Change manager Lutz Bernhardt in the podcast Rethink Work.
Just the phrase “change management” triggers a wide variety of associations in people. Some think of external management consultancies that want to enforce profitability with maximum severity. Others, on the other hand, have the image of the esoteric guru in mind who, barefoot, ensures that everyone in the company is “taken along” in transformation projects.
Lutz Bernhardt is a trained forest scientist, journalist and full-time change manager – since 2022 in the Handelsblatt editorial team.
He says: “The change manager doesn’t come in and say: You have to go left or right now – people already know that very well. I would rather say that the roller works like a navigation system in a car. A company or organization knows where it wants to change and the change manager then offers a structure to achieve that.”
Bernhardt deals a lot with the topics of organizational development and leadership culture. “You also have to be able to do very banal project management,” says Bernhardt.
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For Bernhardt, transformation is a process with a clear goal – but an open path to get there. This often leads to insecurities among employees, which he as a change manager, but also as a manager, must learn to deal with.
However, he does not want to be seen as an emotional trash can: “Perhaps more as a certain sounding board for the frustration, sadness and despair that arises during a change project”. From Bernhardt’s point of view, it is often neurological factors that prevent people from being open to change.
In the current episode Rethink Work, he tells Kirsten Ludowig and Charlotte Haunhorst to what extent you can change people with change management, why other furniture does not yet initiate change and what the three deadly sins in transformation projects are from Bernhardt’s point of view.
More: Listen to the previous episode of Rethink Work here.