Change Management News

Reasons why so many changes fail #15 Fail to understand why people support – and why they resist change.

When a former chairman of the ill-fated Eastern Airlines was once asked what he thought of employee involvement, he replied, “There is no way I’m going to have the monkeys running the zoo.”(1) This kind of arrogance makes cooperation extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible. Is it any wonder that Eastern went out of business?

Although the word is used freely when we speak of change, it is often used imprecisely.

• We use resistance to talk about some vague opposition.
• The mere mention of the word may evoke anger at those who have the audacity to resist us.
• We call these people resistors, as if resistance were the sole province of a class of people—whom we probably don’t like.
• Therefore, it is natural to find a way to get rid of it – to overcome resistance. (more…)

Reasons why so many changes fail#14 Relying on the Three Most Common Ways of Communicating Change

Most leaders rely way too heavily on the big three ways of communicating change:

• PowerPoint
• e-mails
• memos

(more…)

Reasons why so many changes fail #12 Taking Time Will Waste Time

Our research found that when people made a strong case for change, the rest of the project often went much more smoothly. In other words, they didn’t face as much resistance, and things didn’t get off track as often. Even though you believe that you are facing a crisis, you need to ask: Do others believe it is a crisis as well? If not, you’ve got a long slog in front of you. And the odds are not in your favor.  (This is adapted from my completely revised  and updated book, Beyond the Wall of Resistance: Why 70% of Changes Still Fail – and What To Do About It. You can order the book by clicking on this link.)

Reasons why so many changes fail #11 A Belief That You Can Force Them to Do It

No, you can’t. People can find all types of creative ways to stop you in your tracks. For instance, the president of a small company once told me that his idea was dying due to “malicious compliance.” People did just enough to stay out of trouble and keep him off their backs, but not enough to make the change a success.

There are a few exceptions to this. (more…)

My friend (and former teacher) Carolyn Lukensmeyer believes in democracy. She has dedicated her life to it. Fifteen years ago she founded AmericaSpeaks, a group dedicated to getting people from across the political and cultural spectrums together to talk about things that matter. She recently ran an event where 3500 participants in some 60 communities met (more…)

Reasons why so many changes fail #10 Moving to How Before Why

Moving to how before people know why a change is needed.

People need to know why something is important before they can get interested or even be willing to hear why you want them to do it. Too often we fail to address “why” something is important before we launch into explaining “how” it should get done. I am not interested in the explanation of how until you’ve convinced me why this is important.

I have been subject to many lengthy PowerPoint presentations (more…)

Reasons why so many changes fail #8 Leaders fail to appreciate the power of fear Fear of change is deeply personal. The thought of a big change can evoke pictures of relocations or downsizing. People worry that they may be fired. They worry about their families and their careers. Personal fear trumps the organization’s need to change. (more…)

Reasons why so many changes fail #6 Assume Understanding Equals Support

Leaders assume that understanding equals support and commitment

It is common to introduce change by making a PowerPoint presentation to a large group. Leaders may schedule time for Q&A, but the questions they get from their audiences tend to be very polite. After all, who wants to tell the boss they don’t think this is a good idea? People learn to limit their comments to questions about time lines and budgets. They know those are safe questions. Any reservations or fears go underground and only get spoken about in hallways and carpools. (more…)

Reasons why so many changes fail #13 Making Them Learn Your Language — instead of learning theirs.

Old MIS (Management Information Systems) departments often had the reputation of speaking some foreign language when they worked with senior management and other departments. They made the critical mistake of speaking their language and not translating so that their audience could understand them. It is your job to be “multilingual” so that various stakeholders can understand what you are saying. I have seen IT, HR, financial, and sales and marketing departments kill their own effort to make a case simply because they expected their audiences to learn their jargon. Big mistake.

(This is adapted from my forthcoming book, Beyond the Wall of Resistance: Why 70% of Changes Still Fail – and What To Do About It. You can preorder the book by clicking on the link you see on this page.)

Reason why so many changes fail #1

I think Abba Eban (statesman 1915-2002) got it right when he said: “Nations and men may behave wisely once they’ve exhausted all other alternatives.”

Somehow we believe we are immune from the rules of what works. We often assume that because we not only believe we are right – in fact, we know we are right – so that the rules that other mortals must follow don’t really pertain to us. We’ve got God, country, our own brilliance, mojo, or whatever working for us. As you’ll see in subsequent posts this is a big mistake.

We just created a fan page on Facebook to support the publication of the new revised paperback version on Beyond the Wall of Resistance. The new sub-title – Why 70% of Changes Still Fail -and What To Do About It is the focus of this “new” book.  I will putting lots of tips and other resources on this page.

If you do Facebook, please consider joining me. Type “beyond the wall” and you’ll find it.  Or click here. Of, if you prefer Twitter, you can join me.

Great article in this morning’s The Wall Street Journal titled Recalculating the Costs of Big Layoffs. Lots of good hard-number examples. It still amazes me after so many years of solid research on the impact of downsizing (see Wayne Cascio’s work for starter) that it still seems to be the default reaction when costs have to be cut.

I encourage you to read this fine article by Scott Thurm and pass it along.

United and Continental announced a merger of equals today. (Of course this merger would need to be approved by the US Department of Justice.)

The name on the planes would be United, the CEO would come from Continental, and ownership would be 55% United and 45% Continental. (Wall Street Journal 5/3/10)

It all sounds good for owners, but history suggests that there are few mergers of equals. (more…)

As I drastically revised my 1996 book, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, I was drawn back to Douglas McGregor’s classis Theory X and Theory Y as a way to describe the challenges of leading change in organizations today. I recorded a 12-minute Podcast titled “Informal talk about the value of Theory X and Theory Y for those who lead change.” I posted in the Change Resources section of the Change Management Open Source Project. You can join for free.

By the way, beyond the Wall of Resistance: Why 70% of Changes Still Fail – and What To Do About It will be released this summer.

“An Associated Press-GfK Poll shows that 38 percent favor U.S. vehicles while 33 percent prefer Asian brands, a significant improvement for U.S. automakers compared to four years ago. (In a December 2006 AP-AOL poll, 46 percent said Asian countries made superior cars, while just 29 percent said American automakers did.)” Read the article.

There undoubtedly are multiple reasons for this. For instance, US automakers are making more cars that people want. But, it is interesting that the survey  seems to indicate that preference for all Asian autos has lessened because of the Toyota crisis.

This is what I call Level 3 resistance in action. (more…)