Harbinger Blog

He told me about pitching an idea to build a tower in Montréal. He had done the work, thought through the details, and was feeling good about it. Before he could get through the full picture, someone had already found the problem. Not a question, not a “have you considered,” just a problem. Then another. The idea never got a fair shot. It got torn apart before it could breathe.

The go-to response to unhappy employees has become the well-being session: workshops, therapy check-ins, mindfulness programmes. The intention is good. But are we solving the right problem?

Leadership and management are not the same thing, and confusing the two is costing teams their performance, synergy, and potential. This is not textbook theory; it is the foundation of building teams that actually work. Understanding the distinction and knowing when to draw on each is what separates organizations that merely function from those that thrive.

Too often, change initiatives begin without a shared definition of success. Without that reference point, priorities drift, stakeholders lose confidence, and when the initiative wraps up, there’s no way to demonstrate it was worth the investment. Effective change management begins with the end in mind. A clearly defined outcome creates the foundation for meaningful measures and better decisions throughout the initiative.

Successful transformation isn’t just about managing projects—it’s about enabling people to change.

Change Resistance is not a new concept. In preparing for this blog, I looked into when the term first came into existence. There’s an HBR article from 1969 that references a study from 1948 about Change Resistance. I found the study and article fascinating, knowing that we’re just building on something that’s been around since the 1940’s, and that not much has changed. Today, a staple of Change Management programs are specific plans or activities to capture and manage “Chang

With everything we’ve experienced since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, we’ve grown accustomed to the rapid and sudden interruptions of our daily lives. But just because we’ve gotten used to the constant change, doesn’t mean it hasn’t adversely affected us. Change fatigue, the mental strain experienced after undergoing significant or extended periods of change, is a very real phenomenon. Change fatigue can present itself through physical and/or mental burden, and a lower

In this week’s blog, Siri Maldonado, Director People Engagement, discusses the importance of Principles during a project or change, explains how they can be developed, and talks about the reinforcement activities required to keep them alive. Have you ever been involved in a project that could not seem to pick up momentum? Maybe one where you understood the goal but couldn’t connect the dots to the bigger picture? Perhaps none of the project activities achieved the results yo

Let’s face it, many of us have experienced more change this past year than we may have ever expected or prepared for. Whether it be a loss of a job, a postponed wedding, or a new addition to our daily routine, our lives are always shifting and evolving alongside us. But when dealing with personal change coincides with dealing with organizational change, it can all feel very overwhelming. Within the workplace, change can be beneficial and even necessary to the well-being of

Siri Maldonado, Director, People Engagement, discusses if change ever ends, how long organizations should expect a change initiative to last, and what additional pieces are required to achieve sustained change and drive lasting benefits. The pandemic has pushed change into the forefront and we are constantly hearing phrases and words such as, “new normal”, or “unprecedented” and “uncertain times”. But what is the new normal, and how does the new normal go hand-in-hand with un

What are the barriers to change? Hear Greg Roth, Managing Partner’s take on answering this question in this week’s blog and video release.

Some say that the practice of change management was coined in the early 2000s, which grew out of the need to address the impacts change was having on people. As we look back over the past decade, change continues to evolve. Here’s an overview of some we’ve seen over the last ten years: We now use the internet for far more than school and work, and the largest purchasing platforms and streaming sites are hosted on the web. There’s almost nothing you can’t do online! Customers

Change champions are individuals who have the power to influence their peers often without formal authority and are also the people who truly believe in the change itself. They can vouch for the change from within their own networks and move progress along much faster, despite having no formal obligation to do so. It’s important to identify and explore informal change leaders because they can have a very significant impact on the success of your change and the ultimate result

Harbinger Leader Insights discusses various decision-making subjects that can result in a failure or success of a transformation or change project. Siri Maldonado, Director Marketing & Communications, highlights the importance of letting go of perfection in leadership positions to drive efficiencies and lead their teams to drive change. It’s no secret that change initiatives take a long time, and within this time frame many unforeseen changes also take place like changes to

Change is happening all the time and while one would think we’d be used to it by now, there’s still a strong perception that most people don’t like change. Why is that? Krista Schaber-Chan, Partner, drills into this week’s MythBuster to understand what is truly behind this misconception. I think about change all the time and one of the things that has intrigued me the most is when someone states “people don’t like change”. It has been my experience that there are in fact

Change management (CM) is picking up steam – organizations have begun to understand the discipline and importance of having a strong CM strategy to help LEAD their business and people through change. Having more than 18 years of experience in this field, it’s refreshing to see the evolution of this area but it’s also important to keep this momentum going by dispelling a very important CM myth: You use the same CM approach for all types of change. What’s the same Yes, t

In business, there are always buzzwords and phrases that are popular. It seems that “strategic’ is having its moment in the spotlight. The term really began to take off in 2013/14 as all the business magazines such as Forbes and HBR were writing about it, and all the consulting firms were refreshing their websites to convey that they could be it. But what does being strategic really mean? Why is everyone tossing the word around like it will solve all problems? Most consulta