exhilaration inevitably linked to intentional culture-related action. We’re living in the absolute…
How to Avoid These 3 Culture Change Pitfalls
Culture change is a human experience. It’s not just a business imperative, as it has been viewed for decades, as reflected in these expressions: “If we’re going to grow, we have to change the culture” and “This culture is toxic,…
We Want Disruption Until It’s Us Being Disrupted
“So many of us in business (say) ‘I want innovation. I want disruption. I want the next big thing’,” said Bradley West to his DisruptHR audience in Winnipeg last year. But “Stop changing my process,” he added mockingly. The message…
The 21st Century Way to Getting Your People to Do Great Work
Leading is like parenting — everybody thinks they do a much better job than they actually do. There’s a definite gap between how most executives assess themselves and how their direct reports do. Leaders and their teams seem to be watching two…
3 Conversations to Help Your Team Get Through a Reorg
A while ago, I was counseling a senior executive of a government bureau who was two years into shaping his agency to be more customer and results-centered. He rebuilt his 200-person group, propelled key actions, coached his staff on changing…
7 Tips to Focus On The People Side Of Change
Change is hard. Some of you may be saying “duh!” Yet many people underestimate how challenging change can be. Anyone who tells themselves change is easy has never lived through it or is choosing to pull the wool over their…
How to Overcome Leadership Blindness: The Challenge of Seeing Differently
The world of business mimics that of entertainment. Both artists and top executives have two lives. The one glamorous of success and perfection; and the other one human, vulnerable, the life behind the scenes. “What you don’t see backstage is what really controls…
Stop Talking About Change. Start Talking About Adaptation!
Let’s talk about change for a moment. Think of yourself. Think of any groups or organizations (including family) in which you are involved. Now, imagine I come to you and say, “I want to talk to you about some changes…
The Day the Chicago YWCA Blew-Up HR
When you’re a 140 year-old social services institution that wants to be more like a startup, what do you do? If you’re the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, you start with your own people first. “If we’re going to empower millions…
Creating a Culture Where Upper Management Admits Imperfection
Note: This is the 5th in a series of occasional articles on workforce optimization. The first, “Is Workforce Optimization the Missing Piece to Your Organization’s Success?” discusses how and why the most successful organizations are changing the way they work…
Insights On Culture From Pioneers and Leaders
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. said, “A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.” So, when an opportunity presents itself to learn from those who have repeatedly and successfully managed the culture journey, it’s imperative to take the leap. Do you…
How Not to Hate Change: Communicate. Then Communicate Again. And Again.
This is part three of a three-part look at how companies can manage change in meaningful ways that make sense for individual employees and the organization as a whole. Today’s post focuses on the role of communications in change management….
Why the Change Averse May Be Better at Change
Let’s admit it: Almost none of us much like change. Oh sure, we say we do, especially when the change is our idea. And we can even enthusiastically get behind some types of change. But disruptive change — where teams…