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Why do major change initiatives fail? - Part 2 (June 03, 2007)
By: Davis Balestracci
Part 2: "What are the consequences of these eight errors?"
[Abstracted from John Kotter's book Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996, 187 pages, ISBN 0875847471]
The consequences of these eight errors are that: - New strategies aren't implemented well,
- Acquisitions don't achieve expected synergies,
- Reengineering takes too long and costs too much,
- Downsizing doesn't get costs under control,
- Quality programs don't deliver hoped for results.
- The first four errors (Too much complacency, Insufficient powerful guiding coalition, Dismissing the power of vision, Undercommunication of vision) result from a hardened status quo.
- The next three (Current culture sabotaging vision, Lack of creating short-term wins, Declaring victory too soon) affect the introduction of new practices.
- The last (Failure to anchor changes firmly into the culture) keeps changes from sticking.
A lot of frustration of quality professionals results from a tendency to give cursory consideration to one through four and hope that undertaking five through seven will get results. Unfortunately, the eight issues need to be addressed in sequence (with some overlap), and omission of a step virtually guarantees failure.
As can be seen by the current emphasis on "leadership" in the business world, distinction between "management" and "leadership" is crucial.- Planning and budgeting must give way to establishing direction,
- Organizing and staffing must give way to aligning people,
- Controlling and problem-solving must give way to motivating and inspiring.
Ultimately, the status quo need for producing a degree of predictability and order so as to consistently produce short-term results must give way to producing change (often dramatic), then producing even more extremely useful change.
[Kotter's book is valuable and very readable for anyone. Individual chapters deal with each of the errors along with the strategies needed to overcome them. Final chapters deal with "The Organization of the Future" and "Leadership and Lifelong Learning," which includes a prototype of the 21st century executive.]
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