Leading Change

In 1999 Kent Thiry became CEO of DaVita, a provider of kidney dialysis treatments. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy. It had revenues of $1.4 billion, losses of $56 million, and a share price of about $2. By June 7, 2013, after the culture change, share prices grew to $125.50. This magnificent turnaround resulted from changing the culture, and to succeed at that Thury applied 3 principles for leading culture change.

People are more inclined to implement ideas they helped develop than ideas developed for them. The reasons are simple and straightforward. The drive for Identity, knowing and being valued for who I am, is an important force in the western world. (Some cultures are driven more by group identity.) We like to see the our identity played out concretely, by way of what we produce and our affect on the world around us. Ipso facto – when leading culture change get the people’s fingerprints on the clay that molds the change.

Leading culture change is critical to the success of today’s business executives, and story telling for culture change is a must-have skill. Read more about the role of story telling in leading change.

Leading sometimes requires that you step back to lead forward. Learn when, why, and how while discovering a law of organizational physics.

This is a personal story that sealed an important lesson into my being. When we refuse to touch the reality of a thing, it will express itself at another time and in another place. It will keep expressing itself until it finds a way to wake us.

Dear CEO: What’s your 400 year business plan? You don’t have one? Things would be very different if you did.

Marissa Mayer is the first pregnant CEO of a major company, that we know of. With this news, we have the opportunity to re-think the boundary between work and life, Drawing the line with dashes, to achieve greater permeability, will serve us better in a variety of ways. It will even light the spark of innovation more readily.

Recently I attended two different meetings in which two different executives enlisted people to lead a specific change initiative. Each of these two leaders did something I call small actions BIG RESULTS.

Dear Billy:

With the smell of spring in the air and the Augusta Nationals just around the corner, I am enjoying the prospect of watching this year’s competition in person.

In my role as CEO of IBM, I regret to inform you that we are reducing our sponsorship by 50.8 percent. This is, not coincidentally, the percentage of women in the country’s population according to the 2010 census.

The trapeze artist is a change master. The knows how to let go and when to grab hold.