Organizational Change Management Challenges Abound, but Help Is Readily Available

A previous blog made the case for why continual change is essential for any organization that wants to grow and prosper. This blog identifies a few common obstacles that stand in the way of change, as well as strategies and tactics for overcoming them.

The biggest challenge, which was touched upon in the first blog, is human-centric: people tend to avoid change at all costs because they fear what they don’t understand. Another challenge is that when executing change, the organization and its people effectively need to perform the equivalent of keeping the car moving forward while changing a tire. This is not only very difficult to pull off, but also incredibly stressful.

Studies indicate that between 70 percent and 95 percent of digital transformations — i.e., the implementation and adoption of digital technology — fail because organizations fail to align and engage their people with the implementation. This generally occurs because they cannot allocate the time and resources needed to help personnel first cope with the change and then embrace it. This challenge isn’t limited to technology implementations; it also applies to changes in operational processes.

We live in a world of accountability, and when projects fall behind established timelines or fail to produce the expected results, training is the first thing that gets trimmed — sometimes even eliminated — when it should be the very last thing cut. When training is reduced or eliminated, change management is significantly affected. Recall the point made in the previous paragraph: people fear what they don’t understand. Effective training fosters understanding, which in turn eliminates fear, or at least reduces it.

A corollary challenge is that organizations often fail to update their processes when new technology is implemented. This might seem counterintuitive because continuing to use old processes virtually guarantees that any new technologies won’t function optimally, nor will they provide the expected return on investment. But it happens — a lot — due to the time and resource limitations mentioned above, but also because organizations typically understand what the new technology does, but not how it works, at least initially.

So, how does an organization address these challenges? The first step is understanding that organizational change management (OCM) is not a rigid step-by-step process but rather a malleable framework that adjusts to the organization’s unique circumstances and culture. It certainly is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The second step is to engage with a third party — like MCP — that is an expert in OCM to guide you in applying the framework so that every challenge is addressed.

When organizations try to do this on their own, they often miss key challenges. A common oversight is failing to identify and consider all stakeholders that will be affected by the change. Knowing and understanding how every stakeholder group will be impacted dramatically improves the likelihood that not only will the implementation go smoothly, but also that the new technology or process improvement will deliver the expected results. An OCM expert consultant is particularly valuable in this regard.

Initiative that require organizational change fare better when champions are identified within the organization. These people are innovators, early adopters, and technologists. They are the ones who sign up a year in advance when a new Apple Watch is announced. They are the ones whom others follow, and they make the pathway to change easier and faster. The good news is that several effective assessment tools exist, such as Gallup’s StrengthFinders, to discover them.

A future blog will offer a glimpse of what a successful OCM looks like. In the meantime, MCP’s subject-matter experts would love the opportunity to discuss how they can help you develop an OCM plan that aligns with your unique needs, environment, and culture—so please reach out.