The Nutcracker

Foreword 11
Introduction 13
When should you use this book? 16

1 Why and why now? 21
1. The message is not convincing 22
2. Ignite people with your story 26
3. Clarifying the unknown 30
4. Time is running out, and it must be done now 32
5. Employees are not taking action 34
6. The danger of naysayers derailing the change process 36
7. The doomsayers are not budging 40
8. A profound belief is missing 42

2 Create the conditions 45
9. Tanker or speedboat? 46
10. Choosing disposition over experience 52
11. Strength in decision-making “by design” 55
12. Enabling the core team to deliver 59
13. The goal is clear; the path is not 63
14. The fastest route 70
15. Barren soil 73
16. Everyone is too busy as it is 77
17. Involve stakeholders 80
18. Avoiding one-way traffic 83

3 Leaders lead; enablers enable 87
19. Change leadership is not owned 88
20. Doing all the heavy lifting as the change enabler 95
21. Doing all the heavy lifting as the change leader 97
22. Leaders fail to lead by example 99

4 Make change happen 103
23. Implementation of the strategy stalls in the middle layers 104
24. Resources prove insufficient 107
25. Lack of innovative capabilities 109
26. People are fed up with cost reductions 112
27. Productivity drops 114
28. A drastic reorganisation is needed 116
29. Letting people go who you still need 120
30. Retaining talent during a reorganisation 124
31. Resistance to implementing the intended organisational structure 127
32. Organisational structure only works on paper 130
33. Departments block collaboration 132
34. Transforming ways of working is unsuccessful 135
35. Meetings are inefficient 137
36. People are stuck in their beliefs 140
37. Company culture resists change 144
38. There is an individual antagonist 151
39. Do what we say and say what we do 154
40. Utilising the available potential 158
41. Accelerating people’s growth 161
42. Attracting “new blood” 164
43. Hiring “new” with “old” 166
44. Mixing blood types 168

5 Get change to stick 171
45. Insufficient visibility and understanding of progress 172
46. Deadlocked 178
47. Success remains local and temporary 180
48. Fatigue sets in 183
49. Getting to the actual finish line 186
50. Build in-house change capability 188

The end? 191
Acknowledgements 193
Bibliography 195
Appendix: Transformation plan 197
One-minute navigation 198