Tag Archives: business

Frameworks for Change Management

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Frameworks for Change Management

click for full course outline

Managing change is a critical skill in today’s world of rapid and continuous change. Businesses often recognise the challenge of getting people to change shortly after implementation has started. The new system, process or structure is expected to go in unopposed. When the welcome mat doesn’t appear the project team scrambles to do some patch up communication – often with poor results. This training course provides both the critical skills and a framework for the successful management of change.

Course objectives

This course will allow participants to:

  • Understand the impact of change
  • Prepare for and support impending changes
  • Manage others through changes in the workplace
  • Get buy-in; deal with resistance and avoid the ‘tyranny of positivity’
  • Become a leader of change
  • Confidently develop creative change solutions
  • Ensure that change is sustainable

Scrum for Small Businesses

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No, I’m not suggesting that a game of rugby is the way to mange your small business.  Scrum is a technique more commonly used as part of Agile software development by businesses like Google and Nokia.  High Tech companies are hotbeds of innovative ways of doing things.  Developing a new phone is high risk and manpower intensive and the competition may launch something better while you’re halfway through building it.  This kind of environment demands that an organisation be focused , flexible and responsive and Scrum is one of the ways that they achieve this.

Scrum evolved in the ’90s* and got its name largely because of the most visible aspect of the process – a daily team ‘scrum’.  The daily scrum lasts for no more than 15 minutes and each team member has to state what they achieved yesterday, what they plan to achieve today and if they anticipate anything preventing them from achieving this.  Take a moment to imagine this within your own business, how long does it usually take for you to find out what everyone is doing and whether they’ve got outstanding jobs from last month because of a problem they can’t solve by themselves?  And this is just the beginning…

The complete Scrum system

The complete Scrum system

Scrum also shares many points of similarity with systems like LEAN and Six Sigma – team members pull tasks from the list and thereby take ownership of them; management focus is on removing barriers; the whole team has visibility of progress towards the overall goal.

Scrum’s main flaw is the overhead in organisation required once the task gets too big for one team (more than about 8 people).  But this makes it ideal for most small sales and service businesses and for small but urgent projects.  I’ve implemented Scrum processes within the context of large technology projects in the past and believe that they could deliver great results within the small business context.  If any readers are looking for innovative ways to increase the responsiveness and flexibility of their business – to meet customer needs faster and better – call me on 027 4776 881 and I will come and tell you more about Scrum.

* Scrum references are:

  • DeGrace and Stahl, Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions (1991)
  • Ken Schwaber , Advanced Development Methods
  • Jeff Sutherland, John Scumniotales and Jeff McKenna, Easel Corporation
  • Sutherland and Schwaber, Scrum at OOPSLA ’95 (1995)
  • Schwaber and Beedle Agile Software Development with Scrum (2001)

Website optimisation

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For some time the topic of website optimisation has been one of my bugbears.  Seemingly far too often what should be a 2 minute search for information, a product or a service ends up taking half an hour or more.

The easy solution, put forward by most web design firms is search engine optimisation (SEO).  This is presented as a magic bullet for that vaguely disappointed feeling business leaders frequently have towards their websites. But, as we all really know, deep down, magic bullets are belong in fairy stories and not in business.  The reality is that a website is not just an electronic billboard but a fully functioning arm of a business.  Instead of approaching it as a technical black box of wizardry beyond our control we should define, develop, implement and especially manage it as such.

In this light I have put together a presentation for business groups – the slides for which are available for download by clicking on the image below.  The slides are designed to support the presentation rather than contain it in full and therefore contain highlights and summaries rather than the full picture. If you are interested in having me present this to your board, chamber of commerce or business network group give me a call.

Website Optimisation presentation

Website Optimisation presentation