Leading Change

Sean Jackson, DMA

Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s jobs with yesterday’s tools and concepts.

-Marshall McLuhan

We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.

-Carl Sagan

Some questions for you…

Do you remember your first day here?

Why did you come to work that day?

Why did you come to work today?

Some questions from your customers…

Can I trust you?

Are you competent?

Do you care about me and what I value?

Who are your customers and what do they value?

Some questions about the future…

We look at the present through a rear view mirror; we walk backwards into the future.

-Marshall McLuhan

The future is provoked.

Will it be provoked by you or by someone else?

The future masters of technology will have to be light-hearted and intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb.

-Marshall McLuhan

Some questions about change…

People don’t resist change.

They resist being changed.

-Peter Senge

People don’t resist change.

They resist being changed by people they don’t trust.

-Sean Jackson

The Language of Trust

―Engage―Listen ―Frame ―Envision (with your

customer) ―Commit

SOURCE: Adapted from Maister, Green, Galford, The Trusted Advisor, Free Press, 2000.

Three Choices:

― One big bite?― Several large bites?― Lots of little bites?

Three Challenges:

― Disagreement over the current state.

― Disagreement over the future state.

― Disagreement as to how to get from the current to the future state.

Some lessons learned…

Change is more about execution than strategy.

Make your choice and use the language of trust to address the three challenges first.

Then begin the work.

Start simple.

Focus on building trust over optimizing execution.

Complexity will come on its own.

Integrate your technical and functional talent early.

Use the language of trust to establish and build intimacy.

Clarity is the currency of change.

Seek it constantly in collaboration with your customers and stakeholders.

Focus on value.

Some final thoughts…

Our technology forces us to live mythically.

-Marshall McLuhan

What would it be like if you chose to be extraordinary in every thought, word, and action?

Thank you!