The Results Are In...

A new Bloomstorm survey report has just been released and the results show that current approaches to change are not working.

We have just surveyed a range of people experienced in business change about their perceptions of change success and the results are enlightening.

• Half of those surveyed think that most change initiatives fail
• Everyone has seen change projects fail to get the buy-in they need
• Almost two-thirds of respondents think that no more than half of all change initiatives get the buy-in they require
• Everyone has seen change initiatives forced through or imposed
• Of these, more than half of those surveyed state that these forced or imposed projects fail
• Senior and front-line management are seen to be almost twice as important as any other business function, including training or IT, in terms of their value to successful change implementation

What these findings suggest is that our current approaches to change - the change orthodoxy, if you will - simply aren't working. On these findings, most changes are likely to fail, and the chances of failure increase as change initiatives are imposed. But given the downturn in the economic climate, it's a safe bet that more uncomfortable changes will have to be imposed on companies if they are to survive.

In sum, the survey says that these changes - which many of us will have to implement - have a very poor chance of success. So we are caught between the rock of necessary change and the hard place of probable failure...

If we are to succeed with change, we need to think differently about change. We need to think specifically about the environments in which people work, to make it easier to work in new ways, rather than harder.

The question, of course, is why we don't do this already...

Mike

PS If you would like a copy of the survey report, just drop us an email to that effect at info@bloomstorm.com with your name, company and email details. We'd like to know what you think...

(Photo Credit: Susan McManus/www.sxc.hu)