The Change Catalyst

Introduction

88% of change initiatives fail.

According to a 2016 Bain & Company survey of 250 large companies,¹ only 12% of change projects achieve or exceed their projected outcomes. A further 38% produce less than half of their expected results. The final 50% ‘settle for a significant dilution of results’. In other words, seven out of eight change initiatives fail.

A similar proportion of mergers and acquisitions fail. A comparable proportion of corporate strategies fail. A similar number of large IT projects fail.

While there may be some debate about the percentages, Bain isn't the only consultancy to arrive at a similar conclusion. A 2008 McKinseys survey estimated that two-thirds of change projects fail. John Kotter, in his seminal book, Leading Change (1996), estimated the number to be around 70%.

Several studies by several consultancies over several decades have all deduced that change is so difficult to achieve, and so fraught with obstacles, that organisations usually end up abandoning change programmes altogether or settling for significantly watered-down outcomes; wasting vast sums of money doing the former and foregoing opportunities for increased revenue, profit and shareholder value doing the latter.

Only one in eight change initiatives deliver the results they set out to achieve. Why?

There are many reasons and they are all intertwined. But from my many decades of experience assisting organisations large and small to instigate change, I have come to the conclusion ...