Change Management

Stuck in an endless loop of client changes? Lost track of what revision this constitutes? Yeah. Been there. Done that. The secret? It's not about saying no. It's about saying yes to the right things upfront. Every project that goes sideways starts the same way: Vague agreements. Fuzzy boundaries. Good intentions. Six weeks later you're bleeding money and everyone's frustrated. Here's my framework after 30 years of running two 8-figure businesses: The SOW is your salvation. Not some boilerplate template. A real document that covers: • Exact deliverables (not "design work" but "3 homepage concepts, 2 rounds of revisions") • Hours of operation ("We respond M-F, 9-5 PST. Weekend requests get Monday responses") • Revision rounds spelled out ("Round 1 includes up to 5 changes. Round 2 includes 3.") • Feedback cycles defined ("48-hour turnaround for client feedback or the project may be delayed or additional fees may be incurred") But here's what most people miss— Don't work on client notes immediately. Client sends 37 pieces of feedback at 11pm Friday? Producer sends conflicting notes from the CEO? Marketing wants one thing, sales wants another? Stop. Collect everything first. Resolve the conflicts. Get on the phone and discuss it with your client to get alignment. Separate the "have to haves" from the "nice to haves". Then present unified changes. "Based on all feedback received, here are the 8 changes we'll implement. This constitutes revision round 2 of 3." Watch how fast the random requests stop. No extra work that goes unappreciated. No more feelings of being taken advantage of. Communicate before the crisis, prevents the crisis from happening. "Just so you know, we're entering round 2. You have one more included. After that, it's $X per additional round." No surprises. No awkward money conversations. No resentment. Scope creep isn't a them problem. It's a you problem. And that's good news, because that means you are in control. They're not trying to take advantage. They just don't know where the boundaries are because you never drew them. Draw the lines early. Communicate them clearly. Everyone wins. What's your most painful scope creep story? What boundary would've prevented it? Small Business Builders #projectmanagement #clientmanagement #businessgrowth

I was shadowing a coaching client in her leadership meeting when I watched this brilliant woman apologize six times in 30 minutes. 1. “Sorry, this might be off-topic, but..." 2. “I'm could be wrong, but what if we..." 3. “Sorry again, I know we're running short on time..." 4. “I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but..." 5. “This is just my opinion, but..." 6. “Sorry if I'm being too pushy..." Her ideas? They were game-changing. Every single one. Here's what I've learned after decades of coaching women leaders: Women are masterful at reading the room and keeping everyone comfortable. It's a superpower. But when we consistently prioritize others' comfort over our own voice, we rob ourselves, and our teams, of our full contribution. The alternative isn't to become aggressive or dismissive. It's to practice “gracious assertion": • Replace "Sorry to interrupt" with "I'd like to add to that" • Replace "This might be stupid, but..." with "Here's another perspective" • Replace "I hope this makes sense" with "Let me know what questions you have" • Replace "I don't want to step on toes" with "I have a different approach" • Replace "This is just my opinion" with "Based on my experience" • Replace "Sorry if I'm being pushy" with "I feel strongly about this because" But how do you know if you're hitting the right note? Ask yourself these three questions: • Am I stating my needs clearly while respecting others' perspectives? (Assertive) • Am I dismissing others' input or bulldozing through objections? (Aggressive) • Am I hinting at what I want instead of directly asking for it? (Passive-aggressive) You can be considerate AND confident. You can make space for others AND take up space yourself. Your comfort matters too. Your voice matters too. Your ideas matter too. And most importantly, YOU matter. @she.shines.inc #Womenleaders #Confidence #selfadvocacy

70% of change initiatives fail. (And it's rarely because the idea was bad.) Here's what actually kills transformation: You picked the wrong change model for the job. It's like performing surgery with a hammer. Sure, you're using a tool. But it's the wrong one. I've watched brilliant CEOs tank their companies this way: Using individual coaching (ADKAR) for company-wide transformation. Result: 200 people change. 2,000 don't. Running a massive 8-step program for a simple process fix. Result: 6 months wasted. Team exhausted. Nothing changes. Forcing top-down mandates when they needed subtle nudges. Result: Rebellion. Resentment. Resignation letters. Here's what nobody tells you about change: The size of your change determines your approach. Real examples from the field: 💡 Startup pivoting product: → Used Lewin's 3-stage (unfreeze old way, change, refreeze) → 3 months. Clean transition. Team aligned. 💡 Enterprise going digital: → Used Kotter's 8-step process → Created urgency first. Built coalition. Enabled action. → 18 months later: $50M in new revenue. 💡 Sales team adopting new CRM: → Used Nudge Theory → Made old system harder to access → Put new system as browser homepage → 95% adoption in 2 weeks. Zero complaints. The expensive truth: Wrong model = wasted months + burned budgets + broken trust Right model = faster adoption + sustained results + energized teams Warning signs you're using the wrong model: • High activity, low progress • People comply but don't commit • Changes revert within weeks • Energy drops as you push harder • "This too shall pass" becomes the motto Match your medicine to your ailment: Small behavior change? Nudge it. Individual performance? ADKAR it. Cultural shift? Influence it. Full transformation? Kotter it. Enterprise overhaul? BCG it. Stop treating every change like a nail. Start choosing the right tool for the job. Your next change initiative depends on it. Your team's trust demands it. Your company's future requires it. Save this. Share it with your leadership team. Because the next time someone says "people resist change," you'll know the truth: People don't resist change. They resist the wrong approach to change. P.S. Want a PDF of my Change Management cheat sheet? Get it free: https://lnkd.in/dv7biXUs ♻️ Repost to help a leader in your network. Follow Eric Partaker for more operational insights. — 📢 Want to lead like a world-class CEO? Join my FREE TRAINING: "The 8 Qualities That Separate World-Class CEOs From Everyone Else" Thu Jul 3rd, 12 noon Eastern / 5pm UK time https://lnkd.in/dy-6w_rx 📌 The CEO Accelerator starts July 23rd. 20+ Founders & CEOs have already enrolled. Learn more and apply: https://lnkd.in/dwndXMAk

For years, the biggest players in CPG and FMCG—Unilever, Nestlé, Kraft Heinz—built their empires on food. But now? They’re making a massive pivot..if you had told me 5 years ago that these brands would be pulling back from food, I would’ve raised an eyebrow. -Unilever is cutting loose its $8 billion ice cream division, choosing to focus on higher-margin beauty and wellness. -Nestlé is doubling down on health-science-based nutrition as food brands struggle with pricing power. - #CPG giants are seeing stronger growth in self-care, supplements, and skincare than in traditional food categories. The global personal care market is expected to hit $758 billion by 2030, while processed food growth slows. Why This Shift? 1. Margins in food are shrinking. Consumers are trading down, private labels are winning, and inflation-wary shoppers aren’t absorbing cost hikes like they used to. 2. Health & wellness are driving premiumization. Customers will pay more for skincare, supplements, and functional beverages—but not for basic pantry staples. 3. Brand loyalty in food is eroding. Over 50% of consumers are comfortable switching food brands based on price, but loyalty remains strong in beauty, healthcare, and wellness. Winning Brands Are Already Moving: -L'Oréal’s skincare division posted 9.1% revenue growth last year, while traditional CPG food brands saw single-digit declines. -The Coca-Cola Company is investing in functional drinks and non-carbonated wellness categories to stay relevant. -PepsiCo’s biggest success? Gatorade’s expansion into hydration and performance-based drinks, not soda. CPG Leaders: ✅ Stop thinking of food as the core driver of growth. Instead, align with evolving consumer behavior. ✅ Invest in personalization, self-care, and functional health. That’s where demand (and pricing power) is strongest. ✅ Rethink your brand mix. Is your portfolio weighted toward categories that will still be relevant in 5-10 years? So, here’s my question to FMCG execs: Are you future-proofing your brand strategy—or just managing decline? Let’s talk. #FMCG #CPG #ConsumerTrends #GrowthStrategy #Beauty #Wellness #RevenueShift #BrandEvolution "

Most changes fail, especially if they are complex. But why? The Lippitt-Knoster model explains exactly why you don’t get what you want. Making changes is notoriously difficult, especially if they are substantial and complex. In response, there are many change management approaches and step-by-step instructions for managing change. But, to manage change, it is essential to first understand it. Once we know the key ingredients of a successful change, we know what it takes to make it. Even more importantly, once we know these ingredients, we also know WHY a change fails, so that we can do something about it. According to the Lippitt-Knoster Model for Managing Complex Change, a complete change effort requires the following six ingredients: 👉 Vision: sets the direction and explains why the change is needed 👉 Consensus: creates alignment and commitment for the change 👉 Skills: outlines the skills and expertise needed to realize the change 👉 Incentives: creates the motivation and drive to make the change 👉 Resources: enables the change with the needed time, money and tools 👉Action Plan: clarifies the roadmap and steps for realizing the change All six are needed. Consensus was added later by Knoster and it’s not so clear if both originators agree. Yet, I find it essential for any change to be successful, so you need all six. If you miss one you don’t get the change you want. ❌ Miss Vision and you get Confusion ❌ Miss Consensus and you get Sabotage ❌ Miss Skills and you get Anxiety ❌ Miss Incentives and you get Resistance ❌ Miss Resources and you get Frustration ❌ Miss Action Plan and you get False Starts So, here is what it takes to make a successful (complex) change: Step 1: Vision. Create and share a clear vision of the change and why it is needed. What will the new situation look like? Step 2: Consensus. Engage people across the organization to gather input and align their viewpoints in line with the vision. Step 3: Skills. Identify which skills are needed, provide the necessary training, upskill or attract people with the right skills. Step 4: Incentives. Understand what motivates people and create the right mechanisms for intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Step 5: Resources. Reserve enough time and money for making the change and obtain the necessary tools, technologies and other resources. Step 6: Action Plan. Develop a high-level roadmap and detailed action plan that outlines the priorities, order and steps for making the change. === Want to create true and lasting change? Then the Certified Strategy and Implementation Consultant (CSIC) program may be something for you. For more information and registration for the September 2024 cohort of this exciting program, and booking a call with our enrollment advisor, visit our website strategy.inc. 

A cheat code to unlock professional growth in 2024. The 4 Types of Professional Time: There are 4 types of professional time: 1. Management: Meetings, calls, emails, etc. 2. Creation: Writing, coding, building, preparing. 3. Consumption: Reading, listening, studying. 4. Ideation: Brainstorming, journaling, reflecting. To make improvements to your balance of time, first assess your starting point: Starting on a Monday, at the end of each weekday, color code the events from that day according to this key: • Red: Management • Green: Creation • Blue: Consumption • Yellow: Ideation At the end of the week, look at the overall mix of colors on the calendar. The image in this post is an illustrative example of how it might look. This simple exercise should give you a clear picture of your current baseline mix of professional time. With your baseline mix in mind, here are three tips for a more optimal balance: 1. Batch Management Time Create discrete blocks of time each day when you will handle major Management Time activities. 1-3 email processing blocks per day. 1-3 call and meeting blocks per day. The goal here is to avoid a schedule where the red bleeds out everywhere across every single day. We are trying to keep the Management Time windows as discrete as possible to create space for the other types of time. 2. Increase Creation Time Creation is what propels us forward, with more interesting projects and opportunities. We all need more Creation Time in our days. As you batch Management Time, carve out distinct windows for Creation Time. Block them on your calendar. Don't check your email or messages during them. Focus on creation during your Creation Time. 3. Create Space for Consumption & Ideation Time Consumption and Ideation are the forgotten types of time because we rarely create space for them, but they are critical to long-term, compounding progress. History's most successful people have all made a practice out of creating space for reading, listening, learning, and thinking. We can draw a lesson from this. To start, schedule one short block per week for Consumption and one short block per week for Ideation. Stay true to the purpose of the block. Own that before increasing the presence of these types of time in your schedule. With these three tips in mind, you're well on your way to building a more optimal balance across the four types of professional time. *** You can join 650,000+ others who receive these actionable insights in my 2x weekly newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/esGsF85Q Enjoy this? Share the post with your network and follow me Sahil Bloom for more in future!

I had initially decided I wasn’t going to post about Amazon’s RTO mandate because there was already so much noise, but the more I hear of current employee reactions and experiences, the more I am compelled to add my thoughts to the conversation.   Because I don't believe that the backlash from employees about Amazon’s RTO mandate is about remote work.   Instead, it's about a profound breach of trust they are feeling, shaking the foundation of #employeeengagement and #employeeexperience at Amazon.   Where and how did the trust get broken? A few examples I have been hearing from current employees…   💔 Employees who were hired in the last few years during a time of heavy remote work, hired under the guise that their roles would always be remote, feel that the trust has been broken because this is not the expectations they agreed to.   💔 Employees who first heard about the RTO from the news instead of their own leadership feel like they can no longer trust their leaders for open communication and transparency.   💔 Employees who have altered their lives as a result of remote work now have to upend them (again), making them feel unheard and uncared for, another breach of trust.   Trust is the cornerstone of any successful organizational culture. Trust is what drives innovation and collaboration, organizational commitment, and high performance.   It takes time to build but can be broken in an instant.    And when trust is broken, it reverberates through every aspect of the employee experience, making people doubt your decisions and motives, making them anxious for the next change, making them wonder if they belong.    They become suspicious. And suspicious people aren't engaged or productive.   That's what we are seeing with these Amazon employees. It's not about WHERE they work, it's about how they feel they have been treated and the mistrust they now feel.   As Amazon moves forward, it will be interesting to see if and how they prioritize rebuilding this trust by fostering open communication, honoring commitments, and demonstrating genuine care for employee well-being. #iamtalentcentric

Louder for the people at the back 🎤 Many organisations today seem to have shifted from being institutions that develop great talent to those that primarily seek ready-made talent. This trend overlooks the immense value of individuals who, despite lacking experience, possess a great attitude, commitment, and a team-oriented mindset. These qualities often outweigh the drawbacks of hiring experienced individuals with a fixed and toxic mindset. The best organisations attract talent with their best years ahead of them, focusing on potential rather than past achievements. Let’s be clear this is more about mindset and willingness to learn and unlearn as apposed to age. To realise the incredible potential return, organisations must commit to creating an environment where continuous development is possible. This requires a multi-faceted approach: 1. Robust Training Programmes: Employers should invest in comprehensive training programmes that equip employees with the necessary skills for their roles. This includes on-the-job training, mentorship programmes, online courses, and workshops. 2. Redefining Hiring Criteria: Organisations should revise their hiring criteria to focus more on candidates’ potential and willingness to learn rather than solely on prior experience or formal qualifications. Behavioural interviews, aptitude tests, and probationary periods can help assess a candidate's ability to learn and adapt. 3. Partnerships with Educational Institutions: Companies can collaborate with educational institutions to design curricula that align with industry needs. Apprenticeship programmes, internships, and cooperative education can bridge the gap between academic learning and practical job skills. 4. Lifelong Learning Culture: Encouraging a culture of lifelong learning within organisations is crucial. Employers should provide ongoing education opportunities and support for professional development. This includes continuous skills assessment and access to resources for upskilling and reskilling. 5. Inclusive Recruitment Practices: Employers should implement inclusive recruitment practices that remove biases and barriers. Blind recruitment, diversity quotas, and targeted outreach programmes can help ensure that diverse candidates are given a fair chance. By implementing these measures, organisations can develop a workforce that is adaptable, innovative, and resilient, ensuring sustainable success and growth.

Starting May 1, 2026, China will implement a zero-tariff policy on all products from 53 African nations with diplomatic ties (excluding Eswatini), significantly boosting market access for agricultural, mineral, and manufactured goods. This initiative aims to deepen trade relations, support industrialization, and diversify trade routes. This policy covers all products from 53 African nations, expanding upon previous duty-free access for 33 least-developed countries to include middle-income nations like South Africa. The initiative aims to boost exports of processed, value-added goods and stimulate investment in African manufacturing. China will further promote trade facilitation, such as upgrading its "green channel" for faster customs clearance and advancing trade agreements. The new policy strengthens China-Africa economic cooperation and offers African nations an alternative to higher tariffs elsewhere. It is expected to enhance trade capacity, though its success depends on overcoming non-tariff barriers, enhancing infrastructure, and fostering local industrialization. But will this deepen African productive capacity or simply accelerate raw material extraction under better branding? Trade policy alone does not create transformation. Strategy does. If this deal is to work for Africans, not just for the politicians announcing it, several things must happen: 1. Move beyond raw exports. Zero tariffs on cocoa beans or unprocessed minerals mean little if we are not exporting chocolate, batteries, and finished goods. Industrial policy must sit alongside trade policy. 2. Fix internal bottlenecks. Ports. Power. Rail. Customs efficiency within Africa. Non-tariff barriers between African countries often hurt us more than tariffs abroad. 3. Align with AfCFTA. This cannot become a substitute for intra-African trade. It should strengthen regional value chains, not fragment them. 4. Protect standards and leverage. African governments must negotiate from a position of long-term national interest, ensuring technology transfer, local job creation, and skills development. 5. Strengthen private sector capacity. SMEs and manufacturers need financing, quality certification support, and export readiness programs, otherwise only a handful of large players will benefit. Opportunity without strategy can become dependency. But opportunity with coordination, transparency, and industrial ambition? That is how continents rise. The real work now shifts from Beijing to African capitals and from political announcements to implementation discipline. #Africa #TradePolicy #Industrialization #AfCFTA #ChinaAfrica #EconomicTransformation

Performance Management in the Age of AI: the new 3‑Dimensional Model For decades, the 9‑box grid shaped how organizations assessed talent—mapping individuals along two familiar axes: ✔ Business performance (“what”) ✔ Behaviors or potential (“how”) Over time, many companies moved away from this model, concluding it oversimplified the complexity of human performance and sometimes reinforced bias more than it reduced it. AI is fundamentally reshaping work, shortening the lifecycle of skills and creating new capability demands at a pace conventional frameworks were never designed to keep up with. As a result, a new paradigm for performance management is emerging. Organizations are starting to consider a three‑dimensional approach to performance—one that integrates not just what people deliver and how they behave, but also how they grow. The new 3D model consists of three axis: 1. Business Results: Measures impact, delivery, and contribution to outcomes. 2. Behaviors / Ways of Working: Captures collaboration, leadership etc. and.. 3. Skills Development: Assesses capability building, learning velocity, and readiness for future roles. The third axis reflects a simple reality: In an AI‑driven workforce, continuous skills development is no longer optional—it’s strategic. IBM has begun to formalize this multidimensional view in its talent and rewards model. Their approach includes: 1. Integrating skills into pay: Base pay and equity linked to skill progression. 2. Balancing objectives: Business and skills goals carry equal weight 3. Future skills visibility: Regular communication on evolving skill requirements see: https://lnkd.in/eTDE-XmE Not every organization can replicate this model at scale, but it illustrates where performance management is heading. The central questions are shifting. Not just: “Did someone deliver results?” But also: “Are they developing the skills the organization will need next?” and “Are they learning at the speed the environment requires?” The move from a 2D grid to a 3D, capability‑driven framework may become one of the most consequential shifts in performance management in the age of AI—signaling a future where growth, adaptability, and skill relevance stand on equal footing with results.