Modern Change Management

A virtual conference: Perspectives with Tom HenricksenSubscribe to YouTube channel

Sometimes we forget that our perspective as change agents is one of many. This show is dedicated to exploring how to nudge change forward by understanding and valuing multiple perspectives.Subscribe to YouTube channel

Joao and I sit down to chat about the new Lean Change Professional workshop, what's similar and different between it and the original Lean Change Agent, how it came to be and who it's for.Subscribe to YouTube channel

10 years ago you’d be laughed out of the building if you used words like love and vulnerability in the boardroom. Today, there seems to be a trend towards stripping away the noise as leaders understand that meaningful change isn’t going to happen through the $4 million worth of buzzword-filled documents that big consulting firms like to deliver.From the ineffectiveness of the carrot and stick method, to the effect that societal change has on our organizations, Paul Gibbons, who helped launch the first podcast, is back to restart the podcast along with a Modern Change video channel.Subscribe to YouTube channel

In this episode, Mathias Gorf, Patrick Verdonk and Peter Rubarth debate the points raised by Eric and I during Episode 4:- the concept of getting people to ‘buy in’ to your change- intentionally changing, and measuring culture- how to preserve your existing culture during growth- whether ‘chief culture officers’ are a good idea or notSubscribe to YouTube channel

In this podcast, we hand over the hosting reigns to Lean Change Facilitator Richard Atherton - one of the leaders of Lean Change in the UK. Richard first discovered Venkataraman on LinkedIn in 2016 and was attracted to his incisive writing on organisations. In this episode they explore: What do we mean by bureaucracy?How do we “debug bureaucracy”?What’s the meaning and value of “working out loud”?Venky and Richard recommend the following if you’d like to dive deeper on bureaucracy:David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of BureaucracyNeil Postman's Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to TechnologyPournelle's Iron Law of BureaucracyYou can find more of Venky’s writing at LinkedIn, especially Debugging Bureaucracy and the Voldemort Effect.Subscribe to YouTube channel

Most of the stories we hear about agile transformation, or a rollout of , it’s from someone selling something, or from the consultants, or leaders who were responsible for the rollout itself. I haven’t seen very many (any?) stories from people who were employees of the organization who had to figure out how to work within the method when they didn’t really have a say in how and why it was brought in.This podcast features Ryan Latta, who was a developer on a team, and Sean Melody, who was a chief architect at the time their organization brought in SAFe. The purpose of this podcast is to understand the difference in perspective about a change that was decided upon that people affected had no real say in. In this instance SAFe is the trigger for change, so this podcast isn’t about debating whether or not SAFe is good idea, or how it works.We chat about what the reaction was like, how the teams adjusted, what problems they ran into and how they dealt with them.Subscribe to YouTube channel

This week’s podcast, and video chat, closed the chapter of the book! Jill and I explore:how did you get started with your change canvases?how did people react to formalizing change management for the first time?how deep did you go while exploring who was affected?has IT change gotten easier because we’re used to software changing all the time?how did operational readiness happen?how did visualizing the change help?what outcomes did you get, and what were the lessons learned?Subscribe to YouTube channel

Nowadays, the word agile has baggage. Despite the amount of information out there, some still think agile means no planning, no process, and no documents. If you feel you have an agile mindset, it can be extremely difficult to work with those who “don’t get it”. If you look at the 4 values and 12 principles, agile is simple, and it’s not about the methods, or frameworks, or certifications, it’s about how organizations can figure out more effective ways to manage work and people. Some organizations will have more process than others, some organizations will use sticky notes, others will use tools. A friend of mine once said, “Agile helps people learn how to think in their own context”.Subscribe to YouTube channel

We underestimate the importance of psychological safety, and meaningful conversations when it comes to running our organizations. In this episode, Jerry Koch-Gonzalez explains the 3 structures of sociocracy, why organizations are choosing it, how they’re getting stuck, and what’s getting them past those sticking points.Our topics include:- what is sociocracy, and what are the 3 structures of sociocracy?- why are organizations choosing sociocracy?1- do organizations see sociocracy as a process or an intentional shift in culture?- are some organizations predisposed to this way of working?- challenges organizations have with sociocracy and how they overcome them.- the importance of psychological safety- what do people who don’t like sociocracy do? Do they opt-out? Do they eventually come around?Subscribe to YouTube channel

There are more change frameworks out there than you can shake a stick at. We all have our favourites, but how necessary are they? We know change is hard, and we know the debates about why change fails have been circular over the last decade or perhaps longer. Yet here we are, inventing, and reinventing more frameworks, best practices, and standards in the hopes that will fix what isn’t working.What if we relied on our brains and ears instead of boxes on a PowerPoint? This week’s podcast features Lean Change Agent Facilitators Ro Gorrell and Charlotte Mawle. Our topics include:- The ‘Brains and Ears’ approach to change- The perception that Agile is chaos- Breaking verticle and horizontal boundaries on the org chart- How those new to change can avoid getting sucked into framework biasSubscribe to YouTube channel

In 2001, the Agile Manifesto was created and along with it, a movement for a better way to build software. Since then over 40 methods, tools, frameworks and more have been created as the software world learned that 4 values and 12 principles alone were not enough.16 years later, and some feel that we need to take Agile back from the bureaucratic organizations. For every movement, there is a counter-movement and this week’s podcast features Ryan Lockard of Agile Uprising. Our topics include:- how Agile Uprising came to be- how the ‘take agile back’ movement compares to the original agile movement- is change resistance a thing?- becoming too attached to the change as a change agent- focusing on meaningful change over models and processSubscribe to YouTube channel

I was fortunate to be interviewed by Ro Gorrell and Charlotte Mawle for their upcoming Change Ignition podcast. In this episode we talk about simple solutions for integrating change management and agile teams, as well as how letting go as a change agent helps you keep your sanity, and helps people realize you’re there to help, not to push change on them.Subscribe to YouTube channel

I was recently interviewed by Elizabeth Plouffe on her Across the Desk podcast. This is a re-broadcast of her podcast!In this episode we talk about the Happy Melly ecosystem is helping people understand the importance of workplace happiness, how we can focus on understanding what in our system is affected when we want to introduce change and more!We also talk about the upcoming Happy Melly Exploration Day which is the first in-person Happy Melly event worldwide!The Lean Change Management podcast will be back in 2017 while I focus on other stuff for the remainder of 2016.Subscribe to YouTube channel

Topics I explore with Ty Crockett:- experiences working with centralized Agile transformation teams- is the ‘guiding coalition’ an outdated concept?- what alternatives exist?- how has Kotter’s 2nd step been mis-interpretedSubscribe to YouTube channel

In this episode, Eric Lynn, founder of Culture Q’s, and I discuss culture, including whether or not you can measure it and why the approach some companies take is the wrong way to do it.This episode was recorded at #DareFest in Belgium so I apologize for the audio as I didn’t have my studio mic with me!If you’re interested in being part of the followup conversation, contact me!Subscribe to YouTube channel

This week’s episode features a few people from Canada, the US and Australia. Our topic, debating the arguments from Episode 1 with Paul Gibbons. Is pop psychology all that bad or is it necessary for more people to have surface knowledge as opposed to deep knowledge of these change models?We also talked about organizational coaching and how agile and OD intersect.Subscribe to YouTube channel

This episode features Salah Elleithy, Agile Coach, Trainer and founder of Spark Agility. Salah joined an open session with me at Agile 2015 where myself and a few other people tried out a technique called The Hot Seat.Salah recently tried this out with a client and in this episode we chat about why he wanted to try it, how he did it and what happened.Subscribe to YouTube channel

This is the first Lean Change Management podcast featuring Paul Gibbons, the author of The Science of Successful Organizational Change. In this episode we talk about what the Agile community can learn from the organizational development and change management communities. We also tackle a variety of topics including:The dangers of Pop Psychology (2:25)The expert trap (4:00)The need for certainty as it relates to change (7:10)70% failure ‘stat’ (8:15)BDUF – Big Design Up Front for change programs (10:00)Agile and Organizational Change (20:26)Subscribe to YouTube channel