Commcoterie

Hey Reader, Have you ever been eagerly anticipating the vacation of your dreams when SUDDENLY — crisis hits? This summer, I booked a family trip to England (to see my husband's family) and Norway (which is a bucket list trip for me). Everything about Norway has always intrigued me, from the scenery to the culture to the mythology and more. I planned our week in Norway down to the minute, in some cases. That’s what has to happen when you organize your very own Norway in a Nutshell tour. This...

Hey Reader, It was a little surreal to sign off on our very last monthly Office Hours last week (Missed that news? This LinkedIn post has the TLDR). I’ve been showing up in that way, in that space, for so long (since 2020!), it left me wondering if I’d made the right decision. But I didn’t dwell too long; changing my mind is just a Zoom link away, of course. Plus, the IRL attendee count (low) in combination with the outpouring of support and excitement after I shared via email and LinkedIn...

Hey Reader, I’m writing to you from the plane on my way to Atlanta for BLD Southeast. I haven’t been to Atlanta in years, and I really enjoyed it last time I was here, so I’m excited to get back. The first time I visited, one of my favorite parts of the city was the Beltline, a 22-mile loop of trails and parks that connects 45 different neighborhoods. Earlier this week, I wrote on LinkedIn that I wanted to bring my skates with me on this trip so that I could hit it up. I love roller skating...

Hey Reader, Earlier this week, someone asked if I would look over a strategy doc they had created for an upcoming project. I grabbed a coffee, dug in, and by the end of the document, I had made over three dozen comments that all asked the same basic question: Why? Why that decision? Why that next step? Why that metric to report on? Why was the timeline so tight in this part? I had the sneaking suspicion that they didn’t know the answers. And this strategy document had already been reviewed by...

Hey Reader, At our Organizational Change Office Hours last week, we dug into how to channel compassion to design a more effective and seamless organizational change strategy. After I sent out the replay, I got this response from someone who had attended live: "I never, ever thought a 'soft' concept like compassion could be a strategic tool for managing change. THANK YOU, because it feels right to me. I'm excited to bring this back to the rest of our leadership team because it makes so much...

Hey Reader, Trains are by far my favorite way to travel. I love being in a big, cushy seat in a little car with the freedom and space to move around and the ability to look out the window and actually see something (unlike planes). I also like being on the move without being stressed or responsible for how fast we're going or how we're getting somewhere (unlike cars). And I love that I can show up to the station a few minutes before the scheduled departure and simply walk on! I’m on the...

Hey Reader, In the last few weeks, I’ve had conversations with two folks who lead mergers and acquisitions at global organizations; one at a for-profit company and one at a nonprofit. Both organizations are considered leaders in their respective industries. Each one has 20,000+ employees, more than $1B in annual revenue, and entire teams dedicated to changes like M&A. Know what they also have? High employee turnover rates post-acquisition Painful, expensive change experiences that damage...

Hey Reader, Growing up, my family played a lot of board games. Not a wide variety, but the same few very, very often: Clue, Pictionary, and Cranium. The rules of these three games are totally different, which is probably why we could get away with the crowd-pleasing combination of the three of them. Among the many differences in their gameplay is the journey from start to finish. Pictionary is one path, Cranium has the option for shortcuts like fast tracks, and Clue is, well, Clue. But they...

Hey Reader, When I was in middle school, I joined the track team. I played soccer in the spring and I needed something to do after school in the fall (because art club, drama club, and orchestra weren’t enough, of course). Because I was tall (at least back then, thanks to early growth spurts) and coordinated, the coach signed me up for high jump. At first, I figured it would be easy. Just run, and then jump over the bar. I soon learned, however, that there was a little more to it than that....

Hey Reader, When we talk about change readiness, we often talk about people: how can we prepare people for change so that they move from the status quo, or what they're doing now, to the future state, or what we want them to do? But this is a problem. Don’t get me wrong; when it comes to managing change, I don’t think we focus on people enough! The problem arises when we only talk about people. This becomes less of an annoyance and more of a serious issue when leaders and change practitioners...