80% OF CHANGE INITIATIVES FAIL BECAUSE…..

Change has been a constant fact of life in all types of budiness for many decades now, and perhaps the most salient fact about change is that the ‘pace of change’ is always increasing.

The other day I revisited the notes of a keynote speech I gave to a Fire Authorities’ AGM back in 2007 ~ on the subject of culture and change. I referred to Blackberry’s, pagers and similar telecommunication devices, and now, 6 years later in a world of social media integration and the capturing of ‘big data’ my references to change in 2007 feel rather quaint.

With this exponential increase in the pace of change very much in mind I recently ‘rekindled’ John P Kotter’s seminal work ‘Leading Change’. Despite the 16 years or so that the book has been around it was interesting to read early on in the newly written preface that the ‘fundamental mistakes that smart people make when they are trying to make big changes are mostly still the same today’ as they were sixteen years ago’

So what haven’t changed exponentially are the mistakes we make in implementing change, and these are well worth revisiting

For Kotter, and I fully endorse his position, the engine for change is leadership ~ at every level. A purely managerial mindset will lead to failure no matter how good your people are.. I once worked at a college where the senior team response to impending changes in funding was an edict on sending everything by second class post from thereon (it was the 80s!)

Change initiatives will also fail if a high enough sense of urgency is not established. We often underestimate how difficult it is to drive people out of their comfort zones. Or even worse, we confuse urgency with anxiety, and by driving up the latter we push people even deeper into their foxholes and create even more resistance to change. To lead change effectively we must consistently communicate the urgency of the need to change.

Kotter also highlights the danger of ‘failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition’. That means that the top team is fully on board and that there is the right kind of leadership to engage people above, across and below their formal positions. It also means that a highly committed and charismatic individual (CEO) is not enough, especially if s/he is battling a culture of tradition and inertia. A restructure on it’s own is not sufficient either(that’s the managerial mindset) the guiding coalition demands effective leadership.

Change demands a powerful and coherent vision. What will we be doing in 3 years time, what will we believe, what levels of quality and resource will we be realizing? A powerful vision stirs the emotions, and lets not beat about the bush here emotion underpins the energy, commitment and (e)motivation required for big change. Once again the priority is for leadership and to put it starkly, HRs new appraisal system, the CFOs new finance initiative and whatever else will have little effect without this vision.

In a one short and punchy sentence, Kotter warns us that “in many failed transformations, you find plans and programs trying to play the role of vision”

OK. But even with the powerful and coherent vision we are still likely to fail if we ‘undercommunicate ‘ it and/or allow obstacles to block the vision. “Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower employees and undermine change”

In my experience of working with many different types of organisation across the public, private and third sector, achieving change has been more successful where there has been a strategic commitment to realizing short-term wins. Important short-term wins light the way, allow people to celebrate that the road to transformation and change does in fact yield positive results. We are back in leadership territory here, but we also require the managerial nous to identify and pull resources to achieve these early term results.

However, it is essential that we don’t confuse these performance improvements and short term wins with a belief that the job is done. Of crucial importance is the recognition of the fact that success and achievement can also lead to a major stall in the ability to change and transform if the sense of urgency is lost.

A final ingredient in successful change is that ‘change sticks only when it becomes the way we do things around here’ ~ when it becomes part of the culture of the organisation. So, its important to consistently communicate how changed beliefs, actions and behaviours have helped along the way to improving performance and making the vision a reality. And then to ensure that these beliefs, actions and behaviours are consistently demonstrated and improved upon ~ funnily enough we’re back to leadership again here.