It’s frustrating to see good ideas fade away when we know they are right for the business. Small organizations struggle with this problem more than larger organizations — generally because people are spread thin, there are not as many “change agents” available and perhaps most importantly, small organizations often lack a defined and disciplined process to make change happen.
Keep in mind that the classic bell curve can be applied to change. At one end, we have our change agents and at the other end, we have people who resist change at almost any cost (including their jobs). The middle is made up of the 80% or so that progressively range from cautious followers to increasingly greater resistors. The smaller the organization, the more pronounced these behavioral variations become.
To keep this short, I’ll briefly describe three key reasons why change initiatives fail. You can decide how to apply them to your organization.
The change initiative is abdicated at the top. If you believe a change is worthwhile, then it’s worth your time to stay involved. You don’t have to run the project, but you should actively track its overall progress and push for a timely completion. Handing it off and walking away generally leads to failure. Even with good change agents under you, conflicts and deadlocks will occur that only you can resolve; and remember, it’s generally not in people’s nature to run to the corner office with problems.
The idea is just thrown on the work pile along with everything else. The priorities of new change initiatives must be measured against priorities of other work. Although people who resist change love to use the “I’m too busy” excuse, the need for prioritization is real. New change initiatives should take their rightful place either up-front or somewhere behind. As leader, setting priorities is one of the most important aspects of your job.
“What can go wrong” is not considered. All too often, people look at projects through “rose-colored glasses”, thinking only about what the various project tasks will yield in a perfect world. Change initiatives should be subjected to a healthy dose of “what if” questions. Since you are captain of the ship, it is up to you to know whether there are icebergs in the area, and those “what if” questions are your radar.
The list can go on, but if you are serious about improving change, working these three shortfalls will be a good start. By the way, don’t forget to enforce accountability, it’s the glue that holds everything together. – TWB
