As the founder of Emergent (www.EmergentConsultants.com), my team and I provide strategic change and program management consulting to Fortune 500 and midmarket companies. As strategists, planners, and roll-up-the-sleeves implementers, we are exceptional at what we do. Clients include Walgreens, JetBlue, Lowe’s, Mattel, Gap Inc., and many other names you would know. Typically we partner with project teams, organizational development and HR leaders, and executive sponsors. Our specialty is complex high-stakes business initiatives involving corporate restructuring, organizational redesign, mergers, technology deployments, process reengineering, and cost-cutting. We enable our clients to accelerate adoption, speed implementation, and realize ROI sooner. Emergent is the developer three online tools: --Change Accelerator (www.ChangeAccelerator.com) --Savvy Transition (www.SavvyTransition.com) --TransformationReady (www.TransformationReady.com) We also publish Emergent Journal (www.EmergentJournal.com) and the Emergent Insights newsletter (scroll down the page for a link to subscribe). My background includes consulting for Booz & Company (now Strategy&), Right Management, and Accenture. Prior to consulting, I served as Director of Marketing for tech company COS, Inc. (a “Facebook" for the scientific research community in the 90s). I contribute to articles for ProjectsAtWork, Forrester, Leadership & Change, TechTarget, N2, and others.

Implementing-Shared-Services_Five-Considerations

Implementing Shared Services: Five Considerations

Companies have been served a wake up call in light of the recession and ongoing economic uncertainty.  They are being driven to become more efficient while at the same time improving levels of quality and service.  As a result, the shared services model is becoming an increasingly popular organizational structure to help achieve business objectives.…

Blueprint-for-Building-an-Internal-Change-Management-Capability

Blueprint for Building an Internal Change Management Capability

The Business Imperative Everyone has heard the statistic. Two-thirds of all change initiatives fail to achieve their expected business benefits – a statistic that has stayed constant from the 1970s to the present. This failure rate represents billions of dollars in lost productivity, wasted resources, opportunity costs and rework—not to mention the negative impact on…

Is Your Organization Engaged in Self-Sabotage?

Productivity is becoming more important every day. Fundamentally, it means doing much more with much less. And to be sure, there is scope for making, not only workers, but also the environment in which they work more efficient. You’ve probably noticed, for example, just how many organizations in both the public and private sectors waste…

Going-the-Extra-Mile-or-Taking-a-World-Cruise_Did-TQM-Turned-Perfectionism-into-a-Virtue

Going the Extra Mile, or Taking a World Cruise: Did TQM Turned Perfectionism into a Virtue?

Following the Second World War, the allies determined that if the enemy nations were going to be able to make meaningful contribution the world’s economies, then they would have to receive some assistance in rebuilding their manufacturing infrastructure. A particular challenge was to get the Japanese up to a point where they could actually compete…

Matrix-Organization_At-Best_a-One-Off

Matrix Organization: At Best, a One-Off

Whenever volatility occurs in the market, companies start thinking about how to reorganize themselves so that they can cope with those changes effectively. But since they’re trapped by traditional thinking, they tend to recycle old models rather than to create new ones. One such model is matrix; and like so many that have gone before…

Does-Change-Have-to-be-Painful

Does Change Have to be Painful?

A corporate leader’s job is hardly easy.  He or she must efficiently manage employees, account for outside competition, note any changes in the industry landscape and if necessary, profoundly modify the operational model a business should employ.   Ironically, most leaders shrug in defiance at such duties due to their seemingly complex nature.  However, there are…

Criticism_Behind-Closed-Doors-or-in-Plain-Sight

Criticism: Behind Closed Doors or in Plain Sight?

Nearly every company revolves around the central idea of team performance.  The synergy created by having multiple personalities and motivations can help any project be completed with efficiency and with quality results.  Naturally, there are some times when things may not go as smoothly as planned.  Indeed, if every effort always resulted in superior results,…

Change-Management-Insights-from-a-Fortune-500-Apparel-Companys-Restructuring

Change Management Insights from a Fortune 500 Apparel Company’s Restructuring

Recently, consulting firm Emergent partnered with a Fortune 500 apparel company to undertake the biggest business transformation in the company’s history. Below is a mini case study that provides insights from that project. Building upon its solid performance in 2012, the company chose to implement a new global structure designed to fuel its long-term, international growth. The project…

Leadership-Development-and-Succession-Planning_-Two-Sides-of-the-Same-Coin

Leadership Development and Succession Planning: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Leadership development and succession planning are often seen and treated as separate activities. Yet they really should go hand in hand, or even be thought of as two-sides of the same coin. You can’t have an effective succession plan if you’re not continually identifying and developing high performing, high potential people in your organization, and…

Roadmap-for-Designing-High-Performing-Organizations

Roadmap for Designing High-Performing Organizations

Companies are frequently facing the need to restructure their organizations.  Changes in leadership, a shift in strategy, or changing factors within an organization often create the need for reorganizing. Organization design is one of the most powerful tools available to senior managers for shaping the direction of their organizations. “Organization design” is often used incorrectly…

Why-Newly-Appointed-Leaders-Fail-and-How-to-Avoid-It

Why Newly Appointed Leaders Fail and How to Avoid It

Whether a company promotes a successful candidate from within – appointing someone to a new or lateral role – or selects a candidate from outside the organization, the company has confidence that a new leader’s skills and experience can meet the challenges of the job.  However, consider this startling statistic regarding new leaders: estimates of…

Use-a-Threat-Opportunity-Analysis-to-Develop-Your-Case-for-Change

Use a Threat-Opportunity Analysis to Develop Your Case for Change

In this article we will share with you the Threat-Opportunity Analysis, which is a change management tool that helps a project team develop their case for change. We had written previously about how to develop a powerful case for change and why it’s important to have one for your business transformation initiative (e.g., enterprise system deployment, organizational restructuring, downsizing,…

Transform-Your-Culture-Using-Customer-Experience-Change-Agents

Transform Your Culture Using Customer Experience Change Agents

Previously, we had explained the value of incorporating a change agents network as part of your overall change management program. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Paul Hagen from Forrester contacted me to request an interview for his recent research report titled “How Customer Experience Change Agents Transform Culture.”  I provided Paul with firsthand insights from two customer…