“He knows the organization that they have now can’t do what it really needs to do. It’s just not functional enough.”

How does your organization begin the process of implementing change? What are some of the challenges you have faced in the change process?

Highlights

00:00:45
Sharon shares an example of a change agent and change project: Director of information technology for a large public organization who has recently moved into that role and is inheriting a department from someone whose management leadership style is quite different from his.
00:02:14
Sharon proposes a lift-off exercise to look at the purpose of the organization, its alignment and context, to refine the mission and the vision and consider mission tests, to consider simple rules, working agreements, boundaries, and resources available.
00:02:54
Deeper discussion around simple rules: rules that apply to everybody in an organization and help them make decisions and determine priorities. Link to agile chartering elements.
00:03:54
Discussion of the first steps for moving towards change within this organization and dealing with the barriers to change resulting from a previous intervention that was not well received.
00:07:42
Meeting with informal leaders of the organization provides additional insight into the capacity for organizational change within this particular organization.
00:10:04
Discussion on the perceptions people have of the new director and how to incorporate the feedback so that he can steer the change openly and without prejudice; “I’m never too old to learn, I’m never too old to change” adage.
00:13:21
Leaders must be courageous to make effective changes.
00:14:36
How to effect change in existing cultures of organizations, particularly in IT?
00:15:37
Role of women in IT organizations and how they are perceived.
00:18:30
Deeper discussion on the first steps to take to assist the director move his group through the lift-off agile chartering process.
00:20:53
Wrap-up – impact of the change process as the organization moves forward.