We have been hearing for decades about the important and daunting task of managing change as organizations try to transform themselves into entities that are more effective, more efficient, more agile, more innovative, …. Many articles and books have covered various aspects of the challenges associated with the proper management or the mismanagement of the change process. Even with all the research that has been conducted and all the models that have been devised, the statistics remain dismal: as we near the end of the first decade of the 21rst century, many consulting firms are still reporting that only about 30% of transformation initiatives are successful.
In 2008, a McKinsey survey of 3,199 executives from around the globe reported that only about 1 in 3 such initiatives were successful. A 2009 article in McKinsey Quarterly noted that surveys conducted during the previous 10 years yielded the same results. They of course cited John Kotter’s research in the 1990s which led to his seminal 1996 book “Leading change”; at the time, his research estimated that only about 30 percent of change-related initiatives were successful. IBM’s 2008 “Making Change Work” study surveyed 1,500 practitioners worldwide (project managers, sponsors, change managers, …) and the projects surveyed ranged from a wide spectrum of transformation initiatives: customer satisfaction improvement, sales and revenue growth, cost reduction, process innovation, technology, implementation, new market entry and organizational change. That study’s researchers concluded that about 60 percent of the projects FAILED to fully meet their objectives. This is again in line with results from various surveys that have been conducted in recent years which seem to indicate that more than half of projects/programs/initiatives aimed at transforming or changing the way a business functions are not likely to fully meet expectations.
How can one explain that 20 years have gone by, yet success rates related to projects that are transformative in nature have not really changed? I would argue that the problem is not just a lack of awareness around the importance of change management, but it’s also due to deficiencies in implementation teams’ ability to properly anticipate, identify, diagnose, and address the challenges that stem from initiatives that aim to change the way an organization/business operates. Very few organizations own an in-house change management group, it is a service that is in many cases outsourced, and a domain that is primarily controlled by consulting firms. Therefore, if we want to look at potential deficiencies, we should start there.
I must start this paragraph by saying that there ARE consulting firms that are thought leaders and do contribute to the advancement of the change management field but they are probably the exception. In my opinion, a good number of the consultancies out there view their change management offering simply as an additional means of revenue, a “flavor of the month” that has endured, so they are milking it as much as possible, it’s a “collateral”/secondary source of revenue with their real competency being somewhere else (e.g., IT or another functional area of expertise). The sad thing is that there is excellent research that is done on the academic side but for some reason, most of it doesn’t seem make its way to the practitioner side.
To me, Change Management (CM) is multidisciplinary and it is the art and science of attempting to forecast the unknown, and addressing complex issues that arise in very complex organizational systems. Because of the level of complexity that can occur, in my view, it is close to impossible to develop a systematic, step by step change management package that can be applied “out of the box” (without a considerable level of customization) to effectively address project challenges; yet many consulting firms out there claim to have such tools, and they are selling them.
I believe the answer to making change management one of the key enablers of successful project/program implementations lies in engaging and educating Program and Project Managers so that they can leverage and adapt change management tools and frameworks to address the challenges they face. In large or complex programs/projects, it is likely that there will be the need for a full-time role (or a full-time team) that is solely focused on change management. If project leaders and sponsors have a better grasp of the field they can better assess the work of the resources they have dedicated to managing change and preparing the ground work that enables a successful implementation.
Over the next few months, my goal is to hopefully engage other practitioners, especially front line practitioners and project managers who struggle with identifying and addressing business/operational/organizational change-related challenges. I hope we can identify pain points and potential solutions, while understanding that when it comes to organizational change, one size never fits all but (1) some of the most common problems can be identified early so that solutions can be devised before risks become big issues, and (2) tools or approaches that were successfully used in the past can be adapted so that they help others address somewhat similar challenges.
Your thoughts?
