Rick Maurer's Tip 108 - Outcome of Presedential Wives' Debate and Change

Rick Maurer Tip108 - Presidential Candidates Wives' Debate & Leading Change

10/18/12

Outcome of the Presidential Wives' Debate and Leading Change

A few hours prior to the second presidential debate, Jimmy Kimmell (a late night television comedian) sent people out on the street to get opinions regarding who won. Surprisingly, people had opinions on the outcome of a debate that hadn't yet occurred.

So, the next day he sent someone out to get people's reactions on how the candidates' wives did in their debate. (There was no such debate, btw.) People had opinions on that as well. One guy even gave details to bolster his argument about who won. Another guy, who admitted he . . .hadn't seen the whole debate", commented as well. (Here is a link to the video.)

There is a link to change management. Really, there is.

People want to feel like they know what's going on, so even armed with little - or no data -- they (or we) form opinions.

When you are about to introduce a major change, people probably have formed an opinion about it, even though you haven't said a word. Try it out. "So, Bill what are your thoughts about the 2013 New Technology and Beyond initiative?" I'll bet you Bill has an opinion.

People (us included) form opinions based on the slimmest of data. Think about what Malcolm Gladwell called the "blink" phenomenon, where people make decisions quickly with very little data. Gladwell concluded that we tend to do well making these blink-of-an-eye decisions. I'm not so sure about that. But I do agree that people make decision quickly. And the Kimmell experiment suggests that we can form strong opinions in the absence of any data.

Just a footnote. Another late night comedian, Jay Leno, routinely goes out on the street to ask people about current events and so-called common knowledge. The answers people give makes me shake my head in disbelief. Leno was asked how long it took to find a sufficient number of people who just don't seem to know much about anything. He said that it didn't take much time at all. I'll bet Kimmell had the same experience.

The Magic List

If you know my work, you know that "the list" is core to my work with clients on change. When someone calls and invites me to advise them on change, I always ask, "So, what's on the list?" The list is made up of all those unspoken things that could have an impact on the project. Are people confused or clear? Afraid or excited? Trusting or suspicious? I don't believe you can build support for change without addressing that list.

The Magic List: Secrets of Successful Organizational Change

The Magic List is free and it will take you about fifteen minutes to read it. I hope you'll take a look. . . I prepared a new presentation based just on the idea of the list and tried it out at a professional conference last Friday. It went over well in front of a jury of my peers.

And that's always a good thing.I've been told that the book has been downloaded lots of times since I posted it a couple of weeks ago.

If you like the free e-book, please pass the word or the link. Thanks.

My Work

I've gotten feedback that you like the newsletter, but you don't really know what I do for a living. So here are some things I've been up.

Presentations on Change without Migraines™. Two to four times a month I give a speech or conduct a short workshop for one of my clients based on my approach to building support for change. Recent presentations were to a research lab, a utility company, a major grocery chain, and an aerospace company. At the top of my homepage you'll see a short demo video. For a description of my approach to working with clients, click on the "Speaking on Change Leadership" and be sure to read What Separates a Great Presentation From One That is Quickly Forgotten. I work with groups ranging from tiny to large ed auditoriums.

I have just added a new speech, "The Magic List" based on the new e-book.

Adviser on Leading Change. I usually have one to three of these relationships going at one time. I use the word adviser instead on consultant to distinguish what I do from more common consulting activities.I posted a description of how I typically work with clients on my website.

Creating a Change Cadre. I realized that my clients could save a lot of money and build their own capacity to increase support for change if they would create a small internal teams who would become their expert resources. I am in the process of helping one internal team get up-to-speed on applying my approach to change. I work closely with an internal resource who is already pretty expert at my approach, to ensure that people are getting the support they need. I am excited about this project and have already talked to another client about using this approach. And, I am also learning what doesn't work when creating a cadre. If this sounds interesting, please give me a call.

Warm regards,

Rick Maurer

President

Maurer & Associates

[email protected]

phone: 703-525-7074

web: www.rickmaurer.com

blog:www.changemanagementnews.com

Change Management Open Source Project Since 2009, the Change Management Open Source Project has provided leaders like you with an online collection of free change management guidelines so you can build support for change in your organization. Over 1000 people from over 30 countries have joined the site. Lots of discussions have started on the forum, join in too.
The site has now migrated to a new home. Please take a look. www.facebook.com/rickmaureronchange I would love your input on a discussion I started on how to build support for change when you are late in the game.

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