Recently in Change management Category

A great article in Information Week about the transformation of politics by the Internet (duh!)

...a bigger change over the long term was the crowning of the Internet as the king of all political media. It was the end of the era of television presidency that started with JFK, and the beginning of the Internet presidency.

A few interesting facts about the Obama campaign:

1. 3.2 million people donated to the campaign through the campaign Web site


2. YouTube users alone spent 14.5 million hours watching official Barack Obama campaign videos


3. Obama announced his selection for vice president over text message.


4. Google Maps mashups were used to help volunteers find local campaign resources and people to contact and try to persuade


5. A custom social networking site was created with the help of a Facebook co-founder to connect all volunteers


6. Obama's Facebook page reached 2.6 million supporters


7. The BarackObama Twitter account reached 123,000 followers


8. A campaign headquarters was founded in Second Life

The article concludes that this campaign could be used as a lesson for business, but I think it emphasizes brand management too much. It is pretty obvious that the Internet has become a key ressource to manage a brand name. I personally would focus more on the use of the Internet to drive change within global organizations. What if senior executives started to use the Internet in a similar way to drive the business and energize people? Isn't it time to realize that weasel words are history?

I just had a conversation today with Dulce-Maria Vasquez of Kamaleo, a consulting firm in Mexico focusing on change management, and who did a great job at Schneider Electric last year.

On one of her presentation change management is presented as a process. You know: Analysis > Development > Roll-Out > Post-Roll-Out > Stabilization... or something like this.

I believe there is a flaw in such a presentation, not because it's wrong, but because it is misleading. Some managers might actually end up thinking that change can be systematic and automated. That's dictatorship. Indeed, there are some phases and milestones to any major collective change, but in the same way as a growing plant: first a leaf, then a branch, then flowers, then fruits...What managers should do to make change happen is only a process at a high level: to have a good crop, you need to plough, then to sow, then to water, maybe spread some fertilizer, and to harvest when the day comes. But if you stay at that level, you are unlikely to succeed as a farmer. Plants are complex systems which evolve over time depending on external factors. One plant might be growing and healthy while another one is dying. You might be facing draught or floods. This means that you must be prepared to take unforeseen action all the time. What makes a great farmer is the ability to spot possible illnesses very early and take action accordingly. But that's not a process. It's a practice.

So is change management, and knowledge management, and management in general.