I totally believe that when an organisation needs to change that it can only be achieved through the individuals making changes too. It might sound trite - how often does that happen successfully though? Not... that... often...
In fact according to one report, as many as 87% of change management projects fail to meet the expectations of its key stakeholders.
To me a big part of successful change as an individual is knowing your strengths and working to them.
Prior to working in change management I spent a number of years working in marketing and public relations where I honed my communications skills. At the time I was studying a business degree at the University of Leeds Business School and I majored in Change Management. It was around this time that I got into personal development. Probably something to do with the fact that I was working tons of hours, studying, in the midst of my marriage breaking up and ill-health... What was interesting is that I saw a lot of parallels between my own journey and what I was learning at college about change - with some significant differences.
When I finished my degree, I started working for what was then Railtrack and quickly ended up working on some change management projects which I did for the best part of two years.
Here I discovered that my intuitions were correct and that there is a lot more to managing change than was in the textbooks. It seemed like the real reasons people resist change was just glossed over.
I trained as a coach and left to set up my own personal development company in Spring 2003 and I've been working for myself since in one guise or another.
More to come - watch this space...
