We live in a world of permanent change...in which whatever job title you hold, your real job is in fact change. Yet, the majority of efforts to change organizations fail: between 50% and 75% of change initiatives fail.
Why do so many attempts at organizational change fall short?
Certainly not for lack of advice. These ideas matter and can prove most useful. This psychological perspective taken alone, however, can promote the belief that the success or failure of any given organizational change effort comes down to motivating individual members of the organization and that, correspondingly, a leader's primary job comes down to inspiring "the troops."
Such a belief can easily lead to unfortunate attributions whenever individuals don't change, namely marking individuals as the problem. The person receives the label "resistant," and perhaps the leader becomes stigmatized as "uninspiring." Altering the attribution and recasting the challenge of resistance can significantly improve the likelihood of success.
Change efforts fail for two reasons:
1. Leaders present vague and abstract change objectives: "Improve communication between caregivers and patients and their families" or "Increase profitability." Phrases like these mean different things to different people. They do not specify what to do or how to change.
2. Leaders underestimate the power of the work environment to precipitate or stall change. Many change efforts lack a coordinated or aligned approach to designing the work environment. One aspect of the environment tells people to make a change, while other aspects of the environment signal to people to continue to act as they always have.
"Leading Successful Change" by Gregory P. Shea, Ph.D., and Cassie A. Solomon will show how to identify not the behaviors you are seeking to change, but rather, those behaviors you want to see in place when your change is complete.
Transforming an organization isn't for the faint of heart. Doing so takes patience, discipline, even courage. But it can be done. It has been done successfully, time and again. And you can do it.
Our era is dominated by the reality that change is constant. We all need to get better at it--and sooner rather than later. You owe yourself and the people depending upon your leadership no less.
Source: Gregory P. Shea: Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work