Fostering a sense of belonging

Belonging is an organizational member’s positive feeling of organization-based self-esteem, as well as affiliation or bonding that emerges from striving with a group to achieve a common goal or mission. It turns out that a sense of belonging drives performance. With belonging research shows a 56% increase in job performance and a 16% increase in employer promoter score as well as a 50% decrease in turnover and a 75% reduction in sick days. Professor Nickerson gave leaders a set of tools and exercises to build a sense of belonging in their organizations.

Leading change from the middle

The second topic was how to lead change from the middle.  Sometimes you are given a project mandate that exceeds your positional authority, and you have to lead multiple categories of people, subordinates, complementors/blockers, customers/clients, and superordinates.  

The day began by briefly reviewing popular change methodologies and illuminating hidden assumptions that cause these methods to fail frequently.  It then introduced the three elements that comprise the Leading at the Crossroads of Change methodology.

1. The first element discovers all relevant stakeholders and categorizing them in to one of four groupings.
2. The groupings are vital because the second element advises the use of a specific and different set of Communications, Strategies, Tactics, and the Sequencing referred to at CoSTS) tailored to each stakeholder category.
3. The third element recognizes that those who feel disrespected, envy, anger, or fear will not support the change initiative and may even actively work to arrest its progress. it therefore offers specific ways to avoid triggering these emotions as well as repair them should they be triggered. 

Participants gained an essential toolkit for Leading at the Crossroads of Change, that helped them achieve mastery some of the most important capabilities of leadership.