With this post, I kick off a series that examines common change management phrases that I don’t think are as helpful as we think they are. The series is called I’m not sure that means what you think it does.

Many years ago, I had a boss who taught me that words matter. He encouraged me to be precise with my language, to say what I meant as clearly and concisely as possible, and to call things what they were. I have found this to be good advice (although, to be honest, I still struggle with the concise part). However, sometimes in the pursuit of brevity I think we coin phrases that don’t mean exactly what we want them to. In the change management discipline, I can think of a number of examples, including:

• Change is a good thing
• Resistance to change
• The only constant in life is change
• You have no choice but to change/go with the flow
• Change management

Each of these phrases is trying to get at an important nugget of truth. When people use these phrases I believe they have positive intent. Unfortunately, each phrase also carries with it unintended negative messages that can hinder the success of a change initiative and make the change process more difficult for the people involved.

I will devote a post to each phrase, talking about what I think we mean when we use it and what unintended meaning we might actually be conveying. I invite you to join in the discussion, comment on my thoughts, and add your own phrases.

Stay tuned, bonus content coming!

In addition to writing about the change management discipline, I want this blog to be about sharing who we have learned from, what we’ve read, and experiences we’ve had that might be helpful to others.

In that spirit, sometime in the coming weeks, I will devote 1-2 posts to introduce you to a new friend, Eryc Eyl, and the thought-provoking, practical, entertaining, impactful, and important book he’s just finished writing, Stop Engaging Employees: Start making work more human.

Thank you for reading. Please post your thoughts and comments below. Until next time, take care and keep up the good work!

Mike