Be Different, Do Different

I have beef with the term 'change management.'

Why? Because we get the noun-verb relationship wrong.

"We need change management"…(said everyone ever about making sure their project is a success). When they use that phrase, they imply that they need someone, or someones, to create change (noun)…a process, a workflow, a communication, a stakeholder plan, etc. These things are helpful. But we've mistakenly associated the presence of change (noun) with the act of change (verb).

What we should be saying is…"We need to change."

One of my goals is to reframe our understanding of what drives change in people and, by extension, organizations. If we can do that, we can significantly improve organizational resilience and performance. So, the next time you're thinking about designing a change management process replace as many nouns as possible with verbs.

For example, you can replace:

• Newsletters by discussing updates in person

• Web-based learning by experimenting in real-time

• Readiness scorecards by harvesting dialogue from digital communities

• Stakeholder management plans by coaching key leaders and early adopters to lead by example

There are many more.

It's not that the nouns aren't important. It's that the more verbs we insert, the faster we change.  

(See what I did there?)