There is a staggering statistic from businesses who have undergone change, where an average of 70% fail to sustain change initiatives after implementation. The gap in acceptance is that many don’t view change as a positive, resulting from a flawed process and leaders who have not been prepared to lead and enable change. There is a successful way forward, leading to the desired results you want to achieve.
Business today requires an adaptable and resilient workforce as a necessary condition for successful enterprises to thrive. While most organizations know this, the likelihood of failure is still high as businesses struggle to build a culture of continuous improvement amidst change implementation. Traditional models of change management don’t work for everyone, resulting in many organizations are not seeing the results they expected. There are several issues with the way most change efforts are supported, including: lack of sponsorship from management; difficulty changing deep-rooted mindsets and attitudes; underestimating the complexity of implementing organizational change; and organizational culture.
When leaders build an organization that understands change as a positive process, they are more likely to get results that stick and the benefits of a successful transition. A proper change enablement process allows organizations to successfully prepare for and manage the work up-front which enables leaders to support change and organizations to realize their true potential.
When implementing change in an organization, it is common for projects to move slower than expected and leave leaders waiting for results. Employee resistance, unrealistic expectations, and inadequate sponsorship can all leave employees demotivated and leaders waiting for results despite investing in change. Supporting change projects with a clear change enablement blueprint can help them stay on schedule and realize the benefits of the changes being made faster – driving a higher ROI.
If you’re attempting to make changes without having a clear message from your leadership team, delays and roadblocks are inevitable. Competing priorities, incentives, and mindsets can leave your change initiatives stuck and your organization unable to shift to changing business needs. Doing upfront work with leadership teams to craft a singular, compelling business case and message makes change implementation smoother and unlocks the potential of your employees to drive results.
Teams overseeing change management often focus on resistance, where implementing organizational change is seen as a negative force, and the bulk of the effort is on helping them overcome their challenges with change. Although this can work for individual changes, it can instill a mindset of resistance to change and leave teams inflexible for future changes. Instead, businesses can work with their teams to see change as a positive process that will improve their lives and the way they do business. This not only makes individual changes easier to implement, but also prepares teams and gives them the tools to continue learning and growing
Most change management efforts tend to end at implementation, which leaves organizations unable to evaluate what made a change successful and whether it has “stuck” over time. This leads to difficulty with learning lessons and developing an effective change methodology for future changes. Developing organizational performance measures, a set of “change KPIs” gives organizations the tools to understand the impact of their changes and adjust their approach in real time based on feedback. It will also raise morale and let employees know that the changes are working.
A common phenomenon in change implementations is a change “fizzling out” after the momentum from the initial effort is gone. Without reinforcement from leaders, employees can experience fatigue and revert to old habits, leading to lost benefits. Investing in reinforcement and sustainment activities for organizational change will help changes succeed long-term, with 84% of change initiatives with reinforcement activities achieving success according to PROSCI.
The complexity of today’s business environment means that organizations often need to be taking on multiple changes at one time. Without a comprehensive plan, this can leave employees struggling to manage several changes at once – while still needing to perform their day-to-day responsibilities. If this is not addressed, it can lead to low satisfaction, regrettable turnover, and lost productivity. Creating an organizational change plan, where businesses examine the impact of all changes on impacted stakeholder groups can help them be strategic in timelines and give employees the tools to grow through change – while still being effective in meeting business objectives.
When looking at implementing change in an organization, it is common for leaders to underestimate the magnitude of the change, and PROSCI surveys reveal that in 85% of projects leaders wish they had started managing change at the start of the project. According to Gartner, businesses move twice as fast in digital transformations when the staff and management understand the importance of the path ahead. In our Change Risk Assessment, we help businesses uncover hidden risks and truly understand the magnitude of an upcoming change through interviews, surveys, and data analysis. Understanding the risks associated with making a change helps organizations create a mitigation strategy and see more benefits on a faster timeline.
One major barrier when making changes is organizational culture, where the ingrained beliefs and attitudes of teams conflict with the organization’s vision. An inability to recognize and surmount these barriers will stop change initiatives in their tracks. When working with organizations, we work with companies to assess three core factors: whether their values are aligned with strategic goals, whether employees have a consistent understanding of the values, and whether employees are living the values in their day-to-day work. Once these factors are understood, we analyze gaps and provide recommendations to resolve cultural barriers. When organizations understand their culture, they can unlock the potential of their people, experience higher employee engagement, and achieve a continuous improvement mindset.
According to an IBM study, the single most important factor for successful change is top management sponsorship. If leaders aren’t bought into the proposed changes and ready to support employees, opt-outs, resistance, and lack of alignment are inevitable. Our team can align leaders around a consistent message when it comes to change, starting with a compelling business case that they can communicate to employees. Other tools like stakeholder analyses can help leaders understand the changes that are coming and see them as a positive for them and their teams. When a leadership team is ready to sponsor and own the changes being made, organizations see higher employee engagement, faster adoption, and better results.
When conducting traditional change management, too many organizations make the mistake of delegating “change management” activities to those who will not be most impacted. This leads to resistance, distrust, and ultimately lack of adoption. Our Blueprint for Change approach gives organizations clear, practical steps for how to implement change successfully and ensures that the changes are owned by leaders and operators. Whether it’s a digital transformation, business process improvement, or any other change, our approach helps organizations see change as a positive and get buy-in from their teams. Through enabling change and growth from employees, businesses can guarantee results and give teams the skills for long-term growth.
Most traditional change management exercises end when implementation is complete. Measuring results helps businesses build momentum and gain support for continuous improvement initiatives. Our expertise in analytics and operations experience helps businesses choose the right KPIs to understand whether a change was successful and put in place sustainable measurement systems to see long-term success. We know that every organization is different and partner with our clients to create a custom measurement plan and get a clear, accurate picture of their results. With clear measures of success, businesses can evaluate results, and have the ability to adjust and sustain benefits long after implementation is complete.
