Yabome Gilpin-Jackson PhD
VP, People Equity and Inclusion, Simon Fraser University and author of "Transformation after Trauma: The Power of Resonance"
This book outlines a roadmap to working with Change Champions but in the way only the KJCG team can do, it simplifies the complexity to provide clear and practical descriptions of the journey to spreading and embedding a sense of belonging and agency across whole systems. This is a must-read for students to those in the mastery stage of their Organization Development craft. It will prepare the former for success in their dialogic organization development practice, while reminding the latter to return to the tried and true practices that are the essence of our field.
Brett Ponton
Chief Executive Officer, Terminix
There comes a time when the playbooks for culture change no longer apply. For most companies that time has come. In times of great change, the greater need is to rethink our processes for driving change. It is time to be different in how we approach organizational culture; and think differently about how we create the change together. The Core Inclusion and Change Partner strategies developed by KJCG are proven approaches to identifying gaps in culture and process, and operationalizing that change within the most critical parts of an organization. The team lays out an excellent playbook for finding the changes and champions needed and rallying an organization to aspire to be better.
Matt Minihan EdD
Principal, Matt Minahan & Associates
This book is a wonderful addition to the growing body of “how to actually DO dialogic OD” literature. It brings dialogic OD into clear focus at a very practical level. Change Champions are the heart and soul of any sustained change effort, and this book provides helpful questions in every one of the tables and essential checklists at the end of every chapter. This book is essential to select, train, and empower your project’s Change Champions around use of story, narrative, and new patterns of language and behavior, especially with a focus on inclusion, to make sure your change efforts are deep and sustainable.
Derek Bishop
Co-founder, Culture Consultancy and authour of “Building a Culture of Innovation"
This book outlines both the opportunity and the framework for which change champions can have the desired impact, as well as being full of practical tools and tips for inclusive cultural change. Often organisations believe a change champion network is valuable, but rarely are they set up with the right ‘framework’, level of guidance and support for them to succeed. The result, the potential impact they have in enabling culture change is reduced and the champions themselves feel unfulfilled – what a missed opportunity!
This book is very relevant for any leader who is accountable for major culture change and wants to fully harness the power of a champion’s network to deliver real sustained change.
Sandra Janoff PhD
Director, Future Search Network and co-authour of "Lead More, Control Less: 8 Advanced Leadership Skills That Overturn Convention"
Change Champions offers a much-needed guide for transforming culture in a turbulent world. I’m deeply moved by diverse cohorts of employees learning to influence open dialogue throughout an organization and building a culture of respect, access, inclusion, engagement, and equity. Filled with meaningful stories and helpful designs, this is truly a gift for any leader or consultant who seeks to enable people to feel they belong and do their best work.
Michael Ali PhD
VP of Engineering Operations, Saratech
Most consultants write a “How to pay us to…” where the reader gets just enough information to justify the need to hire the consultant. This book is a real “How to” on organizing a successful change initiative. It gives stages, steps, theory, practice, and real-world examples and lessons learned from experience (the need for two levels of Executive Sponsorship is a great example). The book conveys the time and effort it takes to drive organizational change while still giving the sense that such changes are achievable and valuable. Highly recommended for any stage of the journey.
Ilene Wasserman PhD
President, ICW Consulting Group. Senior Leadership Fellow,Wharton School of Business
In this book, Fred, Judith and Monica share their model for engaging change champions leaders and team members to create the narrative for a new more inclusive culture. Specifically, they build on decades of experience as thought leaders and change champions to promote “the promise of diversity” to create an everyday experience of inclusion and belonging. As someone who has worked with this team and has engaged with this model, I see this book as an important contribution to the field in providing concrete steps and guidance for the process for leading and facilitating change champions and leaders.
Charles Pfeffer
CEO Coach, Change Strategist and Transformation Consultant
CEOs are responsible to their stakeholders to prepare their organizations to respond to the rapid and relentless pace of change. But our organizations are embedded in our broader society and so contain our blind spots and biases toward and against the full range of human differences. If organizations are networks of talent connected by shared intentions, our biases are noise in the wires, blocking the network from a healthy connection to itself and the wider environment. The only way for senior leaders to meet their responsibility for resilience and responsiveness is to engage a critical mass of human energy, talent, intellect and heart in the difficult task of transformation. There is no organizational transformation without personal transformation. So leaders must transform too, through open, candid dialogue, uncomfortable insights and deliberate practice of new behaviors. In Change Champions, Miller, Katz and Biggs give us a clear, deep and rich framework for understanding the complexity of strategic culture change and a straight-forward process for leading an organization through the individual, interpersonal, inter-group and organizational transformations required.
Hal Yoh
Chair & CEO Day & Zimmermann
The must-read, how-to, on getting your organization to passionately walk into the ever-changing future, prepared to excel.”
Dr. John J. Scherer
Founding Director, Scherer Leadership Center
Author, Facing the Tiger: Unleashing the Human Spirit at Work
What a paradigm-busting insight: Don’t focus on a goal like increased diversity, which often leads to reluctance or outright resistance. Instead, focus on inclusion, not as a goal but as a path that leads to a goal, one that everyone can get behind: improved individual, team, and organization performance. These Change Champions don’t just tell us; they show us how to do it!
Kathy Clements
Vice President of Culture
The old method of leaders “deciding and telling” may appear to be the fastest way to get things done, but if you care about the speed of change and getting it right the first time, you should consider engaging with Change Champions during the decision-making process. And then enjoy watching them go into the organization and influence others. It’s a beautiful thing! Not only do Change Champions increase the speed of change, but they also provide the necessary feedback to leaders to adjust plans. They tell us what we don’t know. And when leaders listen, Change Leaders move mountains to get the organization on board.
Katrina S. Rogers, PhD
President, Fielding Graduate University
Most books tell us about how organizations need to be different to be truly inclusive; very few books tell leaders about how to actually be and do different. In this gem, the authors rightly sort out how organizations may do some of this work, but that true inclusion involves intentional disruption that creates emergent conditions for crafting new narratives for subsequent adaptation. A must have for leaders in the current complex organizational landscape.
Dr. Larry Kokkelenberg
practitioner, scholar, and co-author,
OD for the Accidental Practitioner
Buy the book and apply the wisdom and practical steps for successful organizational change and you will reflect on how you think about change and changing yourself. A nice blending of organizational change and DEI work.
Randy Wilson
Director, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Flatiron Construction
This book takes many of the successful concepts introduced to us in previous publications by Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group and provides specific actions for leaders who often ask, “What do I DO to support Diversity, Inclusion and Access?” The stories, tools, and guidance provided in this book provides leaders the confidence to step into a space that for many may be new, different, and/or intimidating. Great leaders from great companies have realized the benefits of overcoming their concerns and leaning into their discomfort in this area.
Placida V. Gallegos PhD
CEO, Solfire Consulting Group
This book provides both conceptual and practical guidance for change agents looking to move beyond “diversity 101” cliches or easy answers. Connecting systemic culture change with diversity initiatives, they take readers through a step-by-step process for engaging staff at all levels while holding leaders accountable for “walking their talk”. Readers are taken along the cascading process of high engagement with many examples and practical suggestions strategically designed to fit the specific conditions of each client. By meeting the system where it is and engaging the full potential of staff at all levels, the process described provides a sustainable and consistent path forward from static homogeneity to a truly inclusive organization where people matter, differences are elevated and everyone brings their best to the enterprise. This book is a much needed call to action for the field of organization change, elevating the importance of innovation, authenticity and relational competence.
