Articles by Lawrence Polsky

By the time you read this, over 25 percent of New Year’s resolutions have been broken or given up on. Another 25 percent will fail before June.  There is only one reason for this. Our research shows that the people who decide and succeed in changing do one thing differently than everyone else.  They find and focus on a big, selfish, emotional reason to succeed.   ...Full Article »

Thinking back on my experiences over 2011, I am going into 2012 with these eight lessons about change that I learned from these eight leaders.  What are your lessons? 1. The Committed Champion Effect -- Christopher Bear, Director of Sales Training, was leading a cultural change at his company, Prudential.  He was in charge of an effort to transform the sales approach.  Change at...Full Article »

People will complain during change.  That is a given.   When you hear it, give yourself a pat on the back.  It means employees have accepted that the change is inevitable.  They have moved past their initial fear and are struggling with how to make the change work for them. A mistake leaders make when they hear complaining is to interpret it as a sign that people are...Full Article »

Sometimes the best lessons are learned by the mistakes of others.  We have heard leaders use  the quotes below over the years (first hand or through colleagues) when communicating change.  Some of them are clear “no-no’s.”  Others could work in the right situation.  For each, I  have included the statement, who said it, and a short comment. ...Full Article »

I just completed my first half-ironman race: a 1.2 mile swim, then a 56 mile bike ride followed by a 13.1 mile run.   In looking back at how I’ve endured the training and the race, I see that there were 4 enemies I had to overcome to succeed.  These enemies are no different than the ones we face when working to endure the pain of organizational change. Change these days is...Full Article »

When change is announced in an organization, no one is really happy.  Not even the creator of it.  They might feel proud for a few minutes, but they soon realize that the gap between the idea and the implantation is huge. And so is the workload!   We have found that there are five unhappy people when change is announced.  As a leader, your job is to convince them to get on...Full Article »

One of the biggest surprises to me is that 99 percent of leaders I've encountered on five different continents have seen the movie JAWS!    The reality is that just like the shark in the movie, threats to your change program lurk undetected. Unless you go fishing for threats, and really try to understand them, you’ll end up with a change effort dead on...Full Article »

Talk about tough conversations: imagine for a minute you are a doctor who has to deliver the "four weeks to live" news.  Or how about the New York City inspector who has to meet with a restaurant owner and deliver the “bad health” grade?  Or imagine the conversations going on right now in the White House about the overwhelming debt in the US .  Tough...Full Article »

While we are busy managing our own feelings during conflict , we often forget that the other person is having the same problem.  Take this example: You’re working on an important project and a peer is unresponsive.  You need their input in order to move forward, but they don’t respond to your emails or calls.   The deadline is approaching fast.  You decide...Full Article »

From India to Idaho, the common talent management challenge is: how do we create a sense of “we” in organizations? Many companies are spread across the world, are under pressure to cut costs, increase revenue, and often operate as siloed divisions. This issue is beyond "engagement." It is a question of unity, or: "How do we create the feeling that we are...Full Article »