“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” Katzenbach and Smith (2015) The Wisdom of Teams I find this such a helpful description of a team! It is simple, clear,...

Will a Mackenzie Scott gift to your nonprofit make you MORE or LESS attractive to other donors? Ever since Mackenzie Scott began making unexpected Transformational Gifts to nonprofits in 2019/2020 (a total of about $16 billion so far), some have had a concern that these gifts will somehow ‘chase away’...

Oof – that was unexpected! Who knew there was going to be so much resistance to this organizational change? Have you ever been in this situation? You recently launched a change initiative with great fanfare! You’ve been planning this change for a while, but the response is less enthusiastic than...

You’re excited about the future! You’ve got an ambitious strategy to grow and scale a proven program so that you can reach many more people! But are you really ready for growth? The unfortunate reality is that too many organizations find themselves overwhelmed by the practical challenges of managing growth....

Is a team productive if they complete the task on time, but had such a toxic experience in doing so that they never want to work together again? I was once part of a team like this. We were four people, brought together from different parts of the world, to...

It’s summertime as I write, a time when things slow down from the usual pace we experience for the rest of the year. So I’m enjoying taking time to read some new books and revisit old favorites. I think you will enjoy them too!   Karolin Helbig and Minette Norman...

You bring the change team together for one of your regular meetings. The change initiative has been underway for six months. You’ve been following the “rolling six month plan” that you developed together. You have just completed a round of collecting progress data. And things are… just a bit off course....

Do you remember how you felt in April 2020? That was the point when we all began to realize that this COIVD-19 pandemic might be around for longer than we had anticipated. And all the plans we had for the year were in jeopardy! Remember that feeling? We realized that...

Kolmanskop is an abandoned town on the edge of the Namib Desert in southern Africa. Once it was one of the wealthiest, most lively places in that country. Today, it is considered a ‘ghost town’ and the desert has reclaimed for itself the once-majestic houses that made up the town....

We know that not everything in your plan will go according to plan. You will need to be nimble and adaptive, responding to what is actually taking place, rather than what you hoped would be taking place! When you are Cultivating Change, I call this move on the part of...

Congratulations! You’ve started implementing your change initiative, following the steps laid out in your plan. Smooth sailing from now on, right? Unfortunately, you are going to face bumps along the way. Some of them will come from within the organization. And, as a member of the change team, it can...

You can learn a lot about stakeholder perceptions when you are mapping the current situation. In fact, you might even interview selected stakeholders during that step. As a structured activity, the stakeholder assessment is an opportunity to have a conversation and consider what you are learning about stakeholders in your...

There’s an inbuilt problem with change processes. Few people know about them before they are launched, often with great fanfare. And that can come as an unpleasant surprise, leading people to doubt the motives of the change leaders and to wonder what other “bad news” might follow. Now, there are...

Here’s an idea: Prepare a plan for the change process, but don’t make it too detailed! What comes to mind when you think of a plan? Many people will have an initial image of an architect’s blueprints for a new home, or a detailed Gantt chart with activities shown for...

Are you at the start of a change process? Do you need to better understand the context in which you are working? Consider creating a Context Map to help you learn more about this situation. A Context Map will allow you to become more informed about the current situation and...

We are pleased to announce that Michael Randel, RCA’s founder and director, has recently become a Certified Practitioner of The Five Behaviors of Cohesive Teams®. This program, developed by Patrick Lencioni from his work in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, provides insightful assessment tools and educational programs that shed...

What happens at the end of a project or a change process? Too often, the major players (team members and champions) have moved on to other initiatives and priorities by the time that a project comes to a close. This is a group that has built a lot of insight...

Let’s say that you have received an unexpected grant to your organization. It’s a large sum of money – equivalent to your annual operating budget! And there are no strings attached to how you can use these funds. This unimaginable scenario is real. It has happened in over 1,600 organizations...

  Are you looking to enhance your team leadership skills and take your team’s performance to the next level? If so, I want to extend an invitation to join me in the Facilitation Skills Online Program. I’ve been a facilitator for 30 years, with an award-winning track record of success,...

  Gardening, like leading change, is hard work. If you’re not bending over to till the soil and remove stones, you’re on your knees caring for seedlings or removing weeds. From this position, it’s really easy to lose sight of the big picture. That’s why a key change leadership action...