The current change literature provides beautiful models and perspectives on five, eight or twenty steps you need to take to manage organisational change effectively. These books often do not address the issues that leaders and change enablers struggle with in unruly day-to-day practice. Issues such as: How do you really get a cost-saving operation up and running or even make it attractive? What do you do if the strategy implementation stalls in the middle layer of the organisation? And how do you prevent people return to the old working methods when they think the change process is concluded? To me, cracking walnuts symbolises leading change.
Do you put enough time and effort into discovering which change nuts you need to crack now? Can you recognise from the shape of the nut what kind of nut it is and what it will take to open it? And instead of either doing too much, but without the intended business impact, or using too much pressure, thereby destroying organisational value. can you exert as little pressure as possible, but with just enough strength in the right place at the right time, to apply organisational interventions that ensure you unlock the organisation’s potential? The image of the nut that needs to be cracked has a clarifying effect.
Nut to crack: How do you make a convincing case for change?
Nut to crack: How to impact hearts and minds with your message
Nut to crack: How do you clarify what the future will bring and how it differs from today?
Nut to crack: How do you make it clear that waiting or postponing is not an option?
Nut to crack: How do you get an individual to act?
Nut to crack: How do you get a resisting group on board?
Nut to crack: How do you get doomsayers into first gear?
Nut to crack: You thought everyone agreed, but you find yourself running into scepticism. What now?
Nut to crack: How do you determine the transformation’s scale, complexity and impact?
Nut to crack: Who should you put on the core team?
Nut to crack: How do you design a governance structure with sufficient power?
Nut to crack: How do you equip the change team to perform?
Nut to crack: How to design a practical transformation roadmap
Nut to crack: Go for a push or pull change approach?
Nut to crack: You have doubts about the chance of success of your transformation because of factors outside your control. How do you make these change risks visible and address them?
Nut to crack: How do you stretch without over-asking?
When to involve which stakeholders, and with what agenda
Nut to crack: How do you organise effective communication?
Nut to crack: How do you activate the proper understanding of roles?
Nut to crack: How do you ensure leaders take ownership of their responsibilities and you don’t end up sitting in their seats?
The nut to crack: How do you ensure other leaders pull as hard as you do?
Nut to crack: How do you get role-model behaviour from all leaders?
Nut to crack: How do you implement the strategy through layers in the organisation?
Nut to crack: How can you achieve your goals despite a shortage of resources?
How do you increase the organisation’s innovative capabilities to make strategic goals a reality?
Nut to crack: How do you reduce costs in a way that creates energy rather than draining energy?
Nut to crack: How do you maintain a focus on results in times of uncertainty?
Nut to crack: During a reorganisation, whom do you involve, when and how?
Nut to crack: How do you respectfully say goodbye while preserving the productivity of those same individuals over the coming months?
Nut to crack: How do you manage talent during a reorganisation to avoid unnecessary churn?
Nut to crack: How do I reduce the risk upfront that the new organisational structure might not work?
Nut to crack: How do you get a (new) organisational structure going?
Nut to crack: How do you break through the silos in your organisation?
Nut to crack: How do you structurally change the ways of working with minimal effort?
How do you get rid of an inefficient management meeting structure?
Nut to crack: How do you change deeply rooted beliefs?
Nut to crack: How to adjust the organisational culture to support the necessary change
Nut to crack: How do you ensure an employee will conform to the behavioural rules?
Nut to crack: How do you ensure your message is the same verbally and non-verbally?
Nut to crack: How to view the capabilities of your current employees without prejudice
Nut to crack: How do you accelerate the learning curve of individuals?
Nut to crack: How do I attract new talent rapidly without paying top dollar?
Nut to crack: How do you prevent people with the “old” profile from being hired?
Nut to crack: How do you prevent people with the “new” profile from leaving prematurely?
Nut to crack: How do you measure the progress of an organisational change?
Nut to crack: How do you determine which next step is needed now?
Nut to crack: How do you make success go viral?
Nut to crack: How do you charge yourself and your team for the medium or long term?
Nut to crack: Everyone thinks we’re done, but we aren’t, so how do we reactivate?
Nut to crack: How do you maintain the ability to lead and guide change?
‘The Nutcracker is a source of inspiration with 50 proven use cases. It provides tools for leaders to develop a rhythm that periodically identifies the nuts to crack. This allows you to define the right priorities in successfully implementing changes and safeguarding business impact.’