How many times have you encountered a change that doesn’t make a difference? I have seen many such changes. There’s lots of noise and activity, but, in the end, no difference. In physics, such changes are associated with high levels of symmetry. Take a sphere for example. You can spin it around and turn it upside down and it always looks the same. Lots of activity but no difference. You get the same in some organisations. There is lots of talk about [...]

Most organisational changes cost more than expected and incur unnecessary financial losses. According to a recent McKinsey study, 78% of the financial losses occur in the implementation phase. And the reason for these losses comes mainly down to people.  Leaders and managers charged with implementing this highly complex task experience the frustrations of dealing with people who are often change-fatigued, stressed, and disengaged. This is a huge problem and, according to the 2022 International Workforce and Wellbeing Mindset Report, one-third of [...]

We often think of change – especially organisational change – as something to be implemented and managed. Change is what happens in the organisational machinery, and in the context within which the organisation operates.Viewed this way, the people that shape or are affected by changes are called stakeholders. Stakeholders are important because they have power to render the change project successful, or a failure. They can either buy in to the changes and engage in the program, or they resist [...]

Failure. It’s not a four-letter word but it’s still a dirty word in many places.From this starting point, we could explore attitudes towards failure and the importance of psychological safety as a key cultural element.But we won’t.Instead, let’s explore why failure happens.In the September 18, 2018 edition of Forbes, Harvard professor Amy C. Edmonson provided an outline of why people fail. Let me interpret her ideas, ranked from negative to positive. People fail because of:Deviance – they intentionally choose to [...]

What is the critical factor indicating the organisation is ready for the change?This is a great question but before we delve into an answer, let’s stop for a moment and think about ‘the change’. The change (whatever it is) must be a response to a problem (either something is wrong, or there is an opportunity to grasp).  The change could be anything – new IT solutions, new markets, new business processes, etc.Whatever ‘the change’ is, it will probably succeed or [...]