Commcoterie

Hey Reader, Over coffee with another consultant last week, the topic of sympathy vs. empathy vs. compassion came up. They told me about a keynote they had seen on the importance of empathetic leadership and confessed that they often found empathy draining. They felt guilty for saying this, but I assured them that they are not alone. Empathy can be draining – here’s why: Empathy means experiencing another person’s emotions as if those emotions were your own, and taking on the emotions and...

Hey Reader, Not a week goes by that I don't see a fellow change management consultant on LinkedIn whipping themselves into a frenzy about change management communication. They say things like, "Leaders spend too much upfront energy on generating excitement and spreading information, rather than the direct work of changing behaviors." Every time I read something like this, all I picture are a bunch of mimes running around, trying to do this "direct work," communicating without admitting that...

Hey Reader, Have you ever heard a leader say that their business is too small for strategy? I haven’t. Which is why I’m so surprised when leaders of small and even mid-sized organizations say that they’re too small for change management. The Association of Change Management Professionals defines change management as “the practice of applying a structured approach to the transition of an organization from a current state to a future state to achieve expected benefits.” A bit dry, but...

Hey Reader, One of the biggest challenges leaders face right now is how to make critical decisions when they can’t tell if the challenges they’re dealing with are temporary setbacks or permanent shifts. Elections flip everything upside down. Funds are ripped away and investments and grants are canceled. Social progress we thought was on an upward trajectory is sliding back downhill. The pace of technological innovation is dizzying, but it’s nearly impossible to tell what is essential, useful,...

Hey Reader, I’ve been designing strategies, connecting the dots, and helping leaders and their teams navigate change both in-house and with Commcoterie for a long time, and if I had to pick one red flag that signals to me early on that a change will fail, it’s this: leaders want their teams to do as the leader says, not as they do. We've all seen this happen: Use this new software (while I have an assistant do it for me). Come back to the office in-person (while I stay comfy at home...or at...

Hey Reader, Recently, I was chatting with a leader who was trying to get her team to do something new that they did not want to do. She had announced it, hyped it up, “rolled it out,” reinforced the hype, and yet…nothing had really happened. Well, nothing good. “What else can I do?” she asked. “They have to do it. That’s the next step, really. They don’t really have a choice.” She wanted them to suck it up and just do. the. thing. And she seemed ready to be the enforcer! But even if her shift...

Hey Reader, The companies and nonprofits that I typically work with all approach building a better world differently. Some do it through building software. Others through direct service. But they all have one thing in common: every resource counts. They don’t have billions in revenue or pools of capital. When every dollar and every day counts, the pursuit of efficiency can be appealing. But when I work with clients, we don’t explore efficiency; we talk about effectiveness. What’s the...

Hey Reader, I’ll be honest with you: no organization I’ve ever encountered has had the capacity to change well. Even the best leaders either optimistically overestimate capacity or are in denial about the resourcing and bandwidth of their teams. And in their darker moments? They might acknowledge that their teams don’t have the resourcing and bandwidth for change, but think This is just the way it is! We can’t keep piling on endless resources. They’re just going to have to deal with it and...

Hey Reader, One thing I encourage leaders to do independently of developing and implementing change strategies is to understand the capacity of their organizations to change – or really, just the capacity of their organizations. Because individuals and teams don’t just need capacity for major transformation. They need capacity for any change, any additional work, any new project, any shiny new initiative (to me, anything above and beyond the status quo, if there even is a status quo anymore,...

Hey Reader, Over the past few years, I’ve put some serious effort into striking from my vocabulary as much cringe-worth workplace jargon as possible. Unfortunately, I am not only what is often referred to as a “management consultant” (cringe), but a change management and stakeholder communication consultant no less (the cringiest of cringes), so this has been a lot harder than it sounds. One of the worst phrases that has sunk its slimy tentacles into my lexicon, and which I am ready to bid...