Managing Change and Making it Stick

If only. . . we could manage change more effectively and make the changes stick!

The Constancy of Change

The only certainty seems to be that you can't be certain about anything! Increasingly, organisations must act with only partial knowledge (and sometimes total ignorance) of the likely shape and direction of future events. Even where circumstances appear fixed, and events predictable in the immediate term, small disturbances in the external environment or internal dynamics of the organisation usually conspire to confound "the best laid plans . . ." etc. Change is accelerating and the simple rules-of-thumb that managers used to rely upon no longer seem to work in a complex and rapidly changing world.

Disappointing Results and Short-lived Benefits

In addition, we have all experienced change efforts that have petered out, change programmes that have failed to deliver the expected benefits, and initiatives that have disappointed those who were initially enthusiastic. According to research by Harvard Business School, for example, over two-thirds of change programmes fail to deliver the desired benefits.

Building and sustaining the competitiveness of organisations under these conditions poses two important questions for leaders and managers:

• how can we build resilience into our organisations to enable them to thrive in conditions of uncertainty and continuous change?
• how can we manage specific changes more effectively, to ensure that the desired benefits are delivered and maintained?