Here’s a fascinating blog by one of the world’s leaders in large-scale real-time organization change, Jake Jacobs with some profound lessons for us all that I just have to share with you. Enjoy!

“My buddy and colleague Bob Benwick recently posted a blog entry about a talk he had many years ago with my mentor Kathie Dannemiller. We were at an EDS large scale event and Bob walked up to Kathie and asked her whether the group was where we expected them to be at some point during the event. As was her loveable (and point blank) style, Kathie turned to Bob and said, “…they are exactly where they should be! It’s irrelevant where we think they should be! It’s where they are now that we need to work with. They will move forward at a speed that works for them. So what’s your next question?”

Bob says he learned a valuable lesson that day. Having worked with Kathie for a while, I had learned the same lesson years earlier. There’s a joke I heard years ago. The consultant shows up at the wrong venue, works the entire day with the wrong client….and never knows the difference!

That’s an extreme case. But how often do we get caught up with whether we’re “on track” with the agenda? After 20-plus years of doing this work I can’t ever remember actually being on time. A while back I was facilitating a meeting with a colleague. We were two hours behind on the agenda with one hour left in the meeting. My colleague was a little worried. She asked, “What are we going to do to catch up?” I looked at her somewhat puzzled and responded, “What do you mean?” Now she REALLY looked worried! I imagine she was thinking, “So first this guy can’t follow an agenda. Now he can’t even tell time!”

She was looking down at the typed agenda, back at me, and then at her watch. She actually had to do this several times (I’ll admit it took me a short while to figure out what was going on), then I realized, she was measuring our progress against the written agenda, not what was happening in the group. Having learned my lesson from Kathie long ago, I wasn’t worried at all. We were two hours behind and I was able to tell time (a relief to both my colleague, me, and any other clients I’ll ever work with!). The two hours we were behind were only “real” when compared to what we had typed up as the agenda a couple of weeks earlier. The group was right on track with the work they needed to be doing. In fact (possibly miraculously) we even ended the meeting 15 minutes early.

Barbara Bunker, another mentor of mine, put this same lesson a different way. She used to say, “Structure is helpful. It gives you something to deviate from.” The lesson in all of this? Make sure you have a solid structure for any meeting you’re leading. At the same time remember the purpose you’re aiming to achieve. And most of all, pay attention to the group you’re working with. As Kathie said, “….they (always) are where they should be!”

Thank you Jake. Clearly Kathy and Barbara have had a profound impact on all those who have had the wonderful opportunity to connect with these two giants in the field of organization development, be they clients or OD consultants. A simple question I’ll leave with you is “Do you know the difference?”

I’m quite excited to share a recent newletter created by Jake Jacobs, a global leader in the field of organization development, specifically in the area of large-scale, real-time system change. It’s a pleasure to share with you his comments on ‘Collaborating to Create More Value: Leadership Coaching and Large Scale Change’. Enjoy!

“Given my focus on collaboration, I wanted to share with you one way in which my clients and I have benefited from partnering with others. I have known Bob Benwick for 15 years. We first worked together on a Real Time Strategic Change effort at a bank where he was the senior HR executive. Now he and his wife Bev have a global corporate coaching practice based out of Vancouver.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Bob and Bev to talk about synergies between their coaching practice and my large-scale change work.  Bob, Bev and I share the same goal: people and organizations achieving their full potential. The difference is in how we do it.  Bob and Bev (and other coaches) focus on individual leaders’ development. I (and other large-scale change consultants) focus on the overall organization’s development. When we partner, our clients get the best of both worlds.

Bob explains, “I had exposure to the RTSC approach many years ago. It helps businesses that need to turn on a dime (competitively) like the bank I worked at. It is absolutely crystal clear to me how much coaching and large-scale change complement each other.”

Bev continues, “A goal of our coaching is for leaders to bring greater depth to their relationships. Organizations that use us a lot want to make big changes and make them fast. We often get asked to help leaders work together across departments.”

It’s tough to tell whether Bev is talking about her coaching practice or my large-scale change work.

Bob adds, “We contract with leaders for a minimum of six months. There has to be serious commitment or it won’t work. Leaders (and all of us) have taken years to develop our current habits. It will take time to change them. The more people change, the easier and faster it is for the system they work in to change.”

My take on Bob’s comment: the more the system changes, the easier and faster it is for the people in it to change.

Putting leadership coaching and large-scale change together is a “win-win-win.” Leaders can make big changes happen faster – and sustain them over time. And we do a better job for them than either of us could do  alone. “

Jake Jacobs is co-founder and partner of Winds of Change Group — a consulting firm specializing in fast and lasting change.

What are your feelings about change and coaching? What intrigues you the most about Jake’s comments?  What are the possibilities?