By: Michael Kanazawa

The American Management Association recently published an article I wrote in ‘Executive Matters’ that highlights the challenges with traditional approaches to corporate change programs and three key tips for making sure that your corporate change efforts succeed. People have become highly skeptical and jaded about corporate change programs…and often for good reason. The article provides a great overview and specific tips for a better and more accelerated approach to change management.

For a full copy of the article, click here.

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YouTube link

By: Michael Kanazawa

One of the concepts from our book that has truly struck a chord with people is the concept of doing “More ON Less.” People seem worn out with the old and tired saying and approach of trying to do “more with less, ” which does little to drive great execution or to get the best from people in challenging times. On the other hand, doing More on Less drives focus, concentration of resources, and can generate breakthrough results.

Just recently I spoke at a LeaveSmarter conference and the sponsor posted a video cut of that presentation on YouTube. They selected the section about doing more on less so I thought I’d share it here on the blog. It is a great explanation of what we mean and the challenges that arise when you go with the common phrase and idea of doing more with less, versus doing More on Less. (more…)

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By: Michael Kanazawa

Sometimes the greatest and most expansive innovations come through projects with the greatest constraints. For some, there is a belief that brainstorming on breakthrough innovations must be done without boundaries. However, these exercises often result in unconstrained outputs that are scattered, unfocused, and impractical.

In contrast, putting significant constraints on an outcome forces more structured thinking and often a need for breakthrough ideas to achieve the results despite the constraints. This month Raj Setty shares in his ChangeThis manifesto a form called “mini sagas” as a way to force yourself to think more clearly. He challenges us to write a full story in exactly 50 words. It’s tough and it takes a creative mind to tell a full story that in that few words and in an exact number of words. Mainly these are fun examples of creative writing, but there is a very practical application to setting growth strategies and running effective strategic brainstorming work. (more…)

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By: Michael Kanazawa

Earlier this week my eBook “People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them” was posted on the Change This! site. Change This! is a site with free, downloadable essays and mini-books. It was conceived by Seth Godin and is now run by 800 CEO Read. If you haven’t been there yet, it is worth a good look.

This eBook is a great, and free, way to sample what we have to say if you haven’t read the book yet, and a fantastic way to share our message with others who would benefit from it. Anybody who is challenged with implementing a strategy or major initiative, looking to accelerate their results, and fully engage their organization would benefit from the ideas and tips. If the concepts make sense to you, please help us spread the word by forwarding or sharing the link to the eBook.

Michael Fitzgerald who writes for BNET, The New York Times and Fast Company and many other top publications calls the essay a “fun and mind-turning essay” that provides “an excellent synopsis of the book ‘Big Ideas to Big Results.’” Hope you enjoy and find value in this latest piece.

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 Doing More On Less [28:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (49)

Listen as Mike talks with Lisa Haneberg author of the Management Craft blog during one of her fireside chat sessions.

Lisa has a very unique perspective in the interview in that she focused on the challenges of middle managers and she has been a manager herself facing many of the challenges we talk about in the book. It was a fun and lively conversation and one of my favorite interviews to date. Hope you’ll enjoy it and find good value in it as well. This is a second post, but people had asked to have the MP3 file available here. My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-b720560dbb15c2bd3b4fc510cc1d2c27}

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 Avoid Corporate Change Sugar Highs [7:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (70)

In this podcast, we discuss how corporate change programs can feel like “sugar highs” to people where the energy spikes up for a short moment and then the program is quickly abandoned and is replaced or overshadowed by the next wave of change programs. In this mode, some leaders start to believe the old saying that, “people hate change.” We talk about how that actually isn’t true. The truth is that people don’t hate change, they hate corporate change programs. Our challenge as leaders is to break that cycle and approach strategic transformation and change in a way that engages people, creates ownership and produces breakthrough results. It can be done.

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 Breaking Gridlock and Task Overload [5:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (83)

In this Quick Start Tip we talk about one of the biggest impediments to business growth, which is a lack of focus that goes far enough to create task overload, organizational gridlock that feels to employees like corporate attention deficit disorder. We discuss specific ways to get your organization more focused to gain the ability to take your big ideas to big results.

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By: Michael Kanazawa 

One of the biggest challenges in driving strategic change is in following through on execution. On March 31, 2008, Lindsay Edmonds Wickman, associate editor for Chief Learning Officer Magazine, wrote an article titled Making Change Meaningful. In it, she cites BIG Ideas to BIG Results and points out one of the biggest problems in running a failed change program is not the just the missed opportunities for business improvement, but creating a jaded and cynical workforce that won’t respond over time. There is a strategic role that CLOs are well positioned to play in integrating business strategy and leadership to accomplish breakthrough resutls and avoid the common pitfalls of in strategy execution. There has long been a gap between business operations and leadership development, so as Scott Adams’ book title aptly points out, be cautious of where and how you step forward in exapanding the CLO role to be more strategic. (more…)

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By Michael Kanazawa 

When things get stressful, we often throw out phrases automatically to try and get beyond the issues for the moment without really doing what is right. But often these phrases don’t do much to help in the moment and don’t solve the true issues either. There are a few sayings that we hear in business all of the time that are about as ineffective as parents yelling at their children, “do it because I said so.” Even worse, these sayings in business cause people to make poor decisions and undermine their own leadership potential by repeating these phrases without really thinking about what they mean.

One of the most popular and most damaging of these sayings is demanding that people need to do “more with less.” (more…)

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BNET is featuring a podcast on BIG Ideas to BIG Results on it’s home page. In the podcast I explain to BNET host Carmine Gallo the most important things to getting started right with change or transformation efforts, why speed is important, and specifically how to engage hundreds or thousands of employees quickly and effectively with a very simple technique described in our book as “table work.”

To listen, download and share the podcast, please click through on the link below.

BNET’s Useful Commute
Guest: Michael Kanazawa - coauthor BIG Ideas to BIG Results
Host: Carmine Gallo
http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1686

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