"It takes real courage to accept full responsibility for our choices – especially for our attitude and outlook. This is the beginning and ultimately most difficult act of leadership."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Accept What Can't Be Changed and Change What Can Be"

"We're either part of the problem or part of the solution. There is no neutral ground. Strong leaders make the choice to be part of the solution and get on with it – no matter how small their ripples of change may be."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Accept What Can't Be Changed and Change What Can Be"

"It's so much easier to blame everyone else for my problems and to use this as an excuse for doing nothing. But leaders don't give away their power to choose."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Accept What Can't Be Changed and Change What Can Be"

"Managers play a pivotal role in the success or failure of any organization change or improvement effort. Their behavior is the single most important variable in the process."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Balancing Top-Down and Bottom-Up Change Processes"

"Resistance to today's change comes from failing to make yesterday's preparations and improvements. When we, our teams, and our organizations fail to learn, grow, and develop at the speed of change (or faster), then change is a very real threat. If change finds us unprepared, it can be deadly."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Change Management is an Oxymoron"

"Problems that you, your team, or your organization may be having with change aren't going to be improved by some "change management" theory. To effectively deal with change you don't focus on change as some kind of manageable force. You deal with change by improving you. And then your time must come."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Change Management is an Oxymoron"

"Change can't be managed. Change can be ignored, resisted, responded to, capitalized upon, and created. But it can't be managed and made to march to some orderly step-by-step process. However, whether change is a threat or an opportunity depends on how prepared we are. Whether we become change victims or victors depends on our readiness for change."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Change Management is an Oxymoron"

"Some changes appear unexpectedly as a sudden crisis. An accident, act of violence, death, or natural disaster may come out of nowhere to hit us when we least expect (or deserve) it. But most crisis points come with warning signs -- if we choose to see them."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Change or Be Changed"

"There are two kinds of people: those who are changing and those who are setting themselves up to be victims of change. As the world continues to march on around us, if I am only maintaining the status quo -- if I'm not growing -- then I'm falling behind."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Change or Be Changed"

"If people don't buy into why changes or improvements are necessary, they will fight and resist them. Before people will want to improve, they need to agree with why they need to improve."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Education and Communication Build Commitment"

"If the rate of external change exceeds our rate of internal growth we're eventually going to be changed. The "ghost of crisis yet to come," similar to the third spirit that visited Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, is also as predictable."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Growing at the Speed of Change"

"Change happens. We can't control much of the world changing around us. But we can control how we respond. We can choose to anticipate and embrace changes or resist them. Resisting change is usually like trying to push water upstream."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Growing at the Speed of Change"

"Change is a fact of life. Now, more than ever, organizations need the bonding glue of a strong culture to hold everything and everyone together."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "More Change Demands More Leadership"

"A leader typically has a clear mental picture of what success looks like for a particular project or, more generally, for a successful team or the organization as a whole. He or she is able to 'emotionalize' that picture and bring it alive for people."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "More Change Demands More Leadership"

"At the core of a high performance culture is a strong leader who knows where he or she wants to lead their organization, but is highly flexible and opportunistic in pulling teams together to try new approaches, to experiment, and to learn (as well as occasionally fail) their way to success."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "More Change Demands More Leadership"

"Change champions are vital learning leaders for an organization. We need their energy, ideas, and creativity today more than ever. But we have to learn how to coordinate their unbounded and disruptive zeal."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Nurturing Change Champions"

"Predicting the future is a dangerous business. Many economists, futurists, and other seers who've peered into their crystal balls and proclaimed what is to come have learned to eat ground glass. It's difficult to predict the exact look and approach of those highly successful, 21st century model organizations that we'll be studying in the years ahead."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Organizational Changes to Deal with Whirlwinds of Change"

"When we see learning as a phase of life rather than a way of life, it's easy to become set in our point of view. As our personal growth rate slows and time goes by, we can become one of those boors that have many answers and few questions – a know-it-all. By the time we reach middle age we can end up with our broad mind trading places with our narrow waist."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Signs of Stagnation"

"Life doesn't come with any guarantees. Nothing is certain. There is no such thing as a sure thing. By taking few chances and not trying something new I will reduce my risk of failure. I will also reduce my chances of success."

- from Jim Clemmer's article, "Successful Failures"