Change, and Catch Words of Consulting I

"CHANGE IS THAT BIG FAT PINK ELEPHANT that drunkenly roams around this large organization, stamping on people, without anyone having any idea what to do about it." This is how the elderly consultant illustrated in his concluding report to the senior management of [an organization] that was undergoing post-Outsourcing blues. (Do notice elephant as a hidden reference to India as the low-cost location.)

It indeed was a significant experience to participate in a professional forum in Australia with such Consulting veterans and alumni of the global consulting 'Big 5' sharing their vivid experiences.

A handful of the 'catch words' that did the talking from those lucid presentations, interesting anecdotes and keen observations of these leaders and successful change agents are marked here.

Elevator Speech: Brevity rules. Elevator speech is to a presentation what a ppt is to a thesis documentation. It's a distilling process of ideas that should also help lead complexity to simplicity. [One doesn't need an appointment to run into a senior executive in an elevator. That's the opportunity knocking if you have your elevator speech ready.]

Journey Map: SWOT analysis tool, minus "weakness", plus action strategy. A completely optimistic tool that assumes "failure is ignored as an option". This tool shall require risk management separately. A brilliant tool when faced with a group having negative mindset in majority.

Follow the Money: All change strategies shall revolve around economic drivers. Simply put: When in doubt whom to influence, target the one with the budget.

Healthy Tension: One of the most critical and effective productivity enabler skill for any people manager: Knowing the thresholds of the resources - Pushing resources up to the *right* limit to deliver more.

Tribal Knowledge: Islands of Knowledge in any large organization where knowledge management has been virtually non-existent or ineffective. Only a handful of people, mostly through 'inheritance', know about a certain function, system, technique or procedure.

On a lighter note, below is the quick-wit commercial on corporate Change that I always liked:

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