1. Professional Certificate in Strategic Change Management
Why Change Fails
06 – 10 March 2017

2. WHY DOES CHANGE FAIL?

3. REASONS FOR FAILURE
The organisation had not been clear about the reasons for the change and the overall objectives. This plays into the hands of any vested interests.
They had failed to move from talking to action quickly enough. This leads to mixed messages and gives resistance a better opportunity to focus.
The leaders had not been prepared for the change of management style required to manage a changed business or one where change is the norm. "Change programmes" fail in that they are seen as just that: "programmes". The mentality of "now we're going to do change and then we'll get back to normal" causes the failure.
Change as the cliché goes is a constant; so a one off programme, which presumably has a start and a finish, doesn't address the long-term change in management style.
They had chosen a change methodology or approach that did not suit the business. Or worse still had piled methodology upon methodology, programme upon programme.

4. REASONS FOR FAILURE
The organisation had not been prepared and the internal culture had 'pushed back' against the change.
The business had 'ram raided' certain functions with little regard to the overall business (i.e. they had changed one part of the process and not considered the impact up or downstream) In short they had panicked and were looking for a quick win or to declare victory too soon.
They had set the strategic direction for the change and then the leaders had remained remote from the change (sometimes called 'Distance
Transformation') leaving the actual change to less motivated people. Success has many parents; failure is an orphan.

5. Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
According to a recent study by IBM, the top three reasons why organizational change initiatives fail are:
Leadership not capable of leading the change
Not enough communication and employees aren’t involved enough
The change takes too long
Another survey findings further suggest clear and frequent communication can be the remedy for what ails change-management efforts."
Employers felt 55% of change management initiatives met initial objectives, but only 25% felt gains were sustained over time.
87% of respondents trained their managers to “manage change,” but only (a dismal) 22% felt the training was actually effective.
68% of senior managers said they’re “getting the message” about reasons for major organizational changes, but that figure falls to 53% for middle managers and 40% for front-line supervisors.
Researchers asked asked, "What is most important when leading your company or team through a major change?" 65% answered "communicating clearly and frequently" - far outdistancing "managing expectations" at 16% and "outlining goals" at 9%.