A clip on YouTube called "BP spills coffee" refers to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, one of the biggest environmental disasters of the Petroleum industry. In the clip, managers first try to downplay the incident, then come up with remedies to address it. A failure culture - "fessing up to one's mistakes" is not visible. In this episode, I talk about the necessity of such a culture, how we can learn from a startup movement that gets founders on stage to admit to their errors. And how al of this is conducive to innovation and creativity in an organizational setting.

Unlike corporate espionage, sounding boards provide you with intel you desire. These panels consists of members of the organization whom you can ask any and all questions regarding the transformation endeavor. Are the company calls too long? Do employees like where we are headed? - These are just a few examples of potential topics for discussion. I have worked with sounding boards in the past and my verdict is that you should also consider setting them up when you seek honest feedback regarding product innovation or whether that new HR software tool... is user friendly or not.

I have changed jobs often. At one moment, I turned to informational interviews to ensure I was a good fit with the company. I started engaging in a structured dialogue with employees of the organizations I enjoyed. The beauty of such an approach is that you collect intel without any pressure (caused by a sudden job loss, leaving you to scramble for a new role). Informational interviews unlock insight for you. A fan of the cross-functional approach, I recommend using informational interviews at the beginning of a change project. Ask employees about their vision for the future organization, which roadblocks they identify, and what they would optimize if they were the CEO.

Courtesy of a coaching class I completed in 2023, I learned how to ask coachees what their future, 2.0 version, would advise them to do to get slimmer, run a marathon, find a partner. To me, imagining a future self is so powerful that I wish this method would be used in the organizational development context. To narrate and reverse-engineer a transformation from the vantage point of the completion date is novel and not often used in change management. In this episode, I focus on the technique and how corporations and public sector clients alike can benefit from it.

Customer personas are often generated once market research and qualitative interviews have been conducted. By taking a more detailed look at a customer’s pain points, consumption habits and preferences, startup teams internalize client-centricity early on. Who says they can't be a pillar of the change communication strategy? I explain how to adapt customer personas templates to a transformation project. The moment you view employees as customers in a change project, you reflect on their pain points, preferred communication channels and how to get their buy-in. Use startup and marketing tools, hone in on customer personas!

Creativity is important, yet an elusive concept. A former creative kid, I often felt like I had lost my creativity in corporate settings. Professor Teresa Amabile refers to this phenomenon in her 1998 classic article "How to kill creativity". She identified closed organizational cultures, employees' lack of process autonomy and resource scarcity from preventing "little c" and "mini c" creativity. But both "little c" everyday creativity and "mini c" creativity inherent to learning have to be rejuvenated to make an organization more innovative. Listen to my podcast if you want to know whether folding origami dinousaurs at work is the ultimate solution.

The late professor Edgar H Schein was a creative thinker and professor at MIT. He developed the model of organizational culture. In my view, the model is brilliant. It focuses on three layers: basic assumptions, values. and artefacts and creations. you can run a workshop to map the existing and future culture with employee groups, middle management and the board! And conduct informational interviews with professionals to see whether the company is a fit for you in terms of culture. Listen to this episode if you want to get "the fluff" right and if the image of "culture eats strategy for breakfast" (Peter Drucker) also makes you think of carnivorous plants.

I met a stranger on the plane in October (2023). We swapped life stories and he encouraged me to write a manuscript describing my change management experience and life experience. So I did! This podcast illustrates what it takes to write a book, drawing on previously published content, and dictating chapters into word. I share which tools I used to improve the quality of the manuscript and how to enlist freelancers in the process. It's a creative endeavor and requires project management skills.

I am the younger sister of an older brother. Now that has prepared me quite well for navigating a male-dominated world. When there are more than two siblings, the dynamics change. The kid in the middle is sandwiched in between the older sibling and the younger child. In my view, middle managers are like sandwich kids. They have to cater to the higher echelons of management, while making their teams happy and staying motivated themselves! Middle managers need more attention, praise and just need to be seen.I am the younger sister of an older brother. Now that has prepared me quite well for navigating a male-dominated world. When there are more than two siblings, the dynamics change. The kid in the middle is sandwiched in between the older sibling and the younger child. In my view, middle managers are like sandwich kids. They have to cater to the higher echelons of management, while making their teams happy and staying motivated themselves! Middle managers need more attention and praise.

If you don't inventorize and manage your stakeholders, you are at a loss! That's why this episode is dedicated to taking stock of your internal clients and navigating them. It doesn't matter whether you are addressing the board or manufacturing employees: Keep them engaged and cater to their communication needs. Borrowing customer persona templates from the marketing team and turning them into change personas helps you capture the informational needs. Another effective tool I discuss: the power-interest grid. A simple visual framework, it is popular with senior management and helps with stakeholder segmentation.