How to make change catch-on without chasing it
It starts from connecting with and leading your people well
Change usually combines a program with a prayer … and spikes complaining.
Improvement provides process and progress … and sparks compounding.
Leaders often mistake installing a new system for actually changing employee behaviour.
According to Bain & Company research, only 12% of major transformation programs achieve or exceed their ambitions. Most don’t fail outright. They simply produce a smaller, safer version of what leaders originally promised. The problem usually isn’t strategy or technology. It’s that leaders mistake installing change for actually changing behaviour.
So, the goal should be progress, not exhausting yourself to get to a destination. Achieving progress has been assessed as the number one contributor to motivation, productivity and work satisfaction. And a rising tide lifts all boats.
When the human side of the business is ignored, initiatives quietly underdeliver or fail outright. Change may be the end goal, but change is a consequence of improvement, not necessarily the other way around. At LevelUp, we don't chase change. Rather, we turn our focus to helping organisations first understand the factors that drives the behaviour of their people - top to bottom. Then, we help them choose the program that best meets their needs, making the best use of the learning and tools on offer to build deeper connection and ensure buy-in to a culture of improvement.
Bill Gates put it simply: “With rare exceptions, most of the miracles of humankind are long-term, constructed things. Progress comes bit by bit.”
Six reasons why change programs don't work
It's history repeating
We've been doing change
management now since the 1980s
and, frankly, it doesn't stick.
Diane Dromgold,
Managing Director, RNC Global
Mostly reactive, rarely proactive
People often don’t change until they:
- Suffer enough that they want to.
- Experience enough ‘til they learn to.
- Or grow enough so they are able to.
Keith Kraft,
Transforming Leaders from the Inside Out
Habits and history
The comfort of familiarity
Getting (people) to think imaginatively
about change is like petitioning the local
crack house to separate its recyclables.
Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley,
Why Change Doesn’t Work
The comfort of familiarity
The comfort of familiarity
Especially when challenged, people just want to go back to Egypt. And you can’t build a better future on a vision of the past.
Carey Nieuwhof,
The High Impact Leader
It's reactive, not proactive
Too often, leaders and executive coaches gather people together and try to teach them change … after there’s been a setback.
That’s like trying to teach first-time skydivers how to land while they’re falling.
Brene Brown
Dare to Lead
The "Tupperware Toy" principle
It requires individually shaped pegs (us) to fit into ‘other’ shaped holes.
So, if one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest have to drown as well?
Internet Graffiti