Common mistakes
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Solutions
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1. No performance focus. |
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Changes to skills, culture, structure, etc. must be aligned
with specific business results.
• Ensure performance metrics like market share, productivity,
innovation are as specific as possible; clearly link change activities
these metrics.
• Define short-term wins to build credibility and momentum. |
2. Lack of a winning strategy. |
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The best change program in the world can’t overcome
a structurally disadvantaged industry position (inadequate
scale, the wrong technology, poor location).
• Ensure you have a the resources, leadership, etc. to give
you a reasonable chance of creating a winning strategy. |
3. Failure to mobilize and engage pivotal groups. |
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Pivotal groups need a strong case for change, a compelling
value proposition (“what's in it for me?”), strong
support (new goals, information, tools), and effective communication.
• Define which groups are key to implementing change; determine
how meaningful the case for change is to each one.
• Figure out how you can improve their participation. |
4. Not understanding decision-driven vs. behaviour-dependent
change. |
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Unlike changes in market positioning or pricing, behaviour-based
change involves less tangible areas like skills and culture. A
different mindset and solid leadership skills are needed to successfully
apply changes to behaviour.
• Pre-determine the mix of decision and behavioural changes.
• Ensure the appropriate mindsets and skills are being applied. |
5. Over-reliance on structure and systems. |
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Structural and systems changes are easy to track, but they
rarely result in broad-based behavioural change or skills development.
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Determine what else you need to get the organization performing
in new ways. |
6. Lack of skills and resources. |
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Many companies simply fail to put the appropriate time, people
and resources against the opportunity.
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Make sure you’ve
allocated the right resources for the challenge, or create
a plan to acquire or develop those resources. |
7. Leaders' inability to change. |
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Any attempt to change the direction of an organization will
fail if senior executives do not adopt the changes themselves.
• Determine
that they are aligned with the change process, and are willing
to model the values and behaviours they demand of others.
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8. Inability to align initiatives. |
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Major change requires many initiatives (strategy, re-engineering,
training, leadership development, management system redesign).
How they relate to one another can get confusing from a “big
picture” perspective.
• Create an overall architecture to
help guide and fit all the pieces together. |
