change is the law of life

But Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment: "Stay, thou art so fair." And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

John F. Kennedy

"Address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt (266)," June 25, 1963, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1963. As found on JFKLibrary.org. Originally seen on 2022 Great Quotes From Great Leaders Boxed Calendar: 365 Inspirational Quotes From Leaders Who Shaped the World. 

organizational change competency

What does an organization look like when it has developed change competency? It often starts with an organization facing constant demands to change and using effective change management over and over with each new initiative, which leads to a fundamental shift in operations. Sponsors repeat the activities that made the last change successful. People managers develop skills to support employees through the change. People on the front lines of the organization see navigating change as part of their job and the way the organization does business. Eventually, each role in the organization will have internalized their role in change and developed the knowledge and skills needed to react to it effectively. This change-ready organization has developed change competency...

Change competency is similar to change management, with key distinctions. 

First, change competency is not an activity. Prosci defines change management as the application of a structured process and set of tools for leading the people side of change to achieve a desired outcome. Change competency is an organization’s ability to react to and manage change over and over again. It's an enterprise-wide capability to apply change management practices successfully and routinely.

Second, while change management can be taught and learned, change competency requires a fundamental shift in culture and values. It must become part of day-to-day operations and cannot be simply demonstrated in training or instructional materials.

Finally, change competency must penetrate every level and facet of the organization, from the executive leadership to people on the front lines. An organization may have change management expertise in sponsors, consultants, and change management practitioners. However, the people who must work with the changes every day are the focus of much of the change management activities. In change-competent organizations, these people are key players. To build change competency, and organization must give individual people impacted by change the perspectives, tools and techniques they need to move through their transitions quickly and successfully.

Tim Creasey

"Defining Change Competency," Prosci Blog. Accessed on December, 5 2022

how would you like me to show up for you ?

Favorite questions to ask my new direct reports as I onboard: how would you like me to show up for you so that I become one of the best managers you've ever had? Never fails to surprise and delight them.

After asking direct reports what they want from you as a manager, the work's not over. Share specifics about your style and how you plan to be present for them and be honest about where you might not be able to be supportive + why so that expectations are clear from the start. 

Nikkia Akua Reveillac

Twitter. October 13, 2021. 

diversity: what you see, inclusion: what you do

Diversity is a measure of how an individual’s personal characteristics differ from those of the normative majority of an organization;

Inclusion is the act of ensuring that people’s experiences within an organization are not impacted negatively as a result of their personal characteristics...

Of course, diversity and inclusion are intertwined: the way that one person interacts with another, and the probability that the interaction will make one person feel excluded, often depend on the personal traits of each person. Hence we can say that a company is highly inclusive if, even when people with different traits interact with one another, the behavior of one person does not cause the other to feel excluded.

Ultimately, if we want a company to be more inclusive, it is the people who cause exclusion that need to change their behavior—and, in some cases, the company has to instate policies to prevent experiences of exclusion from occurring, or taking corrective action when they do occur. This is why we say that “inclusion is what you do.” Trying to describe the sense of inclusion or belonging that an employee feels is not very useful unless we can understand who made them feel excluded, and what exactly happened in the interaction that made them feel excluded...

Finally, thinking about diversity as what you see and inclusion as what you do helps us to understand some key limitations of many current D&I efforts and initiatives. For one thing, conducting inclusion surveys that simply ask how included someone feels, is of limited use: unless you ask exactly who and what made them feel less included, simply knowing someone’s level of inclusion is like knowing that someone is not feeling well, but having no idea of what illness they may have. For another thing, simply trying to “force diversity” by hiring more people from underrepresented segments of the population, without actually changing the way people behave in their interactions with other employees, is extremely unlikely to yield any improvements.

It is only when we learn to identify sources of exclusion and take actions to minimize them, that our companies will be able to sustain a growing level of diversity and to enjoy an inclusive environment where all employees have an equal opportunity to thrive and succeed.

Paolo Gaudiano

"Diversity Is What You See, Inclusion Is What You Do," Forbes. March 1, 2021

two pizza meeting rule

Like most successful founders, Jeff Bezos does his best to limit the number of meetings he attends. And when he does need to join one, he wants to make it as efficient as possible.

To do this, he follows a simple rule: He won't set up or attend a meeting if two pizzas won't feed the entire group...

One strategy is to take Bezos' advice and ask if two pizzas could feed the group... Here's my suggestion. Any time you're scheduling a meeting, think critically about who really needs to be there. And if someone only needs to be there to cover one topic within the meeting, you can always start with that topic and allow them to leave after it's been covered.

Nick Sonnenberg

"How Jeff Bezos Used the 2-Pizza Rule to Put an End to Useless Meetings at Amazon: It has nothing to do with pizza and everything to do with money." Inc.com. October 26, 2022