Why Change Needs Endurance
Organizational Change is the latest buzz in business; major organizations have dedicated change departments, senior executives see it as a magic bullet, and an entire job market has grown out of the idea that in order to succeed, we must manage change.
With numerous official Change programs and certifications along with decades of data citing success, there is no question that the effective use of Change principles get results…so why do so many Change efforts actually fail?
With all things being equal and assuming that an organization is properly applying proven Change principles, many times the effective implementation of a Change Initiative will still fail - much to the chagrin of the leadership who just witnessed the loss of months of time, gobs of money, and sometimes credibility. At the pace many companies operate, the barest of time may be given to a post-mortem to try and figure out what went wrong, but more likely blame is shuffled around and the hunt begins for new contractors and consultants to onboard for the next initiative. It doesn’t have to be this way, and this article will tell you why.
Here is the reason why a newly implemented change doesn’t bring about the ROI the leadership is looking for:
Unless and until the new change has taken root and become the new status quo, long term change will fail. In order for long term change to succeed in becoming a reliable part of an organization, one thing is required that is often overlooked - Change Endurance.
What is Change Endurance?
You may not be familiar with the term, but the idea should seem familiar–obvious, even. You want change to last. There was a reason behind the change, after all, a reason to invest so much and cause such a disruption that you felt the need to pay a lot of money to have someone come in and manage it all. It’s only natural that you hope and even expect that change will work, and that it will work for a long time. In spite of this, however, not enough attention is being paid to the long game.
Change Endurance is not a new concept, but it is a concept that is overlooked, and often unclear, even to those professionals who focus on the work of change day-in and day-out. The Bridge Change Endurance Life Cycle approach works by promulgating the idea of Change Endurance and planning for it at the start. Too often a change initiative will plan for short term goals (like Go Live) and give lip-service to sustainability (like Hypercare) and not truely plan for the marathon pace required to maintain lasting change.
In a major project you often have multiple bodies at work, all striving toward the same ostensible goal, but often focused on something a little more close-to-home. There is the PMO (Project Management Office) side, concerned with delivering on the Project Charter above all things. If they cross the finish line on time and on budget and the widget does what it is supposed to do, they win. (And the on-time and on-budget aspects are negotiable.) Then there is the BMO (Business Management Office) side, focused on operationalizing any initiative to support the business. And of course the CMO (Change Management Office) - or if such an outfit doesn’t exist, then an individual or a team of folks leading OCM (Organizational Change Management) activities. The OCM Leads will be focused on that magical “successful implementation of change” that everyone wants to happen but so few actually grasp what it means (including, sometimes, the OCM Leads). When you have this natural-but-regrettable split focus, things are going to slip through the cracks.
Change initiatives fail to meet the expected ROI due to lack of focus; for the most part, all parties involved want the change to succeed they simply aren’t aware of what is missing.
In part two of our look at Change Endurance, we will explore the Bridge’s Change Endurance Life Cycle and provide you with what you need to effect long-term change.