“Change is the only constant.”- Heraclitus
Change!
We have been focusing on change and its benefits for a long time. One has to understand that with the evolving time and technology, one needs to change him as well as the processes in order to keep up with the competition and simultaneously grow and generate more revenues.
Many companies and organizations do commit to change and change management process but shockingly, more than 70 percent of change initiatives fail. Why does it happen? Ever wondered? If you also initiated a change management process and failed to convert it into something big, this blog is for you.
About the webinar
The webinar focuses on ‘Why 70 percent change initiatives fail?’ and discusses about the possible reasons that impacts an organization’s change initiative. Our guest speaker, Mr. Vishal Kulkarni, one of the founding members of Faber Infinite Consulting enlightened our viewers on this and also focused on the importance of change initiative in an organization’s quest to achieve excellence and continual growth. Moreover, he also discusses about possible alternatives that will allow the organizations to overcome the obstacles to sustain the change management processes.
Why 70 percent change initiatives fail?
Change initiatives are an organizational process and needs involvement from all the three levels of management i.e. top management, middle management and lower management. Below are the three most important factors that decide the course of any change management process. Absence of any of these three will only result in unwanted consequences.
- Top management’s commitment
Every organization’s important decisions are taken by the top management and it is the top management that decides and directs the path for any change management process of an organization. It is important for the top management to be efficiently committed towards execution of a change management initiative.
- Acceptance by middle management
Middle management forms the backbone of any organization and any change initiative’s success depends largely on the way the middle management accepts it. In many cases, it is seen that middle management’s views, opinions and acceptance is not considered while implementing the change initiative. This ultimately results in its failure.
- Getting your value adding assets involved in the change initiative
Value adders play the role of creaters for change management when it comes to the shop floor. It is one of the important aspects on which the entire change management initiatives stand. Also, it is important to get the value adders involved in the process since they have a better floor knowledge and experience and their opinions and inputs can add value and efficiency to the entire initiative.
How to overcome?
Every problem has a solution. To overcome the failures in change management processes, every organization must need to counter the above three factors. Below is a short descriptive method with which organizations can crack change management initiatives and achieve their desired goals.
- Every change management initiative’s work is done 80 percent in the planning stage and 20 percent in the execution stage. Many times, the top management agrees to the initiatives in the planning but fails to demonstrate and provide the required support and resources. This sends a negative signal to the lower management which ultimately impacts the initiative.
- Middle management might feel scared and insecure as a result of the change management process. They might fear to lose their job and importance in the organization. Hence, it is important to take them into confidence and convince them of the fact that nothing of such sort will happen and their positions in the organization will be safe and secure.
- While implementing change management initiatives, the middle management’s core focus should be on that and not on any other initiatives that run in parallel.
- Get your lower management and value adders involved in the entire process since the change initiatives are usually implemented and controlled from the gemba – the real place of work. The raw and real data comes from the people who work on the shopfloor and hence, their involvement is necessary. Moreover, rewards and remunerations can also encourage increased participation of the value adders and ultimately assist the organization in achieving optimum results with the change management initiative.
Team Faber has been working in this domain for a long time and has helped various clients across different geographies in successfully implementing and sustaining the change management initiative. The webinar also discusses on various other aspects that can help the organizations in achieving better and optimized result with change initiatives. To view the webinar, visit
Written & compiled by Faber Kishlay & Faber Mayuri.
