Most professionals are not aware of their professional identity - the combination of motives, values, beliefs, and personal experience that makes YOU you at work. The moment you change careers, you are in transition. Your professional identity changes and clinging to your old one will only negatively impact your transformation. Why not engage in identity play? I share how drawing my existing professional identity and then, the future one, helped me gain clarity. And hey! It also makes you more creative again!

In 2007, I helped organize international policy dialogues. The German government held the EU presidency and hosted G8 meetings. A double whammy in a positive sense. As part of my role, I observed Muhammad Yunus display exemplary acts of kindness. The founder of Grameen bank and nobel peace price winner thanked his chauffeur of three days for his services. I was impressed. Can we use behavior-modeling instead of role-modeling in change management? It's less abstract, it is easy to implement and it exerts much less pressure on the organization to aspire to impossible standards.

An encounter with a telecommunications representative this week reminded of me sales dos and don'ts. Being confronted with a professional who had clearly not being exposed to any sort of sales and customer management training led me to reminiscence. Back in 2007 and 2008, I worked for the Corporate Executive Board, a strategic research company. While I served demanding C-Suite clients from the European headquarters in London, I internalized sales excellence and was able to compare and contrast my most recent experience with my time in London. My insight: Most large companies do not train their staff in basic sales etiquette - that needs to change!

I was in Paris and noticed a poster featuring the former French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte. His legacy is both negative and positive (including over 6 million Europeans casualties). The "enlightened despot" is known for having introduced French civil law and access to school education for children. Legacy thinking in business and politics is often not viewed as a priority. Short-term pressure (elections or increasing shareholder value) prevails. Alas, it is a fantastic tool to help individuals prioritze and focus on meaningful projects. In this episode, I encourage you to think more broadly about what you want to be remembered for.

The "competing commitments" concept was first made popular by Harvard Business school professors Robert Keagan and Lisa Lahey. It illustrates why members of an organization pledge a goal, and then engage in behaviors that are detrimental to their behavior. It explains which competing worldviews and beliefs stand in their way. The beauty: with the help of the corresponding worksheet, the concept becomes a potent tool to addressing resistance to change. I tried it myself!

K-dramas are a worldwide phenomenon. K-drama stands for Korean drama and refers to TV shows originating in South Korea. You might be familiar with hits such as Squid game (2021, 2023). K-dramas are so successful that Netflix earmarked USD 2.5 billion in 2023 for the genre. High production quality as well as compelling storytelling make them successful. And those are elements lacking in some company-wide transformations. There is no compelling narrative arc. Why not borrow from K-dramas when you create your next transformation storytelling concept?

Swiss-American psychiatrist Kübler-Ross created the grief curve in 1969. It captures the five stages of loss and which types of emotions mourners experience. This framework was so potent that it's widely used as the change curve as well. Discussing the change curve and admitting one's emotions during a transformation helps everyone come to terms with the impact of a change. It's a potent tool.

Upskilling is a word I first came across when I worked in London in 2009 for a company that has since been acquired by Garner. It's a fancy way of conveying that you as a change manager teach other professionals a skill while implementing the transformation. Based on my experience, running aPMO (project management office) and navigating a business case are essential skills for anyone who works in change. At times, you have to empower others - even very seasoned professionals - to internalize them.

Sophia Amoruso did it again - after the demise of clothing empire NastyGal, she created the online/ offline community Girlboss for entrepreneurial women. I was lucky enough to attend the Girlboss rally in June 2019 in Los Angeles. I found myself in the middle of a "vie en rose" dream come true at UCLA campus. Pink banners, pink branding... and many impressive female speakers made this event memorable in my eyes. In the podcast, I explain why bottom-up transformations should get inspired by the community concept.

I completed two accelerator programs for startups. Accelerators are like mini-MBAs for founders. I was continuously reminded that customer is king. Customer development is taken seriously in startups. You ask your client questions to hone in on their pain points, and request feedback whether your solution would address them. What is more, you imagine your customer as a customer persona and define how and when to communicate with them. How about we treet employees like customers during a change project?