05/04/2021

How Leaders Get in the Way of Organizational Change

Here’s how to avoid three common saboteurs of transformation

Recently, I received a call from the chief transformation officer of a midsize financial services company. Their company-wide change effort to shift from a product company to a services company was in shambles after being underway for nearly two years. "We thought we'd done everything we needed to do to keep this transformation from derailing," he told me. "We communicated relentlessly, held virtual town halls to engage people, and resourced dozens of initiatives to support the vision for change. But we've ended up with nothing but hamsters running on wheels. We've made no measurable progress, cynicism is setting in as people are mired in activities that feel futile, and we've long lost sight of the vision for why we started this journey in the first place."

Our in-depth diagnostic revealed derailers I have seen ensnare change efforts for decades, no matter how well intended the efforts were. Leaders frequently underestimate the amount of work required for the change, overestimate the organization's capacity to make the change and misjudge how the organization views their connection to the change.

Despite the vast body of knowledge available to leaders on how to effect lasting, positive organizational change, too many executives continue reaching for the same comfortable levers that consistently miss the mark. Thus, the oft-cited failure rate of organization transformations continues hovering around 70 percent. If you've got a major change on the horizon (or have one stuck in a ditch), here's how to avoid (or extract yourself from the grips of) three of the most common saboteurs of organizational change.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.