Thursday, August 27, 2009

Breaking News - X-Factor Solutions Discovered on Mars. Now on YouTube!

Click below for details:

YouTube, Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm20OJjl5lE
YouTube, Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep1nx8YdTGw
YouTube, Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAqI8CcAR64
I used Xtranormal (
http://www.xtranormal.com/ ) to create the videos. It's free and you can upload your videos to YouTube with the click of a button.

These videos only took 1/2 hr. each to create. What a fun way to get a message across!

To learn more about X-Factor Solutions, visit our web site at
http://www.x-factor-solutions.com.

Enjoy!
Jim

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Survey Results: What is the single most important trait of a successful Organizational Change Consultant in todays economy? Please only list one!

Survey conducted by Jim Markowsky, X-Factor Solutions (www.x-factor-solutions.com/). Participants were members of the Organizational Change Practioners group on LinkedIn - a group of over 5,000 global OCM professionals (there were 70+ responses). Frequency shown in brackets:
  1. (4) Agility – intellectual fleetness of foot; adapt on the fly; fluidity; adapt to internal and external environment; be as good at Plans B, C, D, E as Plan A.
  2. (4) Listening – generative listening; discovery by listening and collaborative thinking; without it you cannot start the change journey; the client will tell you.
  3. (3) Confidence – positive body language, building it with client; attitude and behavior.
  4. (3) Facilitating – generative thinking with client to see possibilities; of collaborative learning process.
  5. (2) Questioning – requiring client to see themselves as they are and as they want to be; asking the right payoff questions.
  6. (2) Results – we are paid to produce; what the client is paying for.
  7. (2) Systems Approach – wear systems glasses.
  8. (2) Truthfulness – integrity; bring up the difficult issues
  9. (1) All of the following:
  10. Awareness
  11. Billable
  12. Chaos – comfort
  13. Clarity – of focus
  14. Communication – two way and ongoing
  15. Conceptual and global thinking Dialogue – around tough and delicate issues
  16. Directionally correct
  17. Expectations - clarifying
  18. Experience
  19. Extraction – of salient points from client… reading between the lines
  20. Faith
  21. Flexibility
  22. Gap analysis – utilization to implement needed changes
  23. Influencing
  24. Innovative solution – getting out of the safe zone
  25. Integrity
  26. Intentional – 100%, while radiating agility
  27. Journey – preparation and setting expectations with client
  28. Live and Practice Change – day in and day outObservation – includes active listening
  29. Opportunistic – there are opportunities durin this downturn
  30. Outcome – develop clear and concise with client
  31. Patience
  32. Perception
  33. Persistence
  34. Realism
  35. Reflexivity - reflect and help client make sense of change
  36. Saavy – navigation of the organization to get things implemented
  37. Seeing – really seeing and not force-fitting
  38. Sense-making – in complex situations
  39. Synthesis – process and activity
  40. Teamwork – collaboration
  41. Tenacity – in the real value of the end state
  42. Vision – ability to hold
  43. Wisdom – to see the truth

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

A Guide to Leading a Self-Organizing Change Process

I have facilitated 6-7 self-organizing change initiatives - mainly in medium-sized organizations, or groups within very large organizations ($25 - 250M). These projects have been highly successful. Here are the steps that I used:
1. Get strong support (license) from a key leader (COO, CEO, VP... ).
2. Pull together a cross-functional team of volunteers that want to make a difference.
3. Perform a current state assessment with this team.
4. Create a vision with this team.
5. Perform a gap analysis with this team.
6. Agree on key action steps to achieve the desired state with this team.
7. Launch time-bound projects for each key action step, with a person responsible to achieve the desired result.
8. Celebrate milestone (action step) successes.
9. Stay the course - have a senior executive sponsoring the overall program (supporting, not managing).
10. Ensure a senior executive is giving recognition, providing encouragement and communicating successes.

This 10-step process works!

Copyright (C), Jim Markowsky
Copy and/or distribute with permission with credit to Jim Markowsky, X-Factor Solutions
Visit our web site at: http://www.x-factor-solutions.com