Tag Archives: Change Planning Toolkit

London Calling

London Calling Braden Kelley

by Braden Kelley

I will be in London attending a reunion soon and have some availability May 15-17, 2024 if anyone would like to book a keynote, workshop, or advisory session while I’m there.

Are you looking to build a continuous innovation infrastructure in your organization?

Would you like to learn more about the Change Planning Toolkit?

Want to learn how to become your own Futurist using the FutureHacking™ suite of tools?

I’m also open to helping promote a get together if someone has a space in central London to offer up for hosting a Human-Centered Change and Innovation community meetup.

Contact me if you have interest in any or all of these!

p.s. Be sure and follow both my personal account and the Human-Centered Change and Innovation community on LinkedIn.

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Book Giveaway – Charting Change

November 10, 2023 from 8:30-11:30 AM in Issaquah, WA

Charting Change for an Outstanding 2023

Wow! Crazy news!

In honor of Veterans Day I will be giving away up to 20 copies of my bestselling book Charting Change at the East Lake Sammamish Starbucks tomorrow, November 10, 2023 from 8:30am-11:30am until the last copy in the box is gone. That’s about $1,000 worth of books.

Usually people give Veteran’s like me a thank you offer. But, I thought I would flip it around to help spread the benefits of the human-centered change methodology even farther and wider for the benefit of non-profit, for-profit and governmental organizations looking to plan and execute transformations and change initiatives.

Here is a map of the Starbucks location where I will be giving away the books:

I created the Human-Centered Change methodology to help organizations get everyone literally all on the same page for change. The 70+ visual, collaborative tools are introduced in my book Charting Change, including the powerful Change Planning Canvas™. The toolkit has been created to help organizations:

  • Beat the 70% failure rate for change programs
  • Quickly visualize, plan and execute change efforts
  • Deliver projects and change efforts on time
  • Accelerate implementation and adoption
  • Get valuable tools for a low investment

REMINDER: I will be at this Starbucks from 8:30am-11:30am or until the twenty (20) books are gone ($49.99 retail value each).

SPECIAL BONUS: Whether you stop by to grab a copy of the book, or already have one, anyone who stops by and leaves their business card or email address will be entered into a drawing to win one of two (2) LIFETIME Change Planning Toolkit™ licenses (a $36,999 value with a discounted retail price of $999.99/each).

Additional reminder: Everyone can download ten free tools from the Human-Centered Change methodology by going to its page on this site via the link in this sentence, and book buyers can get 26 of the 70+ tools from the Change Planning Toolkit (including the Change Planning Canvas™) by contacting me with proof of purchase. Annual toolkit licenses are available for as little as $99.99/year (there are site/city/state/country licenses as well).

Happy Veterans Day!

Did You Know That I’m a Business Ninja?

Neither did I!

At least until I appeared recently on the Business Ninja podcast hosted by WriteForMe, a modern content marketing company that helps their clients achieve their growth goals by telling their story across the Internet and social media.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Andrew Lippman for the podcast, which is available as a traditional audio podcast (on this link or via your favorite podcast provider) or as a YouTube video which I’ve embedded right here:

In this conversation we explore how the Human-Centered Change methodology and the Change Planning Toolkit came to be, and how the collection of more than seventy (70+) tools was designed to be used visually, collaboratively either in person using posters and sticky notes, or virtually using digital sticky notes in a tool like Miro, Mural, LucidSpark, or Microsoft Whiteboard.

Did You Know That I'm a Business Ninja?Don’t plan a change effort by starting with a blank Project Charter but instead get everyone literally all the same page for change. Using the Change Planning Toolkit employs more modern ways of working instead of legacy methods and by design will lead to increased buy-in, alignment and momentum towards your change or transformation goals.

We also explore the topic of change resistance and how to overcome it, and some of the tools that are part of the human-centered change methodology that help you in this quest. And, my conversation with Andrew also touches on the next set of tools that I’ll be introducing soon, which come together to form the FutureHacking™ methodology.

Finally, the podcast also dives into my origin story, just in case you’re curious who this Braden Kelley guy is and the journey that has brought me to you!

I hope you’ll check out the podcast and as always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to add them as a comment below and I’ll do my best to help you with your challenge!

Once again here are the links:

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Four Things You Need to Succeed in The Good Place

Four Things You Need to Succeed in The Good Place

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

You have, no doubt, seen the design squiggle. The ubiquitous scribble is all loopy and knotty in the beginning until it finally sorts itself into a straight line by the end.

It illustrates the design process – “the journey of researching, uncovering insights, generating creative concepts, iteration of prototypes and eventually concluding in one single designed solution” – and its elegant simplicity has led it to be adopted by all sorts of other disciplines, including innovation.

But when I showed it to a client, her immediate response was, “It’s Jeremy Bearimy!”*

Wha????

And that is how I discovered The Good Place, a sitcom about four humans who die, go to The Good Place, and struggle to learn what it means to be good.

The show, created by Michael Schur of The Office and Parks and Recreation fame, is a brilliant treatise on ethics and moral philosophy. It also contains valuable wisdom about what innovators need to succeed.

Questions

With all due respect, “It’s the way it’s always been done” is an excuse that’s been used for hundreds of years to justify racism, misogyny…

Tahani Al-Jamil

This quote was a gut punch from the show’s fourth and final season. As innovators, we often hear people ask why change is needed. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” they proclaim.

But sometimes it is broke, and we don’t know it. At the very least, it can always be better.

So, while “it’s the way it’s always been done” at your company probably (hopefully) doesn’t include racism, misogyny, sexism, and other genuinely horrible things, framing the status quo as an enabler of those horrors is a harsh wake-up call to the dangers of an unquestioning commitment to continuing to do things the way they’ve always been done.

Decisions (not just Ideas)

If you’re always frozen in fear and taking too long to figure out what to do, you’ll miss your opportunity, and maybe get sucked into the propeller of a swamp boat.

Jason Mendoza

Even though Jason Mendoza is the resident idiot of The Good Place, he occasionally (and very accidentally) has moments of profound insight. This one to a situation that innovators are all too familiar with – analysis paralysis.

How often do requests for more data, more (or more relevant) benchmarks, or input from more people slow down decisions and progress? These requests are rarely rooted in doubt about the data, benchmarks, or information you presented. They are rooted in fear – the fear of making the wrong decision, being blamed or shamed, and losing a reputation or even a job.

But worse than being wrong, blamed, shamed, or unemployed is missing an opportunity to radically improve your business, team, or even the world. It’s the business equivalent of getting sucked into the propeller of a swamp boat.

Actions (not just decisions)

In football, trying to run out the clock and hoping for the best never works. It’s called “prevent defense.” You don’t take any chances and just try and hold on to your lead. But prevent defense just PREVENTS you from winning! It’s always better to try something.

Jason Mendoza

Jason does it again, this time invoking a lesson learned from his beloved Jacksonville Jaguars.

Few companies publicly admit to adopting a prevent defense, even though most companies engage in it. They play prevent defense when they don’t invest in innovation, focus exclusively on maintaining or incrementally improving what they currently do, or confine their innovation efforts to events like hackathons and shark tanks.

Incremental improvements and innovation theater keep you competitive. But they won’t get you ahead of the competition or make you a leader in your industry. In fact, they prevent it by making you feel good and safe when you’re really just running out the clock.

Perseverance

Come on, you know how this works. You fail and then you try something else. And you fail again and again, and you fail a thousand times, and you keep trying because maybe the 1,001st idea might work. Now, I’m gonna and try to find our 1,001st idea.

Michael

It’s hard to explain this quote without sharing massive spoilers, so let’s just say that The Good Place is an experiment that fails. A lot.

But it’s also an experiment that generates profound learning and universe-altering changes, things that would not have been possible without the failures.

Yes, smart innovators know when to kill a project. They also know when to try one more time. Wise innovators know the difference.

One final bit of wisdom

Innovation is hard. You will run into more resistance than expected, and things will rarely work out as planned. As long as you keep trying and learning, you won’t fail.

To paraphrase Jason Mendoza (again), you’re not a failed innovator, you’re pre-successful.

*For those of you who are, like I was, unfamiliar with Jeremy Bearimy, here’s a clip explaining it (WARNING: SPOILERS)

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TODAY ONLY – Change Planning Toolkit – Fourth of July Special

TODAY ONLY - Change Planning Toolkit - Fourth of July SpecialHappy Fourth of July!

For all of my American friends in celebration of Independence Day, I have a special offer for you.

If you live in the United States of America, TODAY ONLY, if you purchase a copy of:

The Change Planning Toolkit from the Human-Centered Change methodology …

You can get one of the two following deals if you are one of the first ten (10) people to purchase the deal and ENTER A UNITED STATES MAILING ADDRESS:

OPTION ONE: Free copy of Charting Change (a $49.99 value) when you buy a $99.99 one-year Change Planning Toolkit license (a $1,200 value)

OPTION TWO: Save 40% and get a free copy of Charting Change (a $49.99 value) when you buy a $999.99 Change Planning Toolkit lifetime license (a $120,000 value) and use coupon code lifetime4th

Thank you to all of our servicemen and servicewomen for protecting our freedom, and to everyone else please keep your fingers and toes safe with any celebration fireworks, and …

Keep innovating!

Change Management Frameworks – Which is Right for Your Organization?

Change Management Frameworks - Which is Right for Your Organization?

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

In the fast-paced environment of today’s business world, organizations must continuously adapt to survive and thrive. Selecting the right change management framework can make the difference between success and failure when launching initiatives. As a thought leader in human-centered change and innovation, I am excited to guide you in choosing the framework that’s best for your organization.

The Importance of Change Management Frameworks

Change management frameworks provide a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. They help minimize resistance, ensure effective communication, and enhance engagement and adoption of new initiatives.

Popular Change Management Frameworks

  • Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model: A comprehensive approach that outlines eight critical steps to implement change successfully.
  • Lewin’s Change Management Model: A three-stage approach of Unfreezing, Changing, and Refreezing.
  • McKinsey 7-S Framework: Incorporates a holistic view of organizational change by examining seven interdependent elements.
  • Bridges Transition Model: Focuses on the psychological transition of individuals to adopt change.
  • Braden Kelley’s Change Planning Toolkit: A unique, visual set of tools designed to accelerate adoption, lower risks, and deliver change faster. His human-centered change approach with more than 70 tools for practitioners is a great way to get your change or transformation initiative off to the right start.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Framework

Organizations should consider the scale of change, the organization’s culture, leadership, and readiness, and how individuals in the organization typically react to change. Each framework offers unique strengths, and aligning these with your organization’s needs will result in a smoother transformation journey.

Case Study 1: Kotter’s 8-Step Model in a Financial Services Firm

Background

A mid-sized financial services firm, FutureFinance, needed to implement a new customer relationship management (CRM) system to improve client interactions and streamline processes.

Challenges

The organization’s disparate departments often worked in silos, causing inefficiencies and resistance to centralized solutions. Additionally, employees were skeptical about the time and effort needed to transition to a new system.

Implementation

FutureFinance adopted Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model. They began by creating a sense of urgency around the inefficiencies and lost opportunities due to the current disjointed approach. A guiding coalition was formed with top executives and influential department heads. A clear vision and strategy for the CRM implementation were developed and communicated throughout the firm. Short-term wins were identified, such as improving specific client processes, to demonstrate benefits early in the transition.

Outcome

Within twelve months, FutureFinance saw a significant improvement in customer satisfaction scores and a reduction in process duplication. By celebrating early wins and embedding new practices into the culture, the firm successfully completed the transition and achieved better cross-department collaboration.

Case Study 2: ADKAR Model in a Tech Startup

Background

A tech startup, Let’s Innovate, aimed to implement a new project management software to enhance efficiency and collaboration across its distributed teams.

Challenges

The company faced resistance as team members were comfortable with their existing processes, and there was limited buy-in for the new software tool.

Implementation

Let’s Innovate selected the ADKAR Model focusing on individual change to tackle these challenges. The process began with workshops to raise awareness and highlight the benefits of the new software (Awareness & Desire). Training sessions were organized to build the necessary skills (Knowledge & Ability), followed by regular feedback loops and performance incentives to reinforce the adoption (Reinforcement).

Outcome

The shift was remarkably successful, leading to an increase in project completion rates by 30% within six months, along with enhanced team collaboration and satisfaction.

Conclusion

Choosing the right change management framework requires understanding your organization’s unique challenges and needs. Whether it’s the structured approach of Kotter’s 8-Step Model or the individual-focused ADKAR Model, the key is to align the approach with the organizational context for maximum impact. Embrace change as an ongoing journey, with each stage offering valuable insights for future growth and transformation. And remember, it all starts with a strong change planning effort upfront and Braden Kelley’s Change Planning Toolkit™ is the best way to make that happen.

SPECIAL BONUS: The very best change planners use a visual, collaborative approach to create their deliverables. A methodology and tools like those in Change Planning Toolkit™ can empower anyone to become great change planners themselves.

Image credit: Unsplash

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New Capability Mapping Tools for Business Architects

Charting Change - Order NowDespite already investing more than one million dollars in the new intellectual property included in the Change Planning Toolkit™, I will continue to take your feedback and invest in creating new tools that make the toolkit even more valuable for everyone.

Today I’m excited to announce the Change Planning Toolkit™ v11 which includes several new tools for:

  • Helping innovation leaders, business architects and transformation planners create current and future business capability maps

The Change Planning Canvas™ and the more than 70 tools in the toolkit will help make your change planning efforts more visual and collaborative, and enable you to get everyone literally all on the same page for change. The toolkit has been created to help organizations:

  1. Beat the 70% failure rate for change programs
  2. Quickly visualize, plan and execute change efforts
  3. Deliver projects and change efforts on time
  4. Accelerate implementation and adoption
  5. Get valuable tools for a low investment

The tools easily integrate with other change methodologies like ProSci’s ADKAR, the Association of Change Management Professionals’ (ACMP) Standard, and the PMBOK used by Project Management Professionals (PMP).

Get your Change Planning Toolkit™ licenses now at a special price.

If you purchased a Change Planning Toolkit™ license over a year ago, you will want to renew your license so you can:

  • Download the latest version
  • Help shape future updates to the toolkit by contacting us to request new tools
  • Get access to any further updates over the next year

—————————————————————————————-
IMPORTANT: If you already purchased the book and are looking to access the supporting material, please contact me with your proof of purchase and I’ll send you the file.
—————————————————————————————-

Learning how to use the Change Planning Toolkit™ will create great opportunities for:

  1. Organizations to build a continuous change capability
  2. Consulting companies to increase revenue while achieving better client outcomes
  3. Education companies to build new organizational change course offerings

So, what are you waiting for?

Don’t endure even one more change or project failure.

Get the Change Planning Toolkit™ v11 today!

Not sure what business architecture is or what a business capability map looks like?

Here is a hypothetical business architecture example of a business capability map from the Change Planning Toolkit™ v11 that these new tools will help you organize as part of your innovation, change or transformation efforts for current state and future state capability mappings:

Business Architecture example of a business capability map from Braden Kelley


Accelerate your change and transformation success

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What is the best way to create successful change? – EPISODE FOUR – Ask the Consultant

Live from the Innovation Studio comes EPISODE FOUR of a new ‘Ask the Consultant’ series of short form videos. EPISODE FOUR tackles a question I’m asked so frequently that I wrote a book to answer it:

“What is the best way to create successful change?”

Hint: It starts with getting a copy of Charting Change because I introduce in the book several key frameworks that lay the groundwork for successful change that are built upon in the Change Planning Toolkit™.

The pace of change is accelerating and organizations need to become more agile and more capable of continuous change. This presents a huge challenge for most organizations.

Together in this episode we’ll explore some of the core building blocks to creating successful change in your organization, and a discuss what else is in Charting Change and the Change Planning Toolkit™, and how this particular book can make a great course book for change management courses at universities, executive education, and corporate training programs.

Many of the tools in the optional Change Planning Toolkit™ will look familiar to change management professionals because they have been informed by the ACMP’s Standard for Change Management and the PMI’s PMBOK.

Five Keys to Successful Change 550

“Does the change you’re proposing inspire fear or curiosity? Fear steals energy from change; curiosity fuels it.”— Braden Kelley

Grab your copy of Charting Change on Amazon while they last!

What question should I tackle in the next video episode of “Ask the Consultant” live from my innovation studio?

Contact me with your question

}} Click here to watch the video {{

Below are the previous episodes of ‘Ask the Consultant’:

  1. EPISODE ONE – What is innovation?
  2. EPISODE TWO – How do I create continuous innovation in my organization?
  3. EPISODE THREE – What is digital transformation?
  4. All other episodes of Ask the Consultant


Accelerate your change and transformation success

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New Tool for Leveraging the Eight Change Mindsets

Charting Change - Order NowDespite already investing more than one million dollars in the new intellectual property included in the Change Planning Toolkit™, I will continue to take your feedback and invest in creating new tools that make the toolkit even more valuable for everyone.

Today I’m excited to announce the Change Planning Toolkit™ v10 which includes a new tool for:

  • Leveraging the Eight Change Mindsets in your Communications Strategy Planning (including messaging, symbols, and artifacts)

The Change Planning Canvas™ and the more than 60 tools in the toolkit will help make your change planning efforts more visual and collaborative, and enable you to get everyone literally all on the same page for change. The toolkit has been created to help organizations:

  1. Beat the 70% failure rate for change programs
  2. Quickly visualize, plan and execute change efforts
  3. Deliver projects and change efforts on time
  4. Accelerate implementation and adoption
  5. Get valuable tools for a low investment

The tools easily integrate with other change methodologies like ProSci’s ADKAR, the Association of Change Management Professionals’ (ACMP) Standard, and the PMBOK used by Project Management Professionals (PMP).

Get your Change Planning Toolkit™ licenses now at a special price.

If you purchased a Change Planning Toolkit™ license over a year ago, you will want to renew your license so you can:

  • Download the latest version
  • Help shape future updates to the toolkit by contacting us to request new tools
  • Get access to any further updates over the next year

—————————————————————————————-
IMPORTANT: If you already purchased the book and are looking to access the supporting material, please contact me with your proof of purchase and I’ll send you the file.
—————————————————————————————-

Learning how to use the Change Planning Toolkit™ will create great opportunities for:

  1. Organizations to build a continuous change capability
  2. Consulting companies to increase revenue while achieving better client outcomes
  3. Education companies to build new organizational change course offerings

So, what are you waiting for?

Don’t endure even one more change or project failure.

Get the Change Planning Toolkit™ v10 today!

Don’t remember what the Eight Change Mindsets are?

Check them out below and then get the Change Planning Toolkit™ to take advantage of them in your communications planning!

Eight Change Mindsets to Harness for Success

Get the PDF version of the Eight Change Mindsets framework:

Eight Change Mindsets to Harness for Success PDF

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Accelerating Complexity vs. Accelerating Change

Accelerating Complexity vs. Accelerating Change

Does the quickening pace of change or the accelerating pace of complexity pose a greater threat for humans and organizations?

Change can be incredibly disruptive to both humans and organizations.

So much so that I decided to create a more modern, visual, collaborative and effective set of methods and tools to help organizations beat the 70% change failure rate and better keep pace with the accelerating pace of change – the Change Planning Toolkit™ – introduced in my latest book Charting Change.

In the book I highlight that the pace of change is accelerating, and use the increasing rate of change in the S&P 500’s membership as a proof point:

Innosight Average Company Lifespan

Another proof point is the fact that all of our high technology has been developed in roughly the last 100 years.

There can be no doubt that the pace of change and disruption is quickening.

But how much of the accelerating disruption that we see can be attributed to what I see as an increasing pace of complexity?

If anyone doubts that we live in a time of accelerating complexity, I encourage you to check out the book The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites, or this TED talk given by Thomas:

I find this video quite frightening because it highlights how fragile our high-technology society is, and how much we need each other.

If a single person can’t make the simplest of electrical appliances by themselves, even over the course of a year, then imagine the complexity that organizations must manage to make even more complicated products.

Imagine the challenge of making changes to our organizations after we’ve optimized things to successfully manage this complexity.

If both complexity and change are accelerating, how can we cope?

Here are four key ways to better manage complexity and change:

  1. Choose carefully which complexity to inflict upon the organization
  2. Learn how to architect the organization for continuous change
  3. Continuously evaluate your organization’s trade-offs between flexibility and fixedness
  4. Leverage the modern, visual, and collaborative tools from the Change Planning Toolkit™ that are easily adapted to our new virtual work environment

Grab the ten free tools from the Change Planning Toolkit™ before purchasing a license so you can keep these three key frameworks front and center as you plan a more modular and conscious approach to managing the growing complexity in your organization:

  • PCC Change Readiness Framework
  • Organizational Agility Framework
  • Architecting the Organization for Continuous Change

Download the 10 Free Tools

Keep innovating!


Accelerate your change and transformation success

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