
Jennifer Bryan and her 25 case studies
Jennifer has created a unique leadership model, called ABChange Model, which is underpinned by popular Meaningful, tweetable quote. Click To Tweet theories in leadership and change. You can find out more on her approach, articles, blogs and case studies at her consultancy page.
Anastasia Bartrum: Jennifer, can you describe what your company does and how you personally came up with that idea?
Jennifer Bryan: I enjoy helping people, that’s my big driver. One of the things I was doing a number of years ago was coaching a lot of executives and they would say to me “Yeah Jennifer, I know about all Kotter’s and a lot of the change theories out there, but what the heck do I do with this thing on my desk?” And so I wanted to help people come up with an answer as to what the heck they do with this thing on their desk, how do they lead people through change. So that’s why I went away to research and and came up with an idea.
Anastasia Bartrum: So is that fair to say that you took something that you didn’t know would work, turned it that into a business idea and ran it as a company based on your academic research?
Jennifer Bryan: That’s exactly what I did. So I took that idea. I did the research with individuals in a particular organization. Ok, that makes sense for that organization but does it work in the real world in the practicality side of things? So I worked with a number of different organizations and tested the model in those organizations to see if that worked for them or not.
Anastasia Bartrum: I know that you wanted to write a book, and for some reason you decided that for this book to be successful, for you even to start writing it you need 25 business case studies based on the work that you do. Is that what driven your effort? Do you think it actually contributed to your commercial success or was it just a result?
Jennifer Bryan: I think to be fair, I did have this magic number in my head: 25 case studies before I could write a book. I think it focused my efforts a bit more.
Anastasia Bartrum: Suggest then that somebody who’s reading this has an academic research and thinks that that there might be some value for the industry. Should they go and start talking to industries? Maybe saying to them “I’m looking for case studies, can I do this piece of work for you just because I’m writing a book?” And that might be an easier way to making a commercial part of your idea without necessarily feeling the need to sell.
Jennifer Bryan: Yes, definitely. That’s really valuable for organizations in the private and in the public sector. If you’re able to come and say “Look, I have this, you don’t need to pay me but I want to see if it works”, there’s a lot of people that would bite your hand off. So as long as it meets their need or they think it’s gonna answer a question that they’ve got, I think that’s a very powerful way forward. One thing that is really quite critical when it comes to approaching organizations is what you’re trying to do for them. It needs to answer a burning question for them, there needs to be a burning platform for that organization.