If you have ever spent time and effort trying to create something new in the communications business, you know it rarely is easy, simple or uncomplicated to do so, and the larger the organization you work for, the harder it seems to be. That is because all organizational change involves power and politics, and changes will be resisted.
You might be familiar with the rule of thumb that 70 percent of organizational change programs fail, in part or completely.
There is a reason for that experience. Assume you propose some change that requires just two approvals to proceed, with the odds of approval at 50 percent for each step. The odds of getting “yes” decisions in a two-step process are about 25 percent (.5x.5=.25).
The odds get longer for any change process that actually requires multiple approvals. Assume there are five sets of approvals. Assume your odds of success are high--about 66 percent--at each stage. In that case, your odds of success are about one in eight (.66x.66x.66x.66x.66=82/243).
Consider a study by McKinsey on successful organizational change. That study suggests that about 26 percent of all attempted organizational transformations succeed, whether or not change agents have taken at least 24 discrete actions in support of the change. In that study, the suggested actions are not necessarily the same as approval hurdles. But the principle is likely at work.
The more hurdles (approvals) required for a change to happen, the less likely the change will happen. Even when the odds of approval at any stage are 66 percent, the necessity of just five approvals will lead to seven of eight change efforts failing.
No comments:
Post a Comment