The Change Agent's Dilemma: How to Influence Change Without Authority

Fresh from his presentation at the PMI Congress, Brian Horgan, joins us to share how the Project Management Office really needs to be a change agent within a company. Brian is the Director of Project Management at United Illuminating, an electric utility in Connecticut. He will share the difference between project management and change management, and show how his department became a change agent at the company.

This week's guest is David Miller, Managing Director of Change First Ltd. The firm recently conducted a research study to determine the return on investment for using a change management methodology for project implementation. Tune in to learn what they found!

For 18 years, guest Blair Miller of Blair Miller and Associates has worked with organizations to help leaders and teams work smarter, solve problems more effectively and turn on their conscious creativity. Creativity and innovation are key ingredients to organizational change. Tune in to learn how you can create and sustain innovation in your workplace.

This week's guest is Josh Letourneau, who uses math to help organizations change. Josh specializes in Social Network Analysis (not to be confused with Facebook or Twitter analysis) to help expose the invisible, informal networks that determine how work really gets done. Join us for a fascinating look at how you can mathematically pinpoint key individuals who control and can help change your culture.

The guest in this episode is Julius Pryor, III, former VP of Diversity at both Coca-Cola Enterprises and Johnson & Johnson Consumer Group. Currently, he leads the Diversity Consulting Group at Your Talent Bridge.

In this episode, Dr. Jackie Sherman shares her formula for creating enough energy for implementing change.

Listen in as Tim Gardner, Director of Organizational Effectiveness at Kimberly-Clark Corporation, shares a case study of building a new and different culture in a greenfield manufacturing plant.

Dot Olonovich, MBA student and change management researcher at Lehigh University, shares tips for how (and why) she transformed her life and organization by becoming a "secret change agent" at work.

This week's guest is Maria Gajewski of Changing River Consulting, whose expertise is nonprofit evaluation. She helps nonprofits assess whether or not their programs are making an impact. In this episode, Maria will share her process for evaluating whether initiatives are causing the desired results, and how it translates to organizational change.

On this show, host Heather Stagl welcomes guest Christian Kress, Six Sigma Master Black Belt at Lockheed Martin to discuss his 23 years as an internal change agent within the company.

It is widely cited that verbal communication makes up only 7% of a total message during a conversation. That is, 93% percent of the meaning within the conversation comes from outside the words that we use. These non-verbal aspects of communication include gestures, posture, intonation, and facial expressions. It turns out the concrete language is by far the least important factor in our interpretation and understanding of what the other person saying. A similar phenomenon happens in organizations. Consider that the equivalent to verbal communication in organizations are the formal words that come to employees in the form of official documents: values and mission statements, strategy, policies, newsletters, websites, announcements, press releases, and other communication devices. The rest of internal communication comes from everything else employees experience. Similar to a conversation, the vast majority of meaning and understanding is generated by “non-verbal” communication. Tune in to hear where to look for “non-verbal” communication cues in your organization.

The Suggestion Guru Lara Fordis stops by The Change Agent's Dilemma to share a number of different tools you can use to collect employee feedback. She also shares factors to consider when selecting a feedback tool, and also talks about common mistakes you will want to avoid when you collect and use employee feedback. Curious about the 1-page Feedback Favorites list we mentioned on the show? Visit this page to find the link.

Do you feel like you're pushing a boulder uphill when it comes to changing your organization? Ever wonder if you are using all the tools at your disposal to make change happen? This week, host Heather Stagl outlines Ten Essential Tools for Change Agents, which you should be leveraging to influence change in your organization.

The Change Agent's Dilemma welcomes Dr. Janet Hecht, Managing Principal of Talent by Design Consulting and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, to share her experience and expertise in designing performance management systems to change organizations.

Bestselling author of QBQ: The Question Behind the Question John G. Miller stops by The Change Agent's Dilemma to share the concept of personal accountability and how to make it a core value in your organization.