Leadership of Change® - Change Management Quotes
Change management and the Leadership of Change® are a challenge for every organisation. It’s important that everyone involved approaches organisational changes with a growth mindset, learning from previous change, aligning the leadership team, using structures approaches and focusing on employee adoption to achieve benefits realisation and suitability.
Quotes on change management are useful to help motivation, inspiration and create success in implementing organisation change. Please enjoy reading our favourite quotes about change:
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Change
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"If you are a change management professional in a sticky note workshop, ask yourself three questions:
• Is my activity directly aligned to the execution of the organisation’s strategy?
• Is this activity directly supported and connected to a senior leader’s verifiable activities and priorities?
• I am directly supporting and improving the employee change transition experience or I am selling hope?"
~ Peter F Gallagher 20230413
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"There is nothing more difficult to change than those involved in the change management profession" ~ Peter F Gallagher xxxx
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"At the end of every working day when you are a change professional, you have got to ask yourself one key question, did I improve the change success statistic, did I challenge negative behaviour, or did I capitulate to narcissistic leaders and the sheep that follow them in abundance?" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx
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"Everyday, I ask myself am I deluded or is it the change management profession" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx-202220608
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"Nothing remains the same and at some point in time, everything changes" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC20220404
“There is an organisation technology employee adoption gap (OTEAG), this is where the change profession must step-up, step-in and close” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC14-NothRemaSame-20201108
The change question set all leaders should be able to answer:
“Do you understand your organisation's change history? Do you have a change vision? Are you aligned with your strategic objectives? Are you a high-performing team? Does your team have the change leadership capability to successfully lead the change or improvement that your organisation is facing?” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC5-QuesSetLoC-20201126
"What if we could embrace change and lead the world through the Leadership of Change®"~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC47-EmbrChanWorl-20210117
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"If more employees were better leaders of change, the organisational benefits would be endless" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC40-EmplBettLoC-20210113
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"Change blindness is a condition, where people cling to an old belief without considering the future or better options"
Peter F Gallagher PFGQC39-ChanBlin-20210112
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"The fourth industrial revolution will impact the workforce like never before, it will radically change how we get to work, where we work, what we work on and how we work" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC39-xxx-20210301
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"Change management is the process, techniques, and tools to support organisations, leadership teams, and employees going through a change transition from the current ‘a’ state to the improved future ‘B’ state" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC21-CMDefi-20201117
"Employee engagement and collaboration are primary factors contributing to successful organisations becoming more important during change implementation" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx20210610
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"It is always worth checking that the change programme is not a pet project caused by the hunch and launch syndrome, without strategic consideration or a plan on how the benefits will be realised" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxxx-202w0316
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"If the cookery profession created and credited a cooking book with over 500 pages and less than a page was dedicated to the heating instructions, would there not be high failure rates?" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC269reviews
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"There is no bigger challenge than for those professing to lead change, to accept failing and change their approach to change implementation" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCXX20220612
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Change Leadership
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“Effective and proactive leadership is essential for successful organisational change” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC56-AMI-EPL
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“Organisational change leadership is about effectively and proactively articulating the vision, modelling the new way and intervening to ensure sustainable change” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC39-AMI-2
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"Change leadership is the aptitude to develop and articulate a vision that will inspire the organisation to the new future” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC21-A-AMI
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“The organisation will adopt change when leaders show and model the new way” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC22-M-AMI
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"Without intervention from leaders, the change will not be adopted or sustained" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC23-I-AMI
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"The best leadership teams have purpose, they are aligned on their strategic objectives, they are a high performing team and have change leadership knowledge and skills to navigate 4IR” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC52-BestTeam4IR-2021125
"Change Waits for No Leader" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC01-ChanWaitLead-20201122
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"Change waits for no leader and the skills required for leading day-to-day operations are very different to change leadership"
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC56-ChanWaitDayT-20210203
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“Some organisational leaders see their role in a major improvement and change as starting with signing the finance approval and finishing with sending the briefing e-mail with an attached PowerPoint presentation. A while later they wonder where it all went wrong when there is no ROI” ~ ~ Peter Gallagher PFGQC54-LeadPowerPoint-20210201
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"Change leadership is action, not a position" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC18-ChanActiPosi-20201122
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“Constructive feedback is a leadership gift and driver of organisational behavioural change”
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC13-ConsFeedGift-20201107
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“Fixed mindset leaders will quickly contaminate an organisation by killing growth and creativity, as well as promoting incompetence based on their likeness. This cycle will be replicated unless shareholders intervene ruthlessly” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC15-FixeMindCont-20201109
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“Change leadership requires a different set of skills than leading normal day-to-day operations, this capability must be developed before leading organisational change” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC-32-CLvD2D
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"Change leadership is about being a proactive growth mindset employee who has the knowledge, skills and ability to successfully transition an organisation from the current state ‘a’ to the future ‘B’ state, ensuring adoption and benefits realisation. This transition involves planning the change, executing the change so that the organisation and its employees sustain the change or transformation" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“Without change leadership alignment at the start of a change programme, you might as well herd entitled cats with egos”
~ Peter F Gallagher QC57-AMI-Cats
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“When the leaders of change ignore a negative behaviour, they set a new standard” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC59-LeadIgnoStan-20210208
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"I have yet to encounter a successful change implementation, without an effective and proactive sponsor backed by an aligned leadership team with change leadership skills and knowledge" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCL18-Enco~succChan
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"Organisations with superior leadership of change capability stay ahead in the marketplace" ~ Peter F Gallagher CPFGQC35-SupeChanCapa-20210106
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"Leaders on the same leadership team have something more important than the common goals of the organisation, they have their own goals and egos” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC61-a2BCMF-20210210
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​“Modelling the new way of working is the one key task leaders of change do not need props for, nor can they delegate "
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCXXX
​“The change vision should be developed with all the leaders, and if it has purpose, it will attract better talent with higher energy, motivation and drive" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC62-VisiPurpTale
​“Successful change needs effective and proactive change leadership. Leaders who are indifferent delegators or silo focused must be aligned or change implementation will fail" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx-20220607
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"The change leader cannot be indifferent delegator, they can delegate authority, but they cannot delegate responsibility, if they do, change implementation will fail​" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx-20220607
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“Sometimes leaders of change need to provide that subtle nudge to employees to reinforce change adoption or behaviour change” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“Change waits for no leader. If we are to support HHERF in addressing this pandemic, we need global leaders to articulate a new change vision, model the new way and intervene to ensure sustainable change” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“Accelerate organisational change implementation by leveraging the positivity of growth mindset employees who embrace change to learn and develop” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“Organisational change leadership is about effectively and proactively articulating the vision, modelling the new way and intervening to ensure sustainable change. These are crucial leadership skills” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“An organisation and its leaders cannot delegate change to a different and isolated internal change team or even experienced external consultants, expecting change implementation to supersede current normal day-to-day operations to become the new way of working” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“An organisation and its leaders cannot delegate change to a different and isolated internal change team or even experienced external consultants, expecting change implementation to supersede current normal day-to-day operations to become the new way of working” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness (DE&I)
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"Diversity, equity, and inclusiveness (DE&I) is a human right. It should not exclude any group or individual and it should definitely not be used as a weapon to dishonestly promote the objectives of any single party to the detriment of others" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"Who we are born as is an accident of time and we are all different, but the important elements of our journey in life are diversity, equity, and inclusiveness (DE&I)"~ Peter F Gallagher
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“Who we are, colour, creed, nationality, sex or whatever you pick is an accident of the time we are born and make us an individual human being. However, if there is one thing that we all want through our journey in life is diversity, equity, and inclusiveness” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx
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“A Diversity, Equity and Inclusive (DEI) policy is more that something that sits on the wall or an organisation’s website, it must be living in the hearts and minds of every employee. It does mean only working or supporting employees who you like and naturally feel comfortable with, it should be somewhat uncomfortable learning, developing and growing” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC-ACMP20220329
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Strategy
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“Unless the change initiative is continually aligned to the organisation’s strategy it will not deliver benefits or value to the organisation” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC60-ProgAligStra-20210209
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“Strategy, change execution and delivering profits tend to be superficial without the leaders of the organisation focusing on both improving and measuring; employee capability, internal processes, business systems, and customer focus” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCXX-Measure-20220524
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“No matter how good an organisation's portfolio of improvement programmes and projects, strategy execution is still likely to fail due to employee resistance, lack of communication and poor leadership alignment challenges” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCXX0--20210819
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“Organisations invest enormous amounts of financial capital, resources and effort on critical strategic change programmes. However, when it comes to transferring ownership to operations, it is at best a superficial process with little or no hope of the change being sustained” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC27-TranOwne-20201220
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Resistance
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“Nothing negatively impacts organisation performance quicker than employees who resist change and who believe that the way they work today is the way they will work tomorrow” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC02-NothNegaImpa-20200801
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“Even if a change is good for the organisation, some employees will resist, thus a resistance strategy should be planned”
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC48-ChanGoodResi-20210117
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"When facing strong change resistance, always remember the tide turns at its lowest point" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC49-ChanResiTide-20210117
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"Change resistance is inevitable, ignore it at your peril" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC08-ChanResiPeri 20201130
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"Change leaders be aware, there will always be resistance" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"There are 3 groups of employees in any change journey: ‘Advocates’, ‘Observers’ and ‘Rebels’. Each reacts differently to organisational change and will have different levels of resistance" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC45-AdvoObseRebe-20210116
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"During organisational change we simply cannot ignore stakeholders who resist or disagree with us without dialogue and putting our proposition forward at least three times" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“When the word change is mentioned, the first question anyone asks no matter what their level or position in the organisation, what’s in it for me (WIIFM)?” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“When the word change is mentioned, the first question anyone asks no matter what their level or position in the organisation, what’s in it for me (WIIFM)?” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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Trust and Respect
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"Without trust you will not change people" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC52-WithTrusChan-20210128
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"Without trust you will not change the employees or the organisation"
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC52-WithTrusChan-20210128
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"We are all cosmopolitan, what we are born into is an accident of birth, respect for difference, growth and learning is who we are"
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC11-CosmBornAcci-20200904
Change History
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“If an organisation has a history of change failure, future success will require a different approach”
~ Peter F Gallagher PPFGQC34-HistChangAppr-20210105
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“To achieve future organisational change management success, analyse previous change history to mitigate previous weakness and enhance future success” ~ Peter F Gallagher C36-ChanMitiEnha-20210107
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“A sign of leadership insanity is repeating the same failed change implementation approach and expecting employee change adoption”
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC50-SignInsaRepe-20210117
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Communication
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“When I find business problems I find communication failure, when I find communication failure I find business problems”
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC37-FindProbComm-20210108
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“Effective change communication is at the heart of successful change, it acts like the blood in our bodies, but instead of supplying vital oxygen and nutrients, communication supplies information and motivation to the impacted stakeholders”
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC04-EffeCommHear-202011265
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“Effective change communication is about getting the right message to the right stakeholders at the right time, in their frame of reference with a feedback loop” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC51-CommRighMess-20210117
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“A change management roadmap can be a powerful tool to engage and communicate the high-level change strategy, objectives, risks, benefits, milestones and their deliverables, as well as interdependencies with the impacted stakeholders” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx
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“Develop a change elevator speech that communicates what the change programme is about, why it is important to the employees and the organisation and the benefits both tangible and intangible” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx
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“There can be no substitute for the detailed programme change plan (PCP). The change roadmap and communication plan are helpful and aligned to the PCP, but they are only supplementary” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx
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Employee Change Adoption
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"For change adoption to be successful, support the employees through the change transition by providing awareness, understanding, involvement, learning, and motivation to achieve sustainable change and benefit realisation” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC61-AUILM-1
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"Achieve employee change adoption through: Awareness, Understanding, Involvement, Learning and Motivation” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC62-AUILM-2
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"Creating employee change awareness must start on day one, otherwise information gaps will cause fear, resistance will start to build and this will hinder adoption" ~ Peter F Gallagher AUILM03
“An early major change adoption challenge for the organisation is making sure the employee understands the business reason for change, as well as how it impacts them" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC64-AUILM-U
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"Employees who are involved in the change design find it difficult to reject its implementation and become your major change agents ensuring improved user adoption" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC65-AUILM-I
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"While adopting change it is important to learn the new skills, but sometimes the new behaviours are critical" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC66-AUILM-L
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"For the change to become normal operations, leadership needs to support the employees so they have the motivation and discipline to sustain the new way of working" ~ Peter F Gallagher​ PFGQCAUILM007
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“Organisational change adoption must be made easier than keeping the old ways” ~ Peter F Gallagher 68-AUILM-Easier
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“An organisation is built on the three pillars of employees, processes and systems. Change adoption requires leadership focus on all three” ~ Peter F Gallagher 69-AUILM-EPSL
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"The only thing necessary for change adoption to fail are leaders and managers who do not intervene to reinforce change"~ Peter F Gallagher QC70-AUILMI-Fail
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"Enhance organisation change adoption and solution quality by getting employee input into the change design and then socialising the output"~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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"Any change professional who thinks they can implement successful organisation change solely with a change adoption model, would be better equipped to cross the Atlantic in a rowing boat"~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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"I have yet to encounter a change team focused on employee adoption singing Kumbaya who have delivered verifiable benefits and ROI"~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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“Winning the hearts and minds of the employee during change implementation is easier if there is a compelling change vision that inspires employees with purpose, and it is aligned to the organisation’s strategy, values and beliefs"~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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“The tell approach to organisation change implementation to achieve mandatory compliance can be made easier for the employees if the leaders are benevolent, showing empathy, humility, and respect"~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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Workplace Change Management Behavioural Challenge
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“The greatest threat to human life on this planet is human behaviour” ~ Peter F Gallagher QCXX
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“Human behaviour is the most underrated element in workplace, social and environmental change” ~ Peter F Gallagher QCXX
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“To solve the employee behaviour problem, the organisation must recognise there is an issue. The new behaviours need to be redesigned, a resolution made to implement them, replicate them and reinforce the new way” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC81-a2B5R-1
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"You cannot change an organisation's culture without changing the leaders and then the employee behaviour" ~ Peter F Gallagher QCxx-20220610
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"Change employee behaviour: Recognise, Redesign, Resolve, Replicate and Reinforce" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC82-a2B5R-2
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"Getting employees to recognise their negative behaviour requires us to understand their goals, needs and motivation" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC83-a2B5R-1R
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"Resolve is the foundation of change. The organisation and its employees must make a commitment to behaviour change and take personal ownership" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC84-a2B5R-2R
"If the old employee behaviours are problematic, then redesign new positive behaviours” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC85-a2B5R-3R
"The more we replicate the new behaviours, the more they will become the norm" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC86-a2B5R-4R
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"Reinforcement is an effective change tool to encourage positive behaviours and discourage negative behaviours" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC87-a2B5R-5R
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"If it is difficult to change the behaviour of people so they are healthier and live longer, how difficult will it be to change employee workplace behaviour” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC88-a2B5R-Live-longer
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“An organisation is built on the three pillars of employees, processes and systems. Behaviour change requires leadership focus on all three”
QC89-a2B5R-EPSL
"If you do not change employee behaviour, you will not get organisational change or performance improvement"
~ Peter F Gallagher QC90-a2B5R-No-Change
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“If you do not change employee mindset and behaviour, you will not get organisational change” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC92-a2B5R-Mindset
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“When the leaders of change ignore a negative behaviour, they set a new standard" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC93-a2B5R-Standard
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“Future leaders emulate their leaders as they are perceived as successful. They replicate their behaviours but unfortunately these behaviours in many cases are counterproductive to a successful organisation" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC94-a2B5R-CounterP
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“The workplace change management behavioural challenge, if is difficult to change the behaviour of people so they are healthier and live longer, how difficult will it be to change employee workplace behaviour” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“You cannot implement a change into an organisation that runs counter to its culture without focusing on behaviour change" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“There are few occasions when an employee decides to circumvent business systems where it does not cause rework, quality or finance problems and customer dissatisfaction" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“It does not make sense to implement organisational change without a focus on employee behaviour change" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“During change implementation, the organisation may have to alter the organisation structure to enable employee change adoption" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"Ask not what’s in it for me, but how can I change and improve my organisation?" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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Narcissistic and Deluded Leaders
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“Many leaders get to the top of an organisation with skills less associated to leadership, but more the ability to eliminate greater competition on the way” ~ Peter F Gallagher
“While delivering organisation change or improvement, one cannot be sure if the challenge is narcissistic and deluded leaders or the sheep that follow in abundance” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"Change agents who face narcissistic and deluded leaders are closer to their next role than the change success they are trying to implement" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC24-AgentsNar-20201219
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"Too often the change team will engage a leader with success delusion, this look is obvious on their face when you enter their office. They think to themselves, ‘Who is this plebeian and dullard before me?" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC12-DeluPlebDull-20201104
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"Who is this plebeian and dullard before me, do they not know how successful I am?" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC12-DeluPlebDull-20201104
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“I have to admire narcissistic and deluded leaders who are able to walk over and greet a change agent without tripping on their ego” ~ Peter F Gallagher TBA
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"It always confounds me when a person in a leadership position meticulously analyses the consultant estimate that lists the improvements they would like to deliver to their organisation. If only they spent the same amount of time assessing their organisation's performance or their leadership, then there would be no need for the consultant" ~ Peter F Gallagher TBA
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“Deluded leaders and the ‘yes men and women’ that follow are barriers to successful organisational change"
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC55-YesMenWomBarr-20210202
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"Future leaders emulate their leaders as they are perceived as successful. They replicate their behaviours but unfortunately sometimes these behaviours are counterproductive to a successful organisation" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC57-FutuEmulBadB-20210204
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“The micro facial expression of contempt when engaging leaders about preparing for their organisation's change is often the norm, matched only by their leadership of change knowledge” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC38-MicrFacoConte-20210111
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“A typical response when starting a change journey and engaging organisational leaders, it is not us, it is the employees below me that have the problem with change and improvement” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC0-RespNotUs-20201129
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“Deluded leaders can share some of the credit with their white lie coaches” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC44-WhitLieCoac-20210116
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“Incompetent leaders who need to implement organisational change must be so happy with the present capability of change professionals” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxxIncoCapaProf-20210609
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“I can't imagine anything more pleasing to a narcissistic and toxic leader than a change management practitioner with an approach that does not directly address leadership as the first step in organisational change programme” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC
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Sponsorship
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“Sponsorship is the single most important factor in change success” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC102-a2B3S-1
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"Without effective and proactive sponsorship the change project will eventually fail, the change will not be adopted by the employees nor be sustained, and it will not deliver the intended benefits” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC102-a2B3S-2
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"Organisational change sponsorship is about effectively and proactively communicating the change to the stakeholders, Say. Providing and developing competent resources, Support. Intervening, rewarding to embed the change, Sustain” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC103-a2B3S-3
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"The change sponsor must effectively and proactively,
Say: Communication the vision and the change,
Support: Provide and develop competent resources,
Sustain: Intervene, reward and embed the change"
~ Peter F Gallagher QC104-a2B3S-4
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“"Say’ is the foundation of change sponsorship, the change sponsor should articulate the strategy, be the face of the change and communicate constantly” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC105-a2B3S-5
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“‘Support’ is about change execution, the change sponsor should provide quality resources, engage and coach the organisation”
~ Peter F Gallagher QC106-a2B3S-6
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“‘Sustain’ is the final critical change sponsorship responsibility, the change sponsor should intervene to ensure adoption, reward positive behaviour and embed the new way” ~ Peter F Gallagher QCXX
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"The sponsor should develop and articulate a change strategy that clearly explains the why, what, when, where, how and who of the organisations change programme" ~ Peter F Gallagher QCXXX
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"Trying to lead a change project without a sponsor is like trying to rest on a two legged stool, you can balance for a while but eventually you will fall over" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC102-a2B3S-8-Stool
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"For the change to be successful organisational silos must be eradicated quickly and ruthlessly. This is one change sponsor task that cannot be delayed or evaded" ~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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"Organisation silos built by narcissistic leaders cause high deficiencies in operating performance and limit the value the organisation can create” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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"Change implementation cannot afford the luxury of organisation silos, the leaders that create them or the behaviour that tolerates them” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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a2B Change Management Framework®
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“The a2B Change Management Framework® is a structured and disciplined programme approach, to support organisations, leadership teams, and employees going through a change” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC58-a2BCMF-20210205
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Competitive Performance and Organisation Survival
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“An organisation’s ability to survive is determined by its capability to implement incremental change or to transform” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"Sustaining and formally closing a change programme is not critical, if competitive advantage or survival is optional" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"Why do employees act surprised when there are defects, rework as well as unhappy customers when process steps are not complied with?" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"An organisation’s ability to develop new employee system competency and use it, will provide competitive advantage" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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Change Agents
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“Change agents with organisation credibility, change management skills and the desire to improve an organisation can greatly enhance change adoption and benefits delivery" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC63-AgenCredDesi-20210106
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“As change professionals, we are all students and organisations are the universities" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC09-ProfStudUniv-20201101
Change Failure
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“From my experience, I see a high number of change initiatives fail, so why is it that change experts and leadership coaches continually praise organisations for their great efforts?” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC20
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“Too many leaders try to install change into their organisation like how they would build flat-pack furniture. No plan is followed, some parts are left out and then they wonder why it does not function”
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC29-Flatpack-20201227
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“The change management profession can’t continue to be associated with low success rates and continue with the same failed approaches” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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“Without independent change programme governance and oversight, some leaders will not resist the temptation to ignore readiness or declare early victory without benefits realisation” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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“It is reported widely that 70% of change or transformation programmes fail, yet the change profession does not change its approach” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC
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Leadership Paradox - Normal Day-to-Day Operations V Change
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“Organisations are in a constant state of change. With this comes the challenge of balancing the leadership paradox: change implementation versus delivering day-to-day operations” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC-LoCParadox-20201119
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“Unless the change programme is continually aligned to the organisation’s capacity it will be unable to deliver speedy benefits or value to the organisation” ~ Peter F Gallagher - TBA
“Organisation change capacity and employee workload are ignored in change implementation, until they become the reason for failure” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC64-CapaWorkFail-20210106
“Without getting organisational capacity and agenda time it is unlikely the change programme will gain traction or be implemented” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQCxx
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Benefits
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“While change and transformation programmes focus on strategy execution to improve organisation performance, shareholders at a minimum expect benefits delivery” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC25-BenefitsD-20201220
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"It never ceases to amaze me how often I have to remind change management professionals that the reason we are implementing the change is to achieve benefits realisation" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC65-CearAmazBene-20210106
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"Organisations invest enormous amounts of financial capital, resources and effort on critical strategic change programmes.
Unfortunately, when it comes to sustaining the change, benefit realisation is not tracked, and organisation as well as employee performance is often not measured or linked" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGXX20220524
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"Closing the change programme should be done with governance oversight ensuring transfer of ownership is a controlled process, lessons learned are recorded and knowledge transfer captures key information which is stored for the future" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGXX20220525
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4IR and Change Disruption
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"Change disruption is the order of the day. New technology, viruses, climate change, geopolitics, rapidly changing customer buying habits, and social media accelerate the way organisations need to adapt. Those with superior change leadership capability will stay ahead of the competition"
~ Peter F Gallagher FRCRQ19-20221209
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“4IR offers organisations two choices, either change your business or cease” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC28-4IR-Cease-20210603
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“Change disruption that will accelerate, the way we live, work and socialise is changing rapidly. Right now, more than ever we need effective and proactive leadership of change” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC00xx
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“4IR offers employee two choices, either change or regress” ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC0068-Vol520210603
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"Change disruption is the order of the day, rapidly changing customer buying habits, access to new technology and social media accelerate the way organisations need to adapt to change to remain competitive or even survive" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC66-DisrAdapComp-20210106
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Learning and Coaching
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"Discover the joy of experiential learning with change management gamification through the Leadership of Change®"
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC46-ExpeLearLoC-20210116
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"We use change management gamification so Leadership of Change® skills and knowledge, can be learnt, discussed, and tested before they are applied back in the workplace" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC46-ExpeLearLoC-20210116
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“Change Approach: If it is about compliance, legislation or safety it will be a ‘Tell’. If it is about winning hearts and minds it will be a ‘Sell’”
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC26-TellSell-20201220
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"During experiential learning sessions, the participants ability not to listen or read the instructions could be excused, however deluded leaders blaming the facilitator cannot be" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“Life is all about 'Continuous Never Ending Change and Improvement' (CNECI) as we grow, learn, develop and regenerate”
~ Peter F Gallagher QC6-CNECI
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“Unless leadership coaches tackle unconscious incompetence, then the coachee will continue as a deluded leader”
~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC42-CoacUncoInco-20210110
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“Life is not about being educated, but continuous learning to remain educated" ~ Peter F Gallagher PFGQC43-EducRema-20210116
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“One of the most deflating comments after facilitating an event is to hear a participant say:
'I knew this stuff, it is common sense'. One can only hope that future application becomes evident”
~ Peter F Gallagher QC6-
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“A key enabler to employees adopting the new way of working, is to provide the opportunity for them to develop the new skills supported by coaching, leaders need to facilitate this” ~ Peter F Gallagher QC6-
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"Employee 1:1s are a valuable leader and manager tactic and the first step in building a trusting relationship organisation"
~ Peter F Gallagher QC6-
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"Learning new processes requires both experiential learning to develop the skills, the ‘how’ as well as theoretical knowledge, the ‘what’"
~ Peter F Gallagher QC6-
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"I struggle when someone has the job title of business leader coach and they can't response to a simple e-mail"
~ Peter F Gallagher QC6-
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"An organisation’s survival can depend on its ability to learn new skills and adopt change faster than the competition"
~ Peter F Gallagher QC6-
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Team or Individual Success
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"There are few greater professional feelings than when you lead, develop, work with a cross functional team to successfully deliver a business improvement, project or change that improves organisational value" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"At the start of every engagement, I watch, I ask questions and listen, I collect information to feel and think where there can be change and improvement" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“The right employees are an organisations key asset and offer core competitive advantage. Treat them so and develop them, so they can aspire and with the right strategy and leadership you can become a global leader” ~ Peter F Gallagher
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“I know of no shortcut to success, it is built on a foundation of hard work, learning from mistakes, then growing, developing and regenerating” ~ Peter F Gallagher QCxx20-20210309
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Business Improvement
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"Business improvement projects are more likely to fail due to people and communication challenges rather than the application of business improvement tools or methodologies" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"Without team collaboration and subject mater expertise, there is no foundation to build the improvement" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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Random
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"The change management profession faces a choice between mediocrity or meritocracy" ~ Peter F Gallagher 20230625
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"If you think you have serious problems in life, take a walk through a children's hospital cancer unit, see these amazing kids and then count you blessings" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"It perturbs me when business social media users like a fickle pretty picture that offers no learning and then disregard intelligent articles" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"I live my life with the people I love and treasure, my work experience allows me to write, speak and teach a subject that does not make it feel like work. Not everybody will like me but don’t worry about things you can’t control. Life is all about 'Continuous Never Ending Change and Improvement' (CNECI) as we grow, learn, develop and regenerate" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"It always confounds me when a person in a leadership position meticulously analyses the consultant estimate that lists the improvements they want to deliver to their organisation. If only they spent the same amount of time assessing their organisation's performance or their leadership, then there would be no need for the consultant" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"I have yet to truly experience a successful organisational change implementation and see the team deservedly sing kum-ba-yah" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"I asked the leadership coach why do you not tell them how deluded they are? Well, Peter if we did we would not get paid" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"In recent business engagements, three people have used the term I am too busy to answer your query, firstly why would you say such a thing to a colleague, secondly, the unintended consequence are usually realised" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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"I hope I am never a billionaire, unable to sleep at night because not everyone has a roof, only able to drink from one glass, perturbed by how I could have created so much joy, while knowing I cannot bring it with me on the next journey" ~ Peter F Gallagher
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Leadership of Change Admired People Quotes
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"Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity" ~ John Hume
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"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction" ~ John F. Kennedy
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"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future" ~ John F. Kennedy
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"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other" ~ John F. Kennedy
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"Two basic rules of life are: 1) Change is inevitable. 2) Everybody resists change" ~ W. Edwards Deming
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"The most valuable "currency" of any organization is the initiative and creativity of its members. Every leader has the solemn moral responsibility to develop these to the maximum in all his people. This is the leader's highest priority" ~ W. Edwards Deming
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"Observing many companies in action, I am unable to point to a single instance in which stunning results were gotten without the active and personal leadership of the upper managers" ~ Joseph M. Juran
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"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place" ~ George Bernard Shaw
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“The reasonable person adapts to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to themselves. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable person” ~ George Bernard Shaw
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“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” ~ Albert Einstein/Unknown?
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"The civil rights movement in the United States was about the same thing, about equality of treatment for all sections of the people, and that is precisely what our movement was about" ~ John Hume
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"I caused a bit of damage then, but I’ve made my apologies to people for doing what I did. It’s all part of being alive. And whatever power there is in us, it’s forgiving. It’s over. Forget it. Just move on" ~ Anthony Hopkins
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"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things" ~ René Descartes
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"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries" ~ René Descartes
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"A friend to all is a friend to none” ~ Aristotle
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"Quality is not an act, it is a habit” ~ Aristotle
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"Don’t aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference" ~ Denzel Washington
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"We can't pretend to not know what is known" ~ Joyce Carol Oates
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"All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident" ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
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"Life is like a game of chess:we draw up a plan; this plan, however, is conditional on what - in chess, our opponent - in life, our fate - will choose to do" ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
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"At your highest moment, be careful. That's when the devil comes for you" ~ Denzel Washington
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"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently" ~ Warren Buffet
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration" ~ Nikola Tesla
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"If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have the key to the universe." ~ Nikola Tesla
"He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done" ~ Leonardo da Vinci
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"Quotes resonate when you understand the person's vision, the behaviour they modelled, and how they intervened to sustain change while improving mankind" ~ PFG
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"Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future" ~ Confucius