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 Welcome to Allegra Consulting's November Newsletter.
It's been an exciting month for Allegra Consulting! We hosted our first Melbourne event for change management practitioners. Sold out days before, the evening was an outstanding success. This type of forum is the first of many to come, so stay tuned for updates in the next newsletter. Please see our article below for a round-up of the night.
We also spend Five Minutes with... Annie Anderson, Senior Change Manager, AXA who was also our keynote speaker at the workshop.
We hope you enjoy this month's newsletter.
Warm regards,
Helen Haley and the team at Allegra Consulting
On November 13 Allegra Consulting hosted their first major Change Management event at the Charsfield Hotel in Melbourne. Feedback indicates attendees both enjoyed and learned from the evening's presentations, panel session and networking opportunities.
We extend our thanks to those involved in providing useful and relevant change management insights on the night:
Annie Anderson - AXA
Josie Burgess “ ANZ
Natalie Reed “ NAB
Ché Broekman “ University of Melbourne
And thanks also to our great audience who kept the panel on their toes with some excellent questions and thoughts!
Photos from the night
(Below) Helen Haley, Managing Director of Allegra Consulting facilitates discussion with the panel.
(Below) Keynote speaker Annie Anderson of AXA engages the audience.
Annie's presentation which focused on Informal Coalitions and how small groups within large organisations make sense of change created a huge amount of interest at the event, so we thought we'd feature more thoughts on that topic in this month's newsletter (see below).
What do you want to focus on?
We received fantastic feedback about our change management event in Melbourne, but we are keen to ensure our future events match your needs and provide you with access to speakers and topics which will stimulate discussion and personal learning and offer an opportunity to increase shared knowledge across our "change community".
In order for us to progress a collaborative exchange approach, we welcome your thoughts and suggestions on topics which we can incorporate into our future events calendar. Please send through suggestions for topics by emailing us.
The concept of using Informal Coalitions as part of delivering a successful organisational change initiative is not new, but we often struggle to deliver this approach effectively. Why?
One of the most obvious reasons if that fundamentally it requires a certain degree of "letting go" of the change program's structured communications agenda. This lack of control is confronting for many change sponsors and project boards. Typically, we communicate change using a "one size fits all" approach. This means communication is controlled, delivered in regular, scheduled chunks and everyone gets the same message.
But as we know, every employee digests and "makes sense" of change in their own way, and as Annie Anderson discussed at the Allegra Change Management event, this is not a bad outcome. In fact, Annie suggests the best way to adapt to this individual or small group sense-making approach is to work with it, not against it.
We have come across a book that explores in detail the concept of Informal Coalitions and some best practice strategies to deploy successful change initiatives using this approach:
Viral Change by Leandro Herrero.
Take a look at this website which gives a worthwhile overview of the book and pulls out some of Leandro's key messages including:
Central to Viral Change is the proposition that it is peoples everyday behaviours that determine an organizations culture, not the formal statements, structures and processes that usually emerge from conventional cultural change programmes: œThere is no change in the organization until there is behavioural change in the individuals.
Leandro is a speaker, author and consultant on management of change and leadership and is considered to have pioneered Viral Change, an unconventional and very successful change management methodology.
You can find out more about Leandro at his website.
The Allegra Consulting referral program is still running and continues to match excellent change management candidates with suitable roles or assignments.
To take advantage of this offer and let us know of change or project management friends or colleagues who are looking for the next "big thing", please call us now on: 03 9614 1616 or email us to directly introduce new candidates to us “ whether they are friends, family or acquaintances - if we place them, well give you $300*. Terms and conditions apply*
As a gesture of our appreciation, we will pay you a referral reward of $300 if you refer a candidate to us who is not currently on our database and we place the person in either a permanent role or a contract of at least 3 months duration within 3 months of the introduction.
Change Analyst
We are looking for a talented Change Analyst with a successful track record in large scale project-relatred change. This role will be part of a large team managing a complex relocation project within a large organisation. If you are passionate about change and want to work with like-minded people this role is for you.
Senior Change Manager
Fantastic opportunity to join a group of like-minded change professionals in a dynamic working environment. As a Senior Change Manager you will be managing large scale projects to guide their change management challenges. If you are skilled at leading teams, developing and delivering stakeholder engagement strategies and plans, training design and delivery, communications and impact assessments we can provide you with the opportunity to be part of a very exciting business.
For more information about these roles, please contact Diane Lynch on 9614 1616 or 0408 872 222 or email your resume to resumes@allegraconsulting.com.au
Every month, we publish a short Q & A with some of the world's most experienced change management practitioners. This month we spend five minutes with:
Annie Anderson, Senior Change Manager at AXA
 Read Annie's Q&A
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