70% of change efforts fail, which leads to crumbled organizations, frustration and resentment. I once saw an ERP implementation contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Systems Integrator…not have a budget for change and training. Several Project Change Requests later, there was the minimum required to get us to Go Live.
Many enterprise change efforts are funded to Go Live; however, this is basically temporary scaffolding. The end user adoption after this milestone is when real change efforts are needed. However, there are not resources, nor the political capital to ask for these resources. Thus, instead of a repeatable, replicable process that will drive better results (i.e., embedded internal transformation), employees slip back into their old ways and the initiative is labeled a failure. Often, this is because employees do not understand why the company has to operate in a different way…most of the time, they do not see the impact / benefit in their specific role. Also, there is a fear of uncertainty.
Instead, organizations need to invest in change sufficiently to sustain, optimize and then accelerate their progress. Do not underestimate the difficulty of kicking old habits and developing a healthy new approach – whether these are personal goals or corporate initiatives (Source: McKinsey). Provide oversight of all change projects; and prioritize, sequence and track progress for each individual initiative (Source: BCG). Kotter’s popular model starts with the first 4 stages overcoming the existing status quo, then stages 5-7 are action stages, followed by stage 8 – which is “the way we do things here.” Don’t neglect getting to stage 8!
Does your company invest in change sustainment like a marriage (long-term event) or a wedding (short-term event)?
