Calling All Change-Makers, Movers, and Shakers

ARE YOU AN AGENT FOR POSITIVE CHANGE?

“You say you want a revolution. Well, you know we all want to change the world.” ?--The Beatles

In my personal reflection of my healthcare career spanning more than three decades, there has been nothing more rewarding than being a key contributor in a transformational initiative (aka “a journey to greatness” or “a movement”) that mobilizes people around a shared purpose.?

You likely have experienced or witnessed the truth of the statement “hope is not a strategy!” Transformational changes don’t “just happen” . . . these movements occur by design, not by default.?

So, what is the power of a movement? It can start with just a small group of people and end up changing the culture of a very large group and the trajectory of an organization;

• The kind that gather around positive, creative, dynamic ideas can help build a better, fairer, more sustainable, and more interesting world; and
• Once the movement begins, each great idea leads to the next. Engagement leads to more engagement, motivation leads to more motivation, and a purpose goes from static to kinetic.

If you want to check out some specific examples of some positive movements, you can Google “Dove Real Beauty,” ?“Dignity Health #HelloHumanKindness,” or “ IHI 100,000 lives” (or hey, check out the positive Rise Up Together movement at Grant Regional)

If you are embarking upon designing or elevating a movement, here are some bodies of knowledge that you will want to become very familiar with: Change Theory and Models, Leadership, Marketing and Branding, Sociology, Communication, Strategic Planning, Execution, and Social Psychology.?

And, from these bodies of knowledge, some key thought leaders that come to mind are John Kotter, Everett Rogers, Barbara Fredrickson, W. Edwards Deming, and Stephen Covey.

What I’ve found interesting about studying, planning for, and executing large-scale transformation, or movements, is that some of the tactics used can be applied to our leadership day-to-day.?

Below are five tactics for your “movement” toolkit:

1) Engage others in the movement using the “The Formula for Inspiration” (Source: The book There’s No Such Thing as Public Speaking)

? ? ?a) Opening - Grab attention

? ? ?b) Head/Logic (Facts, Measurements, Research/Evidence)

? ? ?c) Heart/Emotion (Storytelling)

? ? ?d) Call to Action

2) Assemble and Empower a Volunteer Army - In Capstone nation, we call this the “Journey Team Structure” and populate it with mostly employees. (Source: John Kotter)

3) Engage and celebrate your first followers and early adopters (Source: Everett Rogers and his work on “Adoption and Diffusion”)

4) Don’t Give Up! - It will get hard, confusing, complicated, and negativity will scream at you. It can look like failure in the middle, just keep going! (Source: The Infinite Game)

5) Develop a cadence of transparent communication - (Source: Capstone Leadership Summit )

? ? ?a) Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually

? ? ?b) Achieving consistency - beyond simply repetition; the creation of patterns?

If you'd like to do more reading on this topic, here are some great resources to consider:

• XLR8 (John Kotter)
• There is No Such Thing as Public Speaking (Jeanette Henderson)
• The 4 Disciplines of Execution (Chris McChesney, Jim Huling, and Sean Covey)
• The Speed of Trust (Stephen M.R. Covey)
• Essentialism (Greg McKeown)
• The Oz Principle (Craig Hickman, Roger Connors, and Tom Smith)
• Positivity (Barbara Fredrickson)
• Taking People With You (David Novak)
• Jumping the S-Curve (Nunes, Breene - Harvard Business Review Press)
• There’s No Such Thing As Public Speaking (Jeanette Henderson)
• HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Communication (Includes: Change the Way You Persuade; Harnessing the Science of Persuasion; The Power of Talk; The Necessary Art of Persuasion; Telling Tales)

Wishing you well as you inspire positive change, big or small, wherever you lead. Wishing you all the best!

- Sue Tetzlaff - Culture and Execution Catalyst

ARE YOU READY FOR CHANGE?

A truly transformational “Journey to Greatness” involves not only leaders - but employees. To start or elevate continual improvement initiatives focused on patient, employee, and business outcomes, we invite senior leaders from rural healthcare organizations to schedule a complimentary consultation.? To get this scheduled, you can contact [email protected] or use this self-scheduling link