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Do you recognize yourself in any of these settings? -

1. You’re in a meeting or on a conference call, looking at your watch and wondering when it’s going to end;
   
2. Your plate is too full, you’re staying late and working weekends...and the list seems to keep getting longer and longer; or...
   
3. It’s hard to get people fully “signed on” for a project or initiative, even after their name has been added to the list of team members?

"How do you make change happen from the middle?"

This question was raised recently in the "After Hours Chat Room" included in the Learning Series on Real Time Strategic Change I’m hosting.

A little more background on the situation:

“… there is a huge superstructure of management over this project who bring with them some rather set approaches to making things happen which create more obstacles than they do opportunity. When leadership is not about change, how do you work with that?”

This is not an uncommon situation. I’ve experienced it myself many times. When you don’t have the needed commitment from senior leaders, here are three things you can do:

1. Tap the wisdom in the resistance you’re experiencing from these formal leaders. You’re better off in the long run gaining and maintaining the upsides of senior leadership commitment and “micro” work you’re doing positively impacting the “macro” organization. The challenge is how to get both. Barry Johnson, a friend, colleague, and participant in the Learning Series has wise counsel about how to do this. He also has a great web site with articles and tools explaining more about Polarity Management©.