CHANGE TALK

Immensely successful companies are constantly embracing innovation, testing new boundaries and experimenting with new product development. Large enterprises, such as GE, have built and acquired dozens of new divisions spanning multiple industries.

Approximately 543,000 new businesses open in the U.S. per month. At some point, these companies will, in all likelihood, reach out to a consulting firm to help them get started, move to the next level or maneuver through crisis.

 

Organizational leaders wish they could obtain transformational change without having to change the culture. That’s because changing the culture is so much more difficult and time consuming. They would love to get the benefits of change by keeping the status quo, but, that’s not how it works.

Many established companies struggle immensely with the concept of becoming more agile. On the one hand, they wish to react quickly to unforeseen circumstances by creating innovative opportunities. On the other hand, they fear that their size, level of establishment and need for structure might get in the way – or simply – that chaos will break loose if they even try.

For many of our executive coaching clients or prospects, the question whether or not to go for coaching is a no-brainer. Executives seem to be convinced of the benefits – and we often find their conviction rising with the level of their position. Knowing which approach to choose for the collaboration, however, is an entirely different story.

 

Have you ever heard about Design Thinking? What comes to your mind when you hear it? 

 

Creativity? Creation? Innovation?

In an increasingly volatile work environment, businesses are more predisposed to change than ever. Not only has the necessity for change increased, but there is also a new understanding of the nature of what needs to be changed.

Culture. Many pages have been written, many words penned, about this very elusive piece of the business enterprise. Culture is to a business what the persona and soul are to an individual. It defines who it is, how it thinks, what it does, and what are and are not the right ways for it to move into the future.

Everybody wants it, nobody seems to have it: A culture of innovation. But what exactly do we mean when we call for a culture of innovation? After all, how can we create a desired culture, if we don’t know exactly what it looks like?

Organizational storytelling is a new buzzword in the world of organization development. While for decades, nothing but quantitative data and process orientation mattered, we are now finally paying more attention to less tangible factors such as organizational culture and storytelling.