Every CEO I have met tells me they like change. They are enthusiastic and optimistic about the changes they have launched in their organization. Ironically, it can be this optimism and enthusiasm that increases the risk your change efforts will fail to achieve their desired result.
You have heard the statistics, 50-70% of organizational change initiatives fail. Your organization is facing big changes, and you don’t want it to become just another statistic. So, you decide this time it’s going to be different. You send your managers and leaders for change management training, adopt a change management methodology. You think, I’ve done my part. Now things will be different.
You’ve sent a dozen emails about the upcoming change, or at least it feels like a dozen, and your employees act like they don’t know anything about it.
You told them, in the email, to contact you if they have questions or concerns and no one did. So, you assume everyone is fine with new chairs, or software, or moving buildings, or whatever your change is. Then you start to implement your change only to be hit with a huge backlash from your employees.
You’re met with, “Why is this happening?” “I didn’t know about this!” “I don’t care that I’ve had to keep a pot on my desk because the roof leaks, I’m not moving.”
I just returned from a short break. The habit of taking a break in March began while my daughter was in school. Her school, like many in the country, closed for a week each March. I viewed these breaks as a chance to reconnect with her. Because we did things outside our normal routine we gained a fresh perspective.
It’s similar with organizational change.
One of the shows I used to like on the food network was Restaurant Makeover. The premise of the show was simple. A restaurant owner puts up half of the money to makeover her restaurant. The show puts up the other half of the money.
But there’s a catch. To get the show’s half of the money the owner must give full control to the designer and his crew.
