When leadership changes make the news, most of us naturally focus on the people at the top. Who is leaving?Who’s taking over?What strategy will change?Who wins? Who loses? Recently, leadership changes surrounding CBS and the Paramount/Skydance merger generated exactly those kinds of conversations. But while the headlines focused on executives and corporate decisions, I found … Read More
Is it achieving the goal that lights you up? Or is it really the pursuit of that goal? Iâm thinking itâs the latter. A rainy Saturday today felt like a good time to clean out the desk drawers in our home office. The first pile of papers I picked up was the printed manuscript version … Read More
Mary Lou Panzano reflecting on the impact she’s made in people’s lives.
In the mid-1990âs, Prudential, then one of the worldâs largest insurance and financial services companies, announced it planned to go public. It had been a mutual insurance company owned for over 100 years by its policyholders. It was seeking access to the public markets to expand its financial services portfolio. Its IPO was on December … Read More
Most people I work with donât lack the ingredients for changeâthey were just never given the recipe. I like recipes because they are predictable. If you use the listed ingredients and follow the instructions, you will have a dish thatâs delish. Every. Time. Career transitions could be handled the same way. But most people I … Read More
When I was thinking about retiring from my corporate executive job in communications, I knew that I would not be retiring from life, just from a demanding job with my health on the verge of severe burnout. I knew it was the right time to focus on giving back and doing something I always wanted … Read More
One business relationship I appreciate most is the one with my HR business partner. I cannot think of one major organizational change (or crisis) in which I led internal communications that my HR BP was not at my side helping me making stuff happen. Thatâs why interviewed Nichelle Howe for my book on my proven … Read More
I screwed up. The other day I was sitting on the examination table in my doctorâs office. We just finished chatting about, well, the things you talk about with your physician. This doctor is a general practitioner and a gastroenterologist. Heâs been my GP for decades. As we were wrapping up, he said, âI have … Read More
Reposted from MLs Monday Morning Musings on LinkedIn – Jan. 27, 2025 Communicators, have you ever been asked to lead communications for a large organizational change at your company? On top of your already demanding regular work? Me too. In an interview I did with Kate Chechko for a new member spotlight feature in @IABC … Read More
As I was sitting across the table in the apartment we had rented on a recent visit to Brazil to meet my daughter-in-lawâs family for the first time, I observed a 9-year-old girl, named Antonia, with a forlorn look on her face. In her hand was a well-sharpened pencil. I learned the night before that … Read More
Cracking the Rich Code
Transform Obstacles into Opportunities with Proven Strategies
Ready to supercharge your results and rewrite your story? Dive into this dynamic chapter, where uncertainty at the airport becomes a powerful metaphor for navigating change in life and business.
Meet Tonyaâa driven professional facing turbulence on her journey to breakthrough success. Delays, detours, and uncertainty threaten to derail her goals, but through a chance encounter and a proven four-ingredient recipe, she discovers how to transform setbacks into strategies that work.
Youâll uncover:
Packed with relatable stories and actionable insights, this chapter is your ticket to embracing change with confidence. Donât wait for the perfect conditionsâdiscover the secret recipe and soar toward your goals!
If this chapter whets your appetite, read...
Cementing Change: Cracking the Code for Communications That Work.
In todayâs relentless world of shifting priorities and constant disruption, most organizations stumble when faced with change. Failed transformation efforts cost millions, erode trust, and leave teams overwhelmed, burnt out, and searching for answers. Why do so many change initiatives unravel, even as the stakes climb ever higher? What hidden forces sabotage progress in the shadows of the workplace?
Cementing Change: Cracking the Code for Communications That Work
FOREWORD
Kaveh Naficy, Partner, Lakida LLC, and Leadership Coach
Like any other label, âchangeâ has been understood, described, experienced, and monetized in numerous ways. And the most obvious reason is that different audiences have different needs, and the author and her book are vessels to fulfill those needs.
Change is one of the most ancient and natural phenomena of our planet. After all, what doesnât change? The rate of change, which is already mind-numbing, continues to accelerate. Consider that between the end of the 1930s and the introduction of the microchip in 1971 (the Intel 4004), transformational innovations in office technology might have included the easy correcting typewriter, the HP calculator, or the Xerox copying machines. Since then, however, the rate of change has occurred at such a dizzying pace that it is difficult to predict what the office technology will have in store for us one year hence.Â
So why are so many of us fearful and uneasy with it?
Most of us associate our sense of identity and worth with our vocations and careers. So, it is only natural that when discontinuous changes appear at the workplace, the primitive part of our brain starts to send fight or flight signals. We experience loss of control, confidence, competence, and comfort, which in turn lead to fear, anxiety, and stress-survivalist warnings to our bodies.
These feelings are magnified when we donât know how to respond and take control over our lives by understanding the change, processing it, planning for it, and having the courage and support to address it appropriately.Â
The autonomous systems already here, such as AI that fuel faster, continuous learning and improvement, only exacerbate our sense of helplessness and loneliness. Â
And yet we know that the most agile, informed, and courageous will prosper most in the 21st century.
What Impedes Successful Change?
During a career spanning nearly 50 years, I have led and participated in numerous change initiatives and built the Ernst & Young European strategic change practice in the late 90s. What I witnessed was that most change methodologies and tools suffer from one or more of the following:
Why read this book?
Cementing Change addresses many of these shortcomings. The 4Cs Change Framework™âClarity, Connection, Caring, and Courageâand the underlying 12 Principles of Prosperity provide the reader with practical language, a proven framework, and steps to understand and execute change. Â
Absent clarity of what is to change in language that people can understand and react to, most change initiatives will usually result in wasted effort and unfulfilling outcomes. Successful programs ensure that every person affected by the change understands clearly how it will be manifested in their workspace. Cementing Change provides the reader with the framework for ensuring clear communication of the change agenda.
When change sponsors design change programs founded on connection and caring, they allow diverse perspectives and feelings embedded in the organization to surface early in the change journey so that they can be understood, processed, and addressed. The targets of change programs are human beings who are energized and motivated when they feel heard, supported, and cared for, and NOT cogs in the wheel at the whim of the absent powerful.
Finally, leading or responding to change is fueled by courage. Those experiencing change have to be able to step into it with hope, excitement, and a sense of adventure. However, most will need more than blind faith. The fear of the unknown may well overtake their courage to experiment. They will need an infrastructure of support, tools, and practice. This book provides the ingredients for those on a change journey to shrink the risk into manageable outcomes and steps.
This book reminds us emphatically of the importance of these âsofter âcritical components of change leadershipâlistening with curiosity, empathy for others and their perspective, and supporting others while they undergo experiential learning implicit in change.
After reading the framework and concepts in Cementing Change, I have gained a better appreciation for the power of the places in which organizational and personal change intersect and the importance of applying the concepts and principles of this book at both levels.