Why invest in change management?
Transformations fail to realise their business benefits. Not all transformation programmes fail, however many organisations suffer from a drop in performance or fail to realise the planned business benefits especially in technology-driven change.
Research from McKinsey and Company indicates 70% of all transformations fail. There are may reasons for failure; insufficient resources and training are two examples.
However, most fail because the programme culture isn’t aligned with the business values, strategy and goals. Also high on the list are:
- A lack of understanding of the impact of the transformation programme
- A lack of participation and buy-in
- Knowledge of the adopters and resistors
- Under-communicating
- Change battle fatigue.
Other research on the subject includes:
- A recent survey of business executives indicates that the percentage of change programmes that are successful today us still 40% - McKinsey and Company.
- Nearly 60% of projects aimed at achieving business change do not fully meet their objectives - IBM.
- The brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail – Harvard Business Review.
- A new study by Towers Watson found that only 25% of change management initiatives are successful over the long term – Forbes/Towers Watson.
- Change practitioners have some blame for the atrocious 70% failure rate of change initiatives – Connor Partners.
In any large business transformation programme, the project team can expect to experience resistance or reluctance to change. Typically, management focus is on minimising the reluctance and the perceived inevitable “production dip”. However, the focus of the Change Management Change Team is to obtain a balance across people, process and technology activities in order to not only avoid the dip, but continuously improve Business’s customer experience and achieve increased business results.
The Performance Dip
The performance dip is a temporary decrease in productivity and performance that often occurs when a new system is introduced, or a significant change is made to an existing system or way of working.
In any technology transformation programme, the organisation can expect to experience resistance or reluctance to change.
Typically, management focuses on minimising the hesitation and inevitable ‘performance dip’.
The Change Focus
Organisations can minimise the impact of performance dip by carefully planning and managing the implementation process, providing appropriate training and supporting employees and monitoring performance closely during and after the implementation.
Therefore, the change management teams focus should be working towards obtaining a balance across people, processes and technology activities to not only avoid the performance dip, but to continuously improve employee and customer experiences and achieve early business benefits.
Improving Success
X4MIS transformation programmes are increasingly effective dependent on the number of change actions applied.
