Make Change Work

Remain competitive, inspire innovation, and ensure success

Constantly adapting, improving, and changing is more important than ever for companies to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Make Change Work presents real solutions to thriving in a world of constant change. This book educates managers and leaders on how to lead change, with strategies for creating urgency, building support, and ensuring successful change. Get the guidance you need to be bold in the face of change, and learn how to make your company faster, better, cheaper, and friendlier—by simply listening to your customers

• Advises leaders on how to design and implement a strategy that allows you to successfully lead change and deliver meaningful business results
• Author Randy Pennington is a 20-year business performance veteran, author, and expert in helping organizations build a culture focused on results

Learn how to establish a clear and purposeful goal, inspire a culture relentlessly focused on customers, and create an environment where your talented team wants to Make Change Work.

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xix

Part I The Realities of Change 1

Chapter 1 The New Normal 3

Chapter 2 Faster, Better, Cheaper, Friendlier 13

Chapter 3 Good Change, Bad Change 21

Chapter 4 Dodos and Coyotes: Only the Nimble Survive 33

Part II Becoming a Change Leader: The Tactical Side of Change 41

Chapter 5 What Change Leaders Do 43

Chapter 6 Buy-In: Where Change Legends Are Made 51

Chapter 7 Go First 59

Chapter 8 Change Change 67

Chapter 9 Generate Creative Tension 75

Chapter 10 Connect with People Where They Are 85

Chapter 11 Involve Early and Often 95

Chapter 12 Use Resistance as Your Friend 103

Part III Change Challenges 113

Chapter 13 When Change Isn’t a Choice 115

Chapter 14 Change Your Culture and Change Your Results 125

Chapter 15 Stop Spineating 135

Part IV The Wrap-Up 143

Chapter 16 The Future and Change 145

Notes 153

About the Author 157

Index 159

RANDY PENNINGTON is a business performance veteran, author, and expert in helping organizations build a culture focused on results. His client list includes leading organizations in business, nonprofits, and government. His ideas and comments have appeared in??the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Executive Excellence,??and numerous professional and trade journals, and on CNN, Fox News, the BBC, and ABC radio. He is the author of Results Rule!.

What would happen if you, your team, and your entire organization were constantly focused on adapting, changing, and improving your business? Imagine the results that a nimble and engaged organization could achieve—and how that will help you stay relevant in a competitive marketplace.

Make Change Work presents real ideas for thriving in a world of constant change. This isn't just another book that tells you change is coming, so get ready. It is a field guide to help you design and implement a strategy for leading change and delivering meaningful business results. You will learn:

• How to rate your organization on a scale of Dodos to Coyotes
• Why change fails and what good change looks like in today's organizations
• How to be bold in the face of change
• How to make your company faster, better, cheaper, and friendlier—by simply listening to your customers
• How to take the uncertainty out of the change process for your employees
• Six leadership strategies for creating urgency, building support, and ensuring successful change
• The specific challenges that occur when change isn't a choice (such as a downsizing or merger)
• How to lead by example and not by decree
• The future of change

Your employees want you to lead them through change and not just shuffle them around on a chessboard. They want to make change work, but in order for them to do that, you need to show your own adaptability, resolve, and resilience. This book will help you establish a clear and purposeful goal, inspire a culture relentlessly focused on customers, and create an environment where your talented team wants to Make Change Work.

What would happen if you, your team, and your entire organization were constantly focused on adapting, changing, and improving your business? Imagine the results that a nimble and engaged organization could achieve—and how that will help you stay relevant in a competitive marketplace.

Make Change Work??presents real ideas for thriving in a world of constant change. This isn't just another book that tells you change is coming, so get ready. It is a field guide to help you design and implement a strategy for leading change and delivering meaningful business results. You will learn:

• How to rate your organization on a scale of Dodos to Coyotes
• Why change fails and what good change looks like in today's organizations
• How to be bold in the face of change
• How to make your company faster, better, cheaper, and friendlier—by simply listening to your customers
• How to take the uncertainty out of the change process for your employees
• Six leadership strategies for creating urgency, building support, and ensuring successful change
• The specific challenges that occur when change isn't a choice (such as a downsizing or merger)
• How to lead by example and not by decree
• The future of change

Your employees want you to lead them through change and not just shuffle them around on a chessboard. They want to make change work, but in order for them to do that, you need to show your own adaptability, resolve, and resilience. This book will help you establish a clear and purposeful goal, inspire a culture relentlessly focused on customers, and create an environment where your talented team wants to Make Change Work.