Survey Results: Major Reasons for Underperforming or Unsuccessful Large-Scale Organizational Change Initiatives

1) What are the major reasons for Underperforming or Unsuccessful Large-Scale Organizational Change Initiatives? Please rank the following factors from 10 - 1, 10 having the most impact and 1 having the least impact.
♦ Lack of executive team support, engagement and mindshare - 7.21 / 10
♦ Not articulating a "burning need" and vision for the change - 6.91 / 10
♦ Poor, untimely, unclear and/or inconsistent communications - 6.60 / 10
♦ Poor management of the transition between the present state and the future state - 5.55 / 10
♦ Inadequate resources allocated to the change initiative - 5.53 / 10
♦ Lack of trust in those leading the change - 5.28 / 10
♦ Change agents were not adequately trained/qualified to be successful - 4.62 / 10
♦ No formal plan for sustaining the change - 4.57 / 10
♦ Lack of a detailed change master plan that was managed as a project - 4.45 / 10
♦ Poor/inadequate employee education and training - 4.15 / 10

2) What else should be considered?
- Adequate Budget, in case it was not covered under resource- Focusing on change instead of change impact. Most change initiatives are doomed from the outset by this fundamental identification problem
- Failure to understand and address the core problem.
- In my brief encounter with managing change at large scale in small organisation like ours, I believe if we can answer basic questions of those, who will be severely impacted by change, like 1) the reason for change 2) the +ive and -ive of change 3) how to go about it . If these questions are well answered or it would be better if the stakeholders themselves spell the need of change and chalk out plans to go about it, there will be more chances of success.
- All too often these changes are the happen as a knee jerk REACTION to some impetus as opposed to the change being a PROACTIVE well thought out plan.
- 1) Underestimating resistance to change, even when the change is considered to be a positive one 2) 'Installing' a new structure (org chart) and expecting things to change without proper focus on new behaviours 3) Change overload
- too many initiatives
- Lack of engagement and involvement of employees in creating the change vision and implementing it.
- All down to good mgmt and leadership for me.
- Abdicating responsibility for change to the change agents.
- Getting trapped in a reactive cycle
- Not having the will to face into cultural issues
- Emotions. Instead of what is holding back the change, perhaps we need to think of what people are holding on to and why? These could lead back to issues of trust, but more often I think it is linked with timing...
- Informal leader/advocates for the new way and a compelling vision for it- Short term results and compromise!
- Too many other initiative receiving higher priority
- Too many powerful vested interests oppose the change
- Not perceived as treating people fairly
- Wrong change proposed
- Tangible short term wins on all levels in the organization
- Pace. Large programmes can be too slow and take on a life of their own where what is important is the functioning of the programme, not the intended outcomes.
- Organizational culture that embraces change.
- Strength of current processes and procedures to tolerate change.
-Currrent health of the organization. Unhealthy organizations cannot tolerate change even though they need it.
- No clear vision, different agendas and a clear leader who guides the transition. - Understand the organizational culture and the drivers that influence culture change such as: organizational structure, job design, policies, etc. also change the process
- Poor root-cause-analysis on what to change. Most often organizations try to solve symptoms of a problem and not its cause. The cause is often connected to management and please doesn’t change us...
- The need to allow people to go on the journey.
- Poor coordination at different levels and departments, shifting or putting responsibility to other teams.lack of involvement.Inability to understand the need for change.
- What is the business imperative driving the change?
- Lack of process design and based on comparison between as-is and to-be change impact analysis
- The change had an unreasonable timeline for implementation. Also too much for those impacted to absorb and apply.
- Conflicting corporate initiatives that were not considered.

About the Survey:
- Survey Participants: There were 47 global participants in the survey
- Survey Elements: A group of 12 Global change agents developed the survey elments.
- The survey was posted on the following eight Discussion Boards: Organizational Change Network, Network of Organizational Change Managers, Innovative Leadership & Change Management Expert Innovators Network, Change Agents, SAP/ERP Training & Change Practitioners, Organizational Change Practitioners, Organization Development Network, Change Consulting
- Survey close date: November 22, 2008
- Conducted by: Jim Markowsky, President, X-Factor Solutions
Visit our web site at: http://www.x-factor-solutions.com/