Every change starts with an idea—a vision of what could happen to create a tangible benefit for an organization. But ideas are not enough. Change is the process of transforming a vision into a new reality that delivers the promised benefits.
Why so many change initiatives fail
Given that innovation and change are so essential for today’s businesses, the fact that a huge percent of change initiatives fail to achieve their objectives is noteworthy. We’ve all heard the statistic 70% of all organizational change projects fail. This figure was first reported by Hammer and Champy in 1993 and, unfortunately, recent research Mc Kinsey confirms the staggering statistic hasn’t changed by much.
One reason for high failure rates is that most leaders focus on the processes—the hard skills and tools needed to create the desired result—and they underestimate the challenges related to the people.
People resist change because they believe they will lose something of value or fear they will not be able to adapt to the new ways.
To succeed with a change, it is not enough simply to tell people how you want them to change. You also need to put in place mechanisms that can help them to actually implement the new behaviors. Professional coaches are excellent at supporting leaders and their teams in the transitioning process.
8 factors how a company can ensure the success of change initiatives
Deeply know your ‘why’ – having a crystal-clear connection with the benefits that you will achieve or the losses you will avoid by making this behavior change.
Allocate resources effectively. Change happens because people make it happen. Leaders must make sure that the right supports, and incentives are in place to facilitate and reward that extra effort.
Make appropriate adjustments for scope creep. No change is static. Leaders needs to be able to adjust in ways that take that new scope into account.
Engaging stakeholders. It’s important to align stakeholders around the overall vision and then actively engage them throughout the process. Executive team is critical to success, a top down approach won’t lead to an engaged frontline. Everyone must feel ownership in the process and in the outcomes.
Keep your eye on the real goal. Use right success metrics that are meaningful to the company and admit when success has not been achieved. Traditional metrics (e.g., bringing a project in on time, on budget, and on spec) are usually not sufficient because they can be achieved without meeting the promised benefits for which the project was initially approved.
Make a plan of mini plans and deliver
Measure, Measure and Measure – track you progress, what is not measured will not be achieved
Prepare people to sustain the innovation. For the change to deliver sustainable benefits, people have to be ready, willing, and able. Leaders need to recognize that resisting change is human nature—and then understand and act to overcome that resistance.
Conclusion
Make sure you give people as much clarity as you can and communicate the impact to those who are affected. Walk-in their shoes. Listen to their fears and concerns and make them part of the story. And don’t be afraid of investing in external help if you lack time and change capability in your organization
By investing in change leaders, you can minimize resistance to change, improve morale, productivity and quality of work, improve cooperation, collaboration and communication. It will definitely pay off.
Good luck!
At Breaking Boundaries, we understand that change affects employee commitment. We understand the value of taking employees beyond their comfort level. And we know that when leaders compress the journey, employees respond faster.
With this knowledge, we help leaders to create trust and bring about change. We assist employees to understand and embrace the process.
If you want to know more about us don’t hesitate to contact us; info@bbcg.se
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