First Principles

Category: Managing Change

I have a propensity for transforming organisations. If I have learned anything over the years, it is that deep, permanent change happens slowly — one day at a time.

Speed is important in business today, but too often urgency is an excuse to gloss over the deep change that is required to transform culture and processes. Culture is the framework that shapes the direction and the output of a team. Processes are the machinery of an organisation in action. Although a new org chart can be implemented rather quickly, it takes a strong vision, determination, and a lot of patience to successfully implement change in these deeper layers.

Through the countless organisations that I have helped grow and evolve, the approach has always been the same. First, determine the strengths, capabilities, along with the problems of the existing organisation. In addition to acquiring a general sense of the underlying processes be sure to understand and respect the culture.

Second, create a vision for the new organisation. Create this vision as a place, just over the horizon, that can be reached by building on the strengths of the team while stretching and growing them into some new and unexplored areas. By building on the familiar, the team will journey with you to this new place.

Then, plod ahead, deliberately, one day at a time. Don’t expect the whole organisation to change overnight, but do expect that people will orient themselves towards the new vision. Encourage them, prod them, inspire them. Every once in a while stop, look over your shoulder, and marvel at how far you have come.

The Tortoise and the Hare is one of my favourite fairy tales. This is how I drive change. Slow and steady wins the race.

Categories: Managing Change  
Posted by Heather @ 06:28 pm — 295 words

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Category: Announcements

We make thousands of decisions every day. Only rarely are they big decisions, like which house to buy or who to hire for an open position. Most of the time the countless decisions that me make daily are for little things, like whether to have toast or cereal for breakfast, when to leave for work, whether or not to get some exercise. Most of these “decisions” go unscrutinized as decisions per se. They are simply steps along the way in another busy day. Each decision, big or small, emanates from some underlying set of First Principles.

Whether we are aware of it or not, these principles steer and guide us through our daily lives. The point of this blog is to create a community where we can explore, articulate and discuss the underlying assumptions, biases and rules that influence our lives. The primary focus will be on First Principles for success in business. Ancillary to this will be thoughts around a healthy work/life balance and occasionally we will stray into purely non-business related topics for the sheer joy of exploration. By consciously articulating the principles that effect our decisions we can lead our teams, our companies and our lives with confidence.

Comments are supported and expected. Further discussions are encouraged in the Forums section of the site. Feel free to join us for an open dialogue on any number of related topics.

I have more than 25 years of experience in various roles and capacities of professional life. Starting as a high school teacher and later a college instructor, I spent 10 years teaching mathematics while I pursued various advanced degrees. My second decade meandered through a range of positions in corporate America, spanning everything from project and program management and consulting to network operations and organizational change.

My third decade of professional life began with an MBA from Berkeley while I continued to work in the heart of Silicon Valley for Cisco Systems. My MBA helped focus my attention on my “sweet spot” which is helping organisations improve efficiency and productivity. I recently had the opportunity to spend two years living in the UK where I served in a number of senior leadership roles working for the British Government.

Born in Canada, I moved to the US while in high school. After 27 years as a permanent resident, I was finally naturalized as a US citizen in April of 2003.

Much more professional information is available on my web site.

Categories: Announcements  
Posted by Heather @ 08:00 am — 412 words

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