When Change Fails
This document discusses managing change and resistance to change. It notes that 95% of people worry about change while only 5% are managers who implement change. The success of change initiatives depends more on leadership than those involved. While most leaders say employee engagement impacts success, only 25% have engagement strategies. Research shows people's saturation with change initiatives has increased from 59% to 73% from 2007 to 2011, yet most organizations do nothing to address saturation. The document distinguishes between project management, change management, program management and portfolio management. It provides signs of resistance to change like endless nit-picking or debates on methodology. Quotes suggest change is difficult because people resist those deciding how they should transform and that resistance may stem from exhaustion rather
When Change Fails
- 1. THE HUMAN ELEMENT When Change Fails
- 2. 95% of the population worries about change. The remaining 5% are managers who wish to implement change. Workers Managers
- 3. The success or failure of a change initiative isn’t with the people involved, it’s with the people in charge. 90% of leaders say employee engagement impacts the success of organizational initiatives. 25% of leaders have an employee engagement strategy or plan.
- 5. The percentage of participants who reported being near or past the point of change saturation increased from 59% in 2007 to 66% in 2009 to 73% in 2011. When asked what was being done to address saturation and collision, the top response by participants was “nothing” – that the organization was not taking steps to address saturation and collision. -- Prosci
- 6. What are we managing? • Project Management • Defining, planning, implementing a change • Change Management • Managing the people side of that change • Program Management • Managing change across geographies • Portfolio Management • Managing change across the organization
- 8. Signs of resistance • Endless nit-picking or focus on style rather than content (I don’t like the color, font, that should be a semi-colon, not a comma) • Endless word-smithing or argumentativeness over how content is worded, as a matter of opinion rather than fact or actual need • Debates on methodology • Asking for countless, additional analysis or information • Changing the subject • Missing meetings • Not following through on commitments • Providing irrelevant or excessive information • Raising “theoretical” issues or unanswerable questions • Unreasonable demands or expectations for information
- 9. Signs of resistance or indifference from leadership • “Everything is fine” is the only acceptable answer when asked for project status • “Everything is a disaster” is the only other acceptable answer when asked for project status • Degrees of problems, disagreements, conflict, or resistance is normal – and even healthy – true leadership expects to hear this and contribute to solutions, not ignore it or create an atmosphere where there isn’t any room to resolve issues
- 10. The enemy is a very good teacher. The Dalai Lama It is not change that people resist, it is us. I don’t like the thought that someone else is having a meeting deciding how I ought to be transformed. Peter Block When you hear people say that change is hard because people are lazy or resistant, that’s just flat wrong. In fact, the opposite is true: Change is hard because people wear themselves out. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. Dan Heath & Chip Heath