Business Intelligence

Practical Change Management: The Top Ten Countdown – No. 7

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CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING

Susan Cramm’s Harvard Business Review blog post, “How Are You Defying Best Practice?” is an excellent summary of my seventh practical change management reality. Susan notes that “best practice,” in reality

…isn’t always the “best” (meaning context is everything – common sense required!)
…often isn’t feasible, and doesn’t makes sense, in terms of scale, money, energy, and time
…is sometimes unachievable (meaning hammering a square peg into a round hole and losing the value in the process)

She encourages people to

Adapt best practices and use common sense, use judgment.
Focus on defining quality processes that keep the end in mind, the end being quality products and services.
Put energy into coaching people to think critically, strategically, and creatively.

Context is everything when managing change. Down with blanket best practices – use your judgment, use your gut, pay attention to your intuition.

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