8:57 PM Sun Aug 11 E It's not working! Q AA P A change is successful when the people involved and impacted agree the reward was worth the risk and the value created was worth the investment. Research from Accenture's Paul Nunes and Tim Breene (2011) shows that only 7 per cent of companies which cease to grow ever manage to survive for the long term. We know from nature that just about everything needs to adapt to survive and for most organizations the aim is to do more than just survive. Commercial companies want to out-perform the competition, government and not-for-profit organizations want to provide the best services at the lowest cost. A critical area of competitive advantage nowadays is the ability of organizations to lead rather than follow changes in the market and this means having the ability to roll out the right changes quickly and reliably in a way that delivers a return on investment for the organization. Whether you are changing because you want to, or because you have to, change is difficult. Successful organizations actively change to better fit with their external environments. They engage in self-betterment and risk-taking in response to intensifying competition. Change is accepted as the norm (Bahrami, 1992; Claver et al, 1998; Denison and Mishra, 1995; Smith, 1998). We know the facts - the rate and complexity of change in and around our organizations is increasing. What most organizations haven't yet managed to do is build the capability to respond reliably to those forces let alone stay ahead of them. We know project success rates are still disappointing and change failures continue to make the headlines. IBM's 2012 CEO survey found that 72 per cent of leaders were focused on reacting more quickly to market needs. In 2010 the same survey found that three out of the CEOs' top seven priorities related to change.1 It's important to begin any improvement initiative with a good understanding of where you are starting. Take a look at the assessment in Figure 1.1. The questions are based on the components that together contribute to successful change. Be brutally honest in your judgement... if you can't find convincing evidence that the statement is true you should mark it 'false'. Figure 1.1 Organizational change capability self-assessment Our organization 1... has a culture that helps us plan, deliver and embed change easily True/False 2 ... provides sufficient time, people, money and resources to enable our changes to be successful True/False 3 ... has sufficient and appropriate 'buy-in' from everyone involved in and impacted by change True/False 4 ... has access to the capability we need to change successfully True/False 5... has a clear roadmap of change aligned to our vision and strategy True/False 6 ... effectively identifies, monitors and realizes the planned benefits from change True/False Our business units 7... maintain the momentum behind a change - from the initial idea through to reaping the benefits True/False 8 t take accountability for adopting, embedding and sustaining new changes True/False Our projects 9 ... reliably deliver on time, on budget and to stakeholder expectation True/False 10 ... spend time and money making the people and the environment ready to receive the change True/False Total number of 'True' responses If you answered 'True' to all of the questions then you're already getting it right. The reality is that the majority of organizations score between two and four 'Trues'. No matter how your organization scored you will already be building an awareness of the diversity of components required for successful change. It is possible our organizations used to be better at rolling out changes. There were fewer of them and so they were arguably subject to more planning and rigour. Perhaps our staff and customers had lower expectations or were more compliant. The change models of the mid-20th century talked about periods of unfreezing, transition and refreezing as if change was a one-off event that started, reached a tangible end and let everyone 'refreeze' into the new status quo. By contrast, most of our organizations today change so frequently we don't really know what our 'status quo' is. We live in a constant state of flux making it hard to know where we are or which change to do next. Changes now need to be integrated into evolving organizations operating in a complex dynamic environment. Change just got harder. Many of the costs of poor change are hidden - either accepted as a necessary evil or deliberately overlooked in an attempt to make us feel that we are doing a good job - but there are many studies which show project failure rates of around 70 per cent. Whilst this figure is shocking, it is the reality of what goes on behind this revelation that is more alarming when you see the time organizations spend fixing, redirecting or re-energizing those projects that didn't deliver. There's also the change-crippling damage done by the cynicism and inertia that builds as people develop a view that nothing will ever be delivered or that changes don't deliver real business improvements. If either the change or the failure of it made the headlines there is considerable brand damage too. It is no secret, if we choose to face it, that many organizations need to change but aren't very good at it. Despite decades of improvements in governance and project management most organizations are a long way from where they need to be. They are still wasting taxpayer or shareholder money, putting their performance at risk and upsetting their staff and customers whenever they roll out so-called improvements. в Back To Page 8:57 PM Sun Aug 11 E It's not working! Q AA P A change is successful when the people involved and impacted agree the reward was worth the risk and the value created was worth the investment. Research from Accenture's Paul Nunes and Tim Breene (2011) shows that only 7 per cent of companies which cease to grow ever manage to survive for the long term. We know from nature that just about everything needs to adapt to survive and for most organizations the aim is to do more than just survive. Commercial companies want to out-perform the competition, government and not-for-profit organizations want to provide the best services at the lowest cost. A critical area of competitive advantage nowadays is the ability of organizations to lead rather than follow changes in the market and this means having the ability to roll out the right changes quickly and reliably in a way that delivers a return on investment for the organization. Whether you are changing because you want to, or because you have to, change is difficult. Successful organizations actively change to better fit with their external environments. They engage in self-betterment and risk-taking in response to intensifying competition. Change is accepted as the norm (Bahrami, 1992; Claver et al, 1998; Denison and Mishra, 1995; Smith, 1998). We know the facts - the rate and complexity of change in and around our organizations is increasing. What most organizations haven't yet managed to do is build the capability to respond reliably to those forces let alone stay ahead of them. We know project success rates are still disappointing and change failures continue to make the headlines. IBM's 2012 CEO survey found that 72 per cent of leaders were focused on reacting more quickly to market needs. In 2010 the same survey found that three out of the CEOs' top seven priorities related to change.1 It's important to begin any improvement initiative with a good understanding of where you are starting. Take a look at the assessment in Figure 1.1. The questions are based on the components that together contribute to successful change. Be brutally honest in your judgement... if you can't find convincing evidence that the statement is true you should mark it 'false'. Figure 1.1 Organizational change capability self-assessment Our organization 1... has a culture that helps us plan, deliver and embed change easily True/False 2 ... provides sufficient time, people, money and resources to enable our changes to be successful True/False 3 ... has sufficient and appropriate 'buy-in' from everyone involved in and impacted by change True/False 4 ... has access to the capability we need to change successfully True/False 5... has a clear roadmap of change aligned to our vision and strategy True/False 6 ... effectively identifies, monitors and realizes the planned benefits from change True/False Our business units 7... maintain the momentum behind a change - from the initial idea through to reaping the benefits True/False 8 t take accountability for adopting, embedding and sustaining new changes True/False Our projects 9 ... reliably deliver on time, on budget and to stakeholder expectation True/False 10 ... spend time and money making the people and the environment ready to receive the change True/False Total number of 'True' responses If you answered 'True' to all of the questions then you're already getting it right. The reality is that the majority of organizations score between two and four 'Trues'. No matter how your organization scored you will already be building an awareness of the diversity of components required for successful change. It is possible our organizations used to be better at rolling out changes. There were fewer of them and so they were arguably subject to more planning and rigour. Perhaps our staff and customers had lower expectations or were more compliant. The change models of the mid-20th century talked about periods of unfreezing, transition and refreezing as if change was a one-off event that started, reached a tangible end and let everyone 'refreeze' into the new status quo. By contrast, most of our organizations today change so frequently we don't really know what our 'status quo' is. We live in a constant state of flux making it hard to know where we are or which change to do next. Changes now need to be integrated into evolving organizations operating in a complex dynamic environment. Change just got harder. Many of the costs of poor change are hidden - either accepted as a necessary evil or deliberately overlooked in an attempt to make us feel that we are doing a good job - but there are many studies which show project failure rates of around 70 per cent. Whilst this figure is shocking, it is the reality of what goes on behind this revelation that is more alarming when you see the time organizations spend fixing, redirecting or re-energizing those projects that didn't deliver. There's also the change-crippling damage done by the cynicism and inertia that builds as people develop a view that nothing will ever be delivered or that changes don't deliver real business improvements. If either the change or the failure of it made the headlines there is considerable brand damage too. It is no secret, if we choose to face it, that many organizations need to change but aren't very good at it. Despite decades of improvements in governance and project management most organizations are a long way from where they need to be. They are still wasting taxpayer or shareholder money, putting their performance at risk and upsetting their staff and customers whenever they roll out so-called improvements. в Back To Page