The Change Artist

This season is all about Transformation.  Transformation is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, particularly by consultants, but what does it really mean.  This season, we have a great line-up of business and thought leaders who are at the forefront of the theory and execution of transformation to help us shed a little light on what transformation is and how we execute it well.  So to help us kick off the season, this week on The Change Artist we talk to Anu George, an experienced transformation leader who has worked with large, multinational organizations like Unilever, Morningstar, and AIG, on global and enterprise-wide business and digital transformation.To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call.

This season is all about Transformation.  Transformation is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, particularly by consultants, but what does it really mean.  This season, we have a great line-up of business and thought leaders who are at the forefront of the theory and execution of transformation to help us shed a little light on what transformation is and how we execute it well.  So to help us kick off the season, this week on The Change Artist we talk to Laura Beres, Vice President of Enterprise Transformation at Ulta Beauty, who shares with us what transformation means at Ulta Beauty and how her team operates to make transformation successful.To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call.

This season we’ve looked at a range of structures, from the project management office to practices within the organization that help promote employee work-life fit.  We wrap up this series of episodes by taking a look at shadow boards.  This week on The Change Artist, we talk to Mahwesh Khan, a senior advisor and researcher at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, with specific expertise in governance and strategy diagnostics, and she shares with us her research findings on the uses and benefits of shadow boards.  You can find  more information on Mahwesh's research at hbr.org.  To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call. 

As we continue to examine the structures in and outside our organizations that help us work through change, I wanted to spend a minute thinking about structures and practices within the organization that help promote employee work-life fit.  It’s incredibly hard to accommodate change, and be resilient in the face of change, when you’re dealing with overwhelm and, at least for me, one of the biggest triggers of overwhelm comes when stress at work compounds with stress at home and things start to feel like they’re going off the rails everywhere all at once.   This week on The Change Artist, we talk to Leslie Forde, creator of The Mom’s Hierarchy of Needs, a research-based framework that surfaces the link between self-care, wellbeing, and growth.  Her writing and work has been featured in The Washington Post, CNN, and Fast Company, to name a few, and she’s here today to talk to us about what it means to create inclusive cultures that meet the needs of the caregivers in our organizations, to enable them to be their best on all the stages where they perform.  To learn more about Leslie's work with The Mom's Hierarchy of Needs, you can check her out at www.momshierarchyofneeds.com. To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call.

I’ve talked to many people who have a love hate relationship with project management.  When there’s no project management rigor around the change programs we’re trying to drive, programs can feel chaotic and collapse under the weight of that chaos.  When there’s dogmatic adherence to standard project management one-size-fits-all practices, it can feel like change initiatives collapse under the weight of non-value-add administrative burden.   This week on The Change Artist, we talk with Jaci Cooper, Director of Projects and Planning at the Kent District Library. She shares with us the change journey she guided her organization through, charting a course to improving project management rigor without stifling creativity and momentum within her organization, as well as how program management structures have actually helped Kent District Library lean more effectively into change..  To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call.

As we continue to examine the structures in and outside our organizations that help us work through change, we’re taking a minute to shine a spotlight on professional associations.  These are organizations that operate outside of a specific employer who focus on a specific skillset or industry and provide opportunities to build skills and network.  There’s a professional association for almost any line of work you might be interested in, and they can be impactful vectors for the new ideas that can serve as the seeds for grass-roots change in our organizations.   This week on The Change Artist, we talk to Cindy Stanley, Executive Director of the Accounting and Financial Women’s Alliance, or AFWA, and she shares her experience around how professional organizations operate in the ecosystem of professional development and organizational change.   To learn more about AFWA, you can check them out at www.afwa.org, or visit them on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn under the handle  @afwanational  To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call.

The organization operates as a complex ecosystem of people, policy, process, structure, and tools.  Trying to drive change in a single aspect, without considering the reinforcing structures across the full ecosystem is likely to render those changes unsustainable.This week on The Change Artist, we talk to Darin Dorsey, an experienced anti-violence consultant and trainer, and the co-founder of Rooting Movements, and he shares his insights from his work in the social change space around challenging organizational defaults to align the way our organizations operate with the outcomes we're trying to drive.  To learn more about Darin's work with Rooting Movements, you can check them out at www.rootingmovements.org and follow them on Twitter under the handle @Darinat0r.  To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call. 

This week on The Change Artist  we continue our conversation on measuring change and how we talk about the degree to which we’ve been successful in driving our desired change.  Our guest today is Dr. Jue Wu, a postdoc researcher in STEM education at UC Berkley and the author of the recent paper in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education -  “Change mapping of models to diversify STEM faculty as practiced by alliances for graduate education and the professoriate" (https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-69859-001). She’s here with us today to share her perspective on how we think about understanding sustainability and scalability of our change initiatives.  To learn more about Jue's work, you're welcome to reach out to her over email at [email protected]    To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call. 

"When you go in to collect data, step one is why.  What is your purpose?  What is the mission you're trying to move forward."  This week on The Change Artist we're joined by Sertrice Grice, cofounder and chief consulting officer of Mattingly Solutions, a woman-owned diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm.  She’s also the co-author of "Inclusalytics - How Diversity Equity & Inclusion Leaders Use Data to Drive their Work." She’s here with us today to share her perspective and experience around how we think about measuring change and defining success for our change initiatives  To learn more about Sertrice's work, you can reach out to her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sertrice/.  You can also learn more about Mattingly Solutions at www.mattinglysolutions.com. Be sure to check out her book on Amanzon: https://www.amazon.com/Inclusalytics-Diversity-Equity-Inclusion-Leaders/dp/B09WQF65FG  To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call. 

"There's no business without showbusiness."This week on The Change Artist we're joined by Mike Verret, principal of Verrett & Associates - a firm that helps entrepreneurs shape their message and talk about their businesses in a way that makes investors and buyers say “Tell me more!”, and he’s with us today to challenge our thinking on how we craft messaging that engages our audience and helps us get from introduction to outcome.  To reach out to Mike directly and learn more about his work, you can connect with him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-verret/  To learn more about how to bring conversations like these to your team or organization, you can visit us at www.blueswiftconsulting.com to schedule a complementary intro call.