5 Steps to Achieve Your New Year’s Resolution
In the business world, 70% of new initiatives fail, resulting in the frustration of going over budget, being late, and/or not delivering expected benefits. Unfortunately, we experience the same transitional heartburn in our personal lives. Over 70% of “resolvers” successfully change through the first week…
Read MoreACMP NorCal Change Symposium
A powerful energy flowed through the conference room in San Mateo, where approximately 100 change management professionals and 10 presenters gathered for the ACMP Northern California Chapter’s Change Symposium. It was a fun and eventful day, filled with engaging presentations and delightful conversations. We even…
Read MoreHow Many Balls Are You Juggling?
The Prosci ADKAR individual model of change (Awareness – Desire – Knowledge – Ability – Reinforcement) posits that people must first be aware of the need for a change before they can commit to it. Yet we all know situations where we firmly believe a change is…
Read MoreOrganizational Change Management for a New Generation
For the past 12 years, I’ve been consulting and training in the growing field of Organizational Change Management (OCM). Recently I was asked to guest lecture for the McGeorge Law School, Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs. While I…
Read MoreManaging Change: The Quest for the Perfect Apartment
I am a tried and true “homebody” so when I am faced with finding a new home it can be a truly daunting experience! During my short time living in Sacramento, I have rented two drastically different apartments as a result of drastically different approaches,…
Read MoreRapid Process Improvement
A team of Highlands’ consultants were recently certified by PQS, Inc., to facilitate Rapid Process Improvement (RPI) events. RPI is a highly-interactive method of business process analysis that focuses on resolving problem workflows and returning rapid results that can be implemented quickly. RPI is based…
Read MoreCase Study: Owning the Change Determines IT Success
The Highlands Consulting Group is assisting the State of California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) with implementation of ePlanCheck (ePC), a tool for the electronic submission, review, and approval of architecture and other building plans. ENVISION: We are using our knowledge of…
Read MoreOrganizational Change Management in an Agile Environment
In our last blog post, my colleague Nikki Angle wrote about the myths and realities of Agile in government. It’s a significant shift that requires increased communication, readiness assessments, training, and reinforcement – all components that we deliver every day through organizational change management. Two State of California…
Read MoreAgile in Government: Myths vs. Realities
We hear about ‘Agile’ in government projects more and more frequently. It’s not a new concept, but one with many misconceptions that can derail a transition from a Waterfall to Agile environment. According to Maria Burton from Focus on Training, her teams experienced three common myths as they transitioned…
Read MoreThe Square Root of Change
Change can be difficult, and usually when an organization undergoes change things get worse before they get better. I recently heard this phenomenon described as the “square root of change” – and I think it’s something that project sponsors and project managers too often neglect.…
Read More