change – Resource Library

Competition is a natural component of all economies at some level whether it involve markets, companies, or job-seekers. The workplace can make for an equally competitive environment with employees working longer hours to secure promotions with fancier job titles and bigger paychecks.

On June 29 in Washington, D.C., Management Concepts sponsored the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) event, “Stabilizing the Workforce in an Uncertain Future,” featuring our top experts and leaders in People & Performance Consulting as well as experts in Federal workforce development from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Defense and Treasury departments, and Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Each year, the Pantone Color Institute names a color of the year. “Greenery”, the choice for 2017, feels especially symbolic:

“Greenery bursts forth in 2017 to provide us with the reassurance we yearn for amid a tumultuous social and political environment. Satisfying our growing desire to rejuvenate and revitalize, Greenery symbolizes the reconnection we seek with nature, one another, and a larger purpose.”

After the Presidential election, regardless of where your sympathies lie, it feels like we are living more than ever in a VUCA world. VUCA is a military acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, and it is used to describe our environment during times of turmoil and change.

New year, new strategic planning. It’s a solid best practice. But as you plan for the new year at your organization, how do you know that you’ve truly understood the year that just happened? Learning from past experience is something that occurs whether we’re intentional or not, but formal self-reflection (and organizational reflection)—to the tune of New Year’s resolutions, which often have unique charms of timely inspiration, honesty, and introspection—can help you see things with even greater clarity. Aligning your organization to learn from mistakes, tackle new challenges and changes, and be resilient and adaptable will be crucial for 2017.

Organizational life in all sectors is feeling a lot different these days, but it is hard to pinpoint exactly what is different about it, let alone what to do about it. What is clear is that organizational life has changed, and it’s still changing.

One of the new roads I drive every day to and from work had been only partially finished for almost a year. There was a good-sized bump in one place. It became a habit to slow down every time I came to the bump. The road is now finished and the bump is gone, but I catch myself applying the brakes even though there is no need to do it anymore. Why does this happen?

We all make assumptions as we go about our daily life, with a good portion of them being made while at work. Many of these assumptions are made without knowing it or thinking about it.

Assumptions are usually based on something we have learned previously and do not question. As part of our belief system, assumptions help us form judgments, make meaning, and draw conclusions about what is happening and what others are thinking. When information is missing, they help us complete our own story.

Sometimes it feels like technology can solve all of our organization’s problems. Organizations of all sizes regularly make major technology investments in an attempt to realize productivity growth and performance improvement as well as conform to regulatory requirements. Organizations have transformed their accounting, customer service, marketing, human resources, web-content and many other business functions by adopting new systems, the results of which have been highly variable and often necessitate even more change in the future. Today the pace of technological advance continues to accelerate and organizations feel like they need to respond to take advantage of the potential productivity gains. Competition is fierce and organizations that do not invest fear they could be left behind. The risks of missing out on opportunities created by technology can appear larger than the risks of implementation, though the reality is not so clear.

Tag: change