7/12/2008

Change This!

ChangeThis has been the home for people with great ideas who wanted to spring them on an unsuspecting world.

Two recent essays deserve particular mention. The first is The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage, Michael Lee Stallard's prescription to improve your organization and the world. Reading it is the best use of your time right this minute, unless you have to give someone the Heimlich Maneuver or perform CPR. In all seriousness, if everyone read Michael's message and took it to heart, the world would become a better place.

If your focus is only on creating dramatic, lasting, positive changes in large companies or organizations (something which usually ends in either outright failure or declaration of victory and acceptance of poor results), then you need to read Mike Kanazawa's People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them. This manifesto reveals many of the key tenets found in his book Big Ideas to Big Results. If you can only read one book on the subject, this should be that one book. You still have to decide what you want to change, but Kanazawa’s book, co-authored with Bob Miles, provide a detailed roadmap for HOW to accomplish the change. I’ve seen a lot of change initiatives, and their Accelerated Corporate Transformation (ACT) process incorporates every key lesson I’ve ever learned. I’ll be posting a review of the book soon, but you can read the manifesto right now.

I wish I’d been able to read both of these pieces earlier in my career. They’re clear and compelling and fun reads. I’ll leave you with a pull quote from People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them:
”Think about it…is your goal to get the most out of your people or the best out of your people? You typically can’t get both.”



posted by Mike at 9:49 PM


4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mike,

Thank you for bringing attention to my changethis.com Connection Culture manifesto. Funny you should mention Mike Kanazawa's manifesto since I just read it over the weekend and posted about it on my own blog yesterday. I look forward to seeing your review of Mike and Robert Miles' book Big Ideas to Big Results. I thought it was excellent.

All the best!
Michael

5:13 AM  
Blogger Mike said...

Michael,

It was my pleasure to talk about your manifesto. I believe in you and your message! Did you know that your book is the second listing when you search for 'Big Ideas to Big Results' on Amazon?

Mike

8:55 AM  
Blogger Mike K said...

Too many Mikes and Michaels here!

Mike D. - thanks for sharing and having an interest in the book and changethis.com manifesto/essay.

Michael Stallard has done a great job in highlighting the physiological and business reasons why connections are important at work. He and I share quite a bit in beliefs about how engagement and authentic connections between people can bring out the best in an organization to drive business performance.

Best,

Mike K.

9:26 AM  
Blogger Mike said...

Mike,

Did you know that Michael is one of the only names that has stayed in the top ten male baby names for the last 50 years? So there are lots of us around.

Apparently we all think the similarly about engagement and connection, too. Spooky!

Mike

9:36 AM  

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