Change management

‘The Change Philosopher’ – An interview with Daniël Wolfs

Dirk VerburgLeave a comment

🎙️ Even though we have a vast array of change management theories and methodologies at our disposal (John Kotter, Kurt Lewin, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, William Bridges, ADKAR, etc.), it still proves to be very hard for us as leaders and consultants to implement real, sustainable change (transformation).

🚫 The harsh reality is that most change projects fail (the famous 70% of McKinsey), or end with a superficial victory declaration, after which the organization often falls back to ‘the way we DID things here’.

⁉️ ‘Why is that?’ That very question drove Daniël Wolfs, experienced change consultant and co-founder of The Change Studio (Netherlands), to write his thought-provoking book ‘De Veranderfilosoof’ (The Change Philosopher) on how we can approach transformation in a deeper, more human, and more sustainable way.’

► In our conversation about this book, we discussed the following topics:

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Realizing Deep & Sustainable Behavorial Change – An interview with Arend Ardon

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Why leaders should

  • reflect on their own role and behaviors to prevent self-fulfilling prophecies,
  • release control if they want to make things happen, and
  • consider creating ‘a sense of belonging’ instead of ‘burning platforms’

if they want to implement deep and sustainable behavioral change in their organizations…

These were just some of the topics I discussed with the management consultant and change management guru (although he would reject that classification!) Arend Ardon.

Arend wrote a number of bestsellers in the area of change management and leadership, and is the co-founder and co-owner of the Change Studio, a consultancy firm specializing in change management and leadership.

During our conversation, Arend and I discussed the following topics:

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Is your change management initiative doomed to fail before you even started?

Dirk VerburgLeave a comment

Last week I attended an interesting Webinar from Gartner about change fatigue.

According to data collected by Gartner, change fatigue is quickly becoming the number 1 priority for most HR organizations in 2023.

The reason is that the number of change initiatives in organizations is increasing exponentially; simultaneously, the enthusiasm of the workforce to embrace, or at least support these changes, is plummeting.

As a result, many organizations are currently looking for resources to address this, for instance in the form of change management methodologies (e.g. ADKAR), or by asking for support from specialized consulting boutiques.

The why of change

However, as valuable as these resources might be, it is important not to jump to the ‘how’, without paying attention to the ‘why’, the ‘what’ and ‘the team’.

In my personal experience, most people do not resist change if they understand the ‘why’, the ‘what’, and if they recognize ‘the team’.

In this post, I will deal with the why.

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What we can learn about change management from Sigmund Freud

Dirk VerburgLeave a comment

One of my core beliefs as a management consultant is that the root cause of why change projects fail is the lack of a clear and convincing business case. In my experience, the vast majority of people are willing to change (even if this change has negative implications for them), as long as they understand the rationale behind the change and have the means (resources) to change.

However, I also have come across a number of people who did not want to change, even when there was a clear need to do so, and they had all the required capabilities and resources at their disposal.

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