Stuck: How to Win in Business by Understanding Loss

Our work life is changing. Every day new companies, technologies, and ideas emerge that impact how, where, and most importantly, why we work. Despite this exciting evolution, people remain the heart of change. People are tricky. People don’t seem to evolve as fast as global trends. People getStuck. Teams have people moving at different speeds with different levels of adoption in our evolving workplace. Some evolve and some don’t. Teams get Stuck. Leaders, managers, and teammates struggle with this resistance and get frustrated. Frustrated people impact the performance of every organization. Organizations get Stuck.

Why? The answer is deeply human and biological, rooted in the way our brain interacts with everything in the world, even work. When people feel they are losing something, they react by getting Stuck. Stuck connects over 20 years of research on our brain’s reaction to the evolving workplace with real stories of people journeying through the challenge of being Stuck. The organizations, leaders, and managers who understand these concepts will evolve with the future. Those organizations will understand LOSS as a tool to achieve business WINs.

This book addresses a critical concept that closes a gap in other popular business publications. Many books tell leaders and managers the process of how to change their organizations. However, many of these books lack a key mechanism for understanding human interactions. The mechanism is a biological function developed through evolution called attachment - the human need to connect to different tangible and intangible objects for support. Attachment is the reason that people connect with leaders and corporate culture, but also what creates a deep sense of loss during even the smallest changes. Stuck offers a complete understanding of attachment and how it impacts individuals, relationships, and organizations.

The root of the challenge is the human need to connect to different tangible and intangible objects for support. The basis of the need for support is grounded in our need for attachment. Those who learn to understand loss through attachment behavior and the attachments of others will succeed. In addition, this book provides original data-based evidence from assessments conducted with nearly 20,000 respondents and original stories from the application of attachment concepts in more than 150 organizations across all sectors around the globe. It shines a light on attachment and use it as a lens to better understand our workplace.

Stuck is not an academic study. It is a practical guide for leading the brain through change. For the first time, the authors tell stories that demonstrate their research and offer a roadmap for how to leverage attachment research to drive business success.

Stuck provides not only the deep lessons from the authors’ research, but clear steps for readers to use the lessons of attachment in their own work. In this way, the book serves as a guide to those leaders, managers, and employees who are ready to be unStuck.

Dr. Victoria M Grady is an active professor, researcher and consultant in the areas of organizational change, culture, leadership and team development.

Her research focus is based on the impact of Attachment Theory (Bowlby) to the management of behavior specifically resulting from the integration of both planned and unplanned change -- both the individual employees and the collective organization.

Victoria continues to build upon her research in the field of change management and extended her original model to include a validated analytic tool (Change Diagnostic Index(c)) that quantitatively measures the tendency of individuals within the organization to embrace or reject organizational change initiatives. The index focuses on the employee, and how behavioral factors inherent in change impact performance and profitability. https: //www.pivotpnt.com/change-management-1

In addition to her research and consulting practice, she is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Management in the School of Business at George Mason University.

Dr. Grady’s consulting clients include federal and multinational government institutions, non-profit organizations, and private sector companies.

Please visit her website at www.pivotpnt.com for more information.

Specialties: Behavioral Analytics, Organizational Change, Readiness Analytic, Leadership and Change, Individual Change, Change Management, Measuring Change, Change Metric, Organizational Behavior

Victoria co-authored the Workplace Attachment: Managing Beneath Surface and The Pivot Point: Success in Organizational Change and is presently contributing to a multi-author book manuscript on the international dynamics in family businesses. (www.pivotpnt.com).

Patrick McCreesh is a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton leading project teams and business development activities for the Strategic Innovation Group’s Next Generation Analytics Team. He successfully leads team to develop strategic plans, performance management programs, change management programs, and analytics centers of excellence across the federal government and with Fortune 500 companies. His clients include the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and many agencies within the departments. He also works across industries with previous experience with non-profits, the hospitality industry, and entertainment/media companies. His previous work with the government agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gained him the Innovation in Analytics award from the analytics professional organization, INFORMS.

Prior to joining Booz Allen, Mr. McCreesh worked in market research helping non-profit organizations and political campaigns use survey research to improve brands and more effectively appeal to donor or voter communities. He also worked extensively on voter advocacy and voter turnout programs. Mr. McCreesh is also a leader in the global change management community. He is a founding member of the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP). He founded the local chapter of ACMP and currently serves as the President of ACMP DC. Mr. McCreesh will present recent findings on change readiness in the federal government at the ACMP 2016 Global Conference. Mr. McCreesh graduated from The University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Affairs and History and received his Master of Public Policy from Harvard University.