Author: Jessica Parkes
Jessica is a business consultant with over ten years of experience working in both public and private sectors. Her ability to understand the clients perspective and aptitude for problem solving has led her to deliver transformational communications, change management, process improvement and performance measurement projects.
Jessica is part of Systemscope’s Enterprise Renewal team.
Think back to when you were a teenager. Would you have been excited about the future if your parents told you they were moving the family to a different city and you were leaving all your friends, switching schools and starting over…but they didn’t seem thrilled at the idea, couldn’t tell you why you were moving, or what the long-term prospects were? Would you have been able to see why the move was important to the whole family? Parents are the leaders of families, and we instinctively look to them for guidance. In this case, they set you up to be worried, upset and anxious from the start by not being effective sponsors of change.
A similar dynamic exists in organizations if leaders are ineffective change sponsors.
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As a long-standing supporter of the Association of Records Managers and Administrators (ARMA), Systemscope has delivered many presentations at their program meetings. This year, we participated in the Spring Workshop Series and offered a new approach for Information Management performance measurement through an engaging and interactive session. read more
It’s nothing new or particularly innovative, but for some reason I keep seeing people stray from engaging in or seeking out team work. What I mean by team work in the context of my work – change management – is being proactive in working closely with those that directly influence the outcome of a project (transformation or change)… and its success.
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Have you ever thought about reporting structure and how it affects your ability to do your job?
Where people reside within an organization; who their colleagues are; who they report to – these are all very important aspects of how successful a person can be in their day-to-day duties.
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(part 2 of 2)
So, you faced yourself in the mirror. You’ve reflected on past experiences (part 1 of this blog) with and reactions to change and realized and/or confirmed some truths about yourself. read more
(part 1 of 2)
When you are faced with a change, how do you react? read more
Working with Government departments for the past year has made me realize that there exists a lot of confusion about two topics that are extremely relevant today: Change Management and Communications. They are very complementary in nature but are not one and the same, and I want to try and help clarify.
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We all know communications are important, especially during major change. But the Government has a different context. It’s a context where the very basic communications approach during transformation – of planning, then announcing, then implementing – is not always possible. They have communicated a particular way in the past, and now that has become a habit. read more
