How to Mobilize a Weary Workforce

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We are challenged to keep employees engaged, innovative, and productive. Yet, they often come across as weary, tenacious survivors. Many of them are tired, stressed, and worried about the future.

Employees know enough not to talk about the challenges of keeping up amidst the tumult of organization life, the rapid change, the threats of layoffs, and the continuous “raising the bar.” But in quiet, off-line conversations, they talk about being tired, unengaged, and simply surviving.

The costs of non-engagement are high. We live in a world of increasing competition, pressure to lower costs, and demand for ongoing innovation and productivity gains.

Three Ways Human Networks Can Help Drive Change

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The technology vice president of a local financial services company was frustrated. A bottom-line strategy depended on the success of a recent reorganization. Unfortunately, the reorganization was not generating the expected results. In fact, people were behaving just as usual, despite new reporting relationships and a redesigned divisional structure.

This situation is more often the case than not: leaders design and institute strategies that fail to achieve results. According to a 2006 McKinsey survey, only 38 percent of change initiatives were completely or mostly successful at improving performance.

In other words, even when strategies are successful, they don’t come close to returning intended results.

How to Help Managers Lead Change

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We're undergoing significant change and I can't be everywhere. What can I do to help my managers lead change?

Always Do This

Make sure your managers always know what’s going on. That significant change is just one item on their very full plates. As soon as a client hollers, the change will get placed on the back burner unless you help keep your managers focused. Information updates should be on every staff meeting agenda. Be sure to cover what’s new and different since the last staff meeting, what’s on the schedule for the coming month and how that will affect their staff, and what milestones are planned for the next six months.

3 Ways to Supercharge Your Onboarding Process

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They were hired with good intentions, but they never really fit in. Their fault? Think again. If your company is like most, your onboarding process is a big part of the problem. Too often, people’s onboarding experience leaves them feeling bored, frustrated, or confused. Instead, design a process that sends powerful messages about the company and employees’ roles in it. Here are three ways to supercharge your onboarding process. To read the rest of this post, which just went live on Inc.com, click here: 3 Ways to Supercharge Your Onboarding Process.

Primer on Organization Network Dynamics & Analysis

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NTL Handbook of OD & Change
We know that networks exist. But what we haven't known until recently is how to work with them. A new article helps leaders understand just how to do so. The new NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change features thirty-four chapters designed to help leaders and practitioners bring about meaningful change in organizations. Partnering Resources' founder Maya Townsend contributed "Organization Network Dynamics and Analysis" to the book. Keep reading to see how you can receive a free preview copy of the article.

Change Leadership Challenge 5: Use Networks for Change

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This is the fifth in a series of posts about change leadership. Previous posts covered active, committed leadership, building a compelling business case, embedding change, and meaningful employee participation. “I’ll tell you how communication really works around here,” the data architect told me over coffee. “Jeff, Susan, and Ramesh make a decision. I play video games with Jeff during lunch and get the scoop. I tell the other architects.” Jeff successfully found the key to getting information in this organization: work through the network, not through the hierarchy. Unfortunately, too many organizations assume that formal communication processes work, when in reality people use networks to get information. Make sure your next change initiative isn’t undermined by tapping proactively into your company’s hidden human networks.

The Ultimate Networking Cheat Sheet

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Often, the hardest part of networking is getting started. Here's a manageable way to change your perspective and begin building fruitful relationships in the next 30 days. You have one month to land financing. Or recruit a mission-critical hire. Or find a new position. Whatever the deadline, you need to build relationships, you need to do it fast, and you need to do it right. This cheat sheet tells you how with a 30-day plan. To read the rest of this post, which just went live on Inc.com, click here: The Ultimate Networking Cheat Sheet.

Collaborating Across Borders: Five Keys to Creating Powerful Partnerships

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Collaborating across borders. If this dog and cat can do it, so can we. Image by Hannah W on flickr.

Several weeks ago, a distraught vice president called. His organization had just been restructured and he had just received ownership for two new divisions. He needed to integrate the new divisions quickly and help them collaborate with his existing organization.

The problem was that he had inherited a group of people who didn’t understand why the change had happened. They were struggling to comprehend why they should redesign their processes to accommodate the new organization chart. In addition, they were used to working alone and saw no reason to collaborate with their new peers.

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