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Leading Change QUOTES

Leading Change QUOTES

1 " Speed of change is the driving force. Leading change competently is the only answer. "

― , Leading Change

2 " Sensing the difficulty in producing change, some people try to manipulate events quietly behind the scenes and purposefully avoid any public discussion of future direction. "

― , Leading Change

3 " transformation is a process, not an event "

― , Leading Change

4 " Management makes a system work. It helps you do what you know how to do. Leadership builds systems or transforms old ones. "

― , Leading Change

5 " Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with the verbal communication. "

― , Leading Change

6 " Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower employees and undermine change. "

― , Leading Change

7 " If you cannot describe your vision to someone in five minutes and get their interest, you have more work to do in this phase of a transformation process. "

― , Leading Change

8 " Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles "

― , Leading Change

9 " Employees in large, older firms often have difficulty getting a transformation process started because of the lack of leadership coupled with arrogance, insularity, and bureaucracy. "

― , Leading Change

10 " Bureaucratic cultures can smother those who want to respond to shifting conditions. "

― , Leading Change

11 " Major change is often said to be impossible unless the head of the organization is an active supporter. "

― , Leading Change

12 " A guiding coalition made up only of managers—even superb managers who are wonderful people—will cause major change efforts to fail. "

― , Leading Change

13 " Empowering people to effect change • Communicate a sensible vision to employees: If employees have a shared sense of purpose, it will be easier to initiate actions to achieve that purpose. • Make structures compatible with the vision: Unaligned structures block needed action. • Provide the training employees need: Without the right skills and attitudes, people feel disempowered. • Align information and personnel systems to the vision: Unaligned systems also block needed action. • Confront supervisors who undercut needed change: Nothing disempowers people the way a bad boss can. "

― , Leading Change

14 " A useful rule of thumb: Whenever you cannot describe the vision driving a change initiative in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies both understanding and interest, you are in for trouble. Error "

― , Leading Change

15 " Without short-term wins, too many employees give up or actively join the resistance. Creating "

― , Leading Change

16 " In successful transformations, the president, division general manager, or department head plus another five, fifteen, or fifty people with a commitment to improved performance pull together as a team. This group rarely includes all of the most senior people because some of them just won’t buy in, at least at first. But in the most successful cases, the coalition is always powerful—in terms of formal titles, information and expertise, reputations and relationships, and the capacity for leadership. Individuals alone, no matter how competent or charismatic, never have all the assets needed to overcome tradition and inertia except in very small organizations. Weak committees are usually even less effective. "

― , Leading Change

17 " In a less competitive and slower-moving world, weak committees can help organizations adapt at an acceptable rate. A committee makes recommendations. Key line managers reject most of the ideas. The group offers additional suggestions. The line moves another inch. The committee tries again. When both competition and technological change are limited, this approach can work. But in a faster-moving world, the weak committee always fails. "

― , Leading Change

18 " When people fail to develop the coalition needed to guide change, the most common reason is that down deep they really don’t think a transformation is necessary or they don’t think a strong team is needed to direct the change. Skill at team building is rarely the central problem. "

― , Leading Change

19 " The typical goal that binds individuals together on guiding change coalitions is a commitment to excellence, a real desire to make their organizations perform to the very highest levels possible. Reengineering, acquisitions, and cultural change efforts often fail because that desire is missing. Instead, one finds people committed to their own departments, divisions, friends, or careers. "

― , Leading Change

20 " We need to become less like an elephant and more like a customer-friendly Tyrannosaurus rex "

― , Leading Change