Greetings!
The Changing Winds of Trust
Former Senator, television and film actor,
Fred Thompson, just announced that he is
running for the Presidency of the US. There
is a parody on the web about him. It ends
with, "You know you trust him - does it
matter why?"
John McCain, another candidate for the same
office, was speaking to a group of high
schools students. Someone asked the 72 year
old Senator if he was too old to be
President. McCain replied, "Thanks for the
question, you little jerk. . . You're
drafted." Political commentator Karen
Tumulty said, "This kind of line is vintage
McCain. And if a candidate gets off a line
like this when they are doing well, everyone
will say that the line reflects his charm and
his independence. . . But when a candidate is
doing poorly, everything becomes a metaphor
for trouble." (Diane Rehm Show, NPR 9/5/07)
I think both these examples are important for
people who lead change (or those of us who
simply want to influence others). Trust is an
elusive vaporous substance. And it can turn
on you quickly. I have seen far too many
decent ideas die because people lost trust in
the leader or leaders.
I won't insult you with the laundry list of
things that contribute to trust. But I do
suggest that you make trust itself a major
category in your change management plans. I
believe a big part of my job with my own
clients is to help them see the extent to
which stakeholders trust them, and to help
those leaders monitor the changing level of
trust throughout the life of the change.
It is far too easy to take comfort in some
change management plan replete with Gantt
chart and slogans and assume that these
prescribed steps will take you to the
promised land. Plans are good, but having a
way to check the pulse of the organization
continually is equally important. And I'm not
talking about formal assessments like 360s.
Those tools certainly have their place, but
they take too long to give you a weather
report. You need (we all need) ways to pick
up signals that a Level 4 storm is headed our
way - today.
Progress Report
My Change without Migraines Formula is just
about completed. I have recorded all the
audios (almost two hours worth of material).
A designer is creating the cover art, and I
am working on the guidebook. This will be an
overview of my thinking on change.
I appreciate the ideas many of you sent me.
Free Audios
And thanks for the comments you made about
the two audios I offered to people who passed
the word along about my newsletter. Based on
your truly nice comments, I decided to make
the audios available to everyone. You can
access them on my blog. If you are reading
this newsletter today (9/7/07) then it is the
first blog entry. But if you're like me and
don't read some e-mails for awhile, you'll
probably need to scroll down to the blog
entry titled Keys to Leading Change Well.
Here is the link to my blog: Change
Management News
Also on the Blog
I just read Made to Stick. I love that
book. If you'd like to see my comments on it
-- and why I think it should be on every
leader's reading list, go to the blog. Change
Management News
Sincerely,
Rick Maurer
Maurer & Associates
phone:
703-525-7074
