looks like a small change to you may be a giant change when you’re down there climbing the mountain of daily activity, just trying to stay current with your job as it is today.

Try to visualize a gearbox in a big Caterpillar tractor. Imagine you are looking at it from the side and it is a pyramid shape, with big gears on top and d

As a change leader, if you’re worth your salt, you’ll have the big picture. Usually change leaders focus too much on the big picture at the expense of the business of their organizations. The ‘big picture’ I am talking about is you know why you’re changing what you are, you know how, what, when and everything there is to know about the work at hand.

Now that we’ve established you’re in the ‘know’ as they say, it’s important that you keep everything you’re doing in perspective, top to bottom. Now you say, “Ed, what does that mean?” It’s pretty simple really, it means you keep your feet on the ground and don’t get like one lady I knew who was leading a large change project, and the implementation of SAP in a new company established based on several mergers.

In her case, when I questioned her as to how much involvement she had with the field folks in designing the future, as she called it, she proudly told me none, “Ed, we are designing the future, the past doesn’t matter.” Well, that may be true but you better know just how big the leap from yesterday to today is before you step off that cliff of change.

The primary thing you the change leader must keep in perspective are that from your vantage point in that higher helicopter you’re riding is very different than the one of your grunt walking down on the ground. What looks like a small change to you may be a giant change when you’re down there climbing the mountain of daily activity, just trying to stay current with your job as it is today.

Try to visualize a gearbox in a big Caterpillar tractor. Imagine you are looking at it from the side and it is a pyramid shape, with big gears on top and de

work at hand.

Now that we’ve established you’re in the ‘know’ as they say, it’s important that you keep everything you’re doing in perspective, top to bottom. Now you say, “Ed, what does that mean?” It’s pretty simple really, it means you keep your feet on the ground and don’t get like one lady I knew who was leading a large change project, and the implementation of SAP in a new company established based on several mergers.

In her case, when I questioned her as to how much involvement she had with the field folks in designing the future, as she called it, she proudly told me none, “Ed, we are designing the future, the past doesn’t matter.” Well, that may be true but you better know just how big the leap from yesterday to today is before you step off that cliff of change.

The primary thing you the change leader must keep in perspective are that from your vantage point in that higher helicopter you’re riding is very different than the one of your grunt walking down on the ground. What looks like a small change to you may be a giant change when you’re down there climbing the mountain of daily activity, just trying to stay current with your job as it is today.

Try to visualize a gearbox in a big Caterpillar tractor. Imagine you are looking at it from the side and it is a pyramid shape, with big gears on top and d

project, and the implementation of SAP in a new company established based on several mergers.

In her case, when I questioned her as to how much involvement she had with the field folks in designing the future, as she called it, she proudly told me none, “Ed, we are designing the future, the past doesn’t matter.” Well, that may be true but you better know just how big the leap from yesterday to today is before you step off that cliff of change.

The primary thing you the change leader must keep in perspective are that from your vantage point in that higher helicopter you’re riding is very different than the one of your grunt walking down on the ground. What looks like a small change to you may be a giant change when you’re down there climbing the mountain of daily activity, just trying to stay current with your job as it is today.

Try to visualize a gearbox in a big Caterpillar tractor. Imagine you are looking at it from the side and it is a pyramid shape, with big gears on top and d

true but you better know just how big the leap from yesterday to today is before you step off that cliff of change.

The primary thing you the change leader must keep in perspective are that from your vantage point in that higher helicopter you’re riding is very different than the one of your grunt walking down on the ground. What looks like a small change to you may be a giant change when you’re down there climbing the mountain of daily activity, just trying to stay current with your job as it is today.

Try to visualize a gearbox in a big Caterpillar tractor. Imagine you are looking at it from the side and it is a pyramid shape, with big gears on top and d

looks like a small change to you may be a giant change when you’re down there climbing the mountain of daily activity, just trying to stay current with your job as it is today.

Try to visualize a gearbox in a big Caterpillar tractor. Imagine you are looking at it from the side and it is a pyramid shape, with big gears on top and descending to the bottom they become smaller and there are more of them. Now imagine that you are that big gear on top and the workers in your organization are those tiny gears at the bottom.

When you move your gear a little bit it’s no big deal, small movement, small change. But if you are that guy on the bottom, that row of tiny gears, you are spinning around like a top your kid just sent spinning. What appears to be a little change to you is a big change down at the bottom of your organization. To not be aware of or worst, to ignore that perspective will be fatal to your change efforts. It’s a pretty simple matter.

And this simple matter doesn’t come naturally. Even when you ‘get it’ you’re going to have trouble getting the other ‘big gears’ to get on board. There is a propensity to confuse ‘dictating expected behavior’ with real leadership. Many so called leaders like to say, “Oh, they can do it, it’s not that much additional work.” The problem is that if they don’t work to get the right perspective and know the real work of their organization, top to bottom, they just overload the people and results suffer.

When results suffer who do they blame? They blame the people when it all started with them anyway. You don’t want to be that kind of change leader, you want to have the right perspective and deliver the right