A Rice Education - For Free

Blake here

This is the first time I have ever written in a "blog" before.  So, instead of filling this with information about myself (your welcome) I figured I would give a couple tips that I learned during class today. 

Today we discussed how to enact a massive change in your organization.  Luckily, the steps we learned can also be applied to your family, hobbies, church, etc.  The lesson was taught to us in the form of a fable about penguins who's ice cap was melting.  Now, anyone who knows me will tell you penguins freak me out a bit, and I am still skeptical of global warming, however, getting past that point, the lesson was pretty good. 

The 8 steps to organizational change are the following:

1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Pull together guiding team
3. Develop change vision / strategy
4. Communicate understanding and get buy-in
5. Empower others to act
6. Produce short term wins
7. Don't let up
8. Create new culture

The largest takeaway I had was that consistency is key (something I have observed in my wife's second grade class).  I also observed that getting the most difficult person to accept the plan is key (something else I observed in my wife's second grade class).  Thirdly, I found today that you can not get distracted from the primary goal at hand (once again, already observed that in my wife's second grade class).

Moral of the story, I am still not the smartest person in my marriage although I pretend very well.  However, I did carve one bad-ass pumpkin tonight.

I hope everyone can make use of the steps above for guiding a successful change initiative, if not, attend my wife's second grade class and see if you can keep up.