Last week I had the privilege of attending the world's first Association of Change Management Professionals conference at Monte Casino in South Africa. What an experience it was and how appropriate that it should be held in South Africa.
Arguably no country on earth has the same diversity of people, and certainly none can claim to have managed societal change on the scale South Africa has in the past 20 years. If ever you wanted proof that change is possible you need look no further, and for me as a former resident it was particularly encouraging. Developments there have been unprecedented and powerfully reinforced one of the key themes of the conference: "Change begins with the individual."
All change! Understand this and you open up a whole new spectrum of possibilities, whether you are dealing with organisational or national change. It happens one person at a time. Of course all management entails overseeing change, but this new emphasis on people is a wonderful endorsement of the philosophy that has underpinned my career, and particularly my efforts of the last 7 years or more. To hear the Chief Executive of one of the world's largest, and most successful, leisure and hospitality companies commit to achieving an "impossible" goal of 80% employee engagement – and his advisors are apparently telling him that it is not possible – is music to my ears and balm for my soul.
Who knows, if a few more were to make such a commitment, the employee engagement through employee ownership model I have been promoting may yet become the universal standard that I envisage, and 80% employee engagement become the bottom end of the range rather than "the impossible dream" they are currently considered. Certainly, the HR profession needs to be more positive about – and supportive of – such initiatives if they are ever to command the respect at the top table they seek.