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The reason stated?
Managers have so many priority projects at once that they can't tell what's important and what isn't.Although change projects are given top priority at most companies, almost half of the more than 500 managers surveyed said that a significant number of such projects failed to meet the stated goals.
The #1 reason given for failed change initiatives was having too many "top" priority projects and an inability to coordinate and integrate these across their organization.
Here's a fascinating factoid: When asked about the success of these projects, C-level executives were twice as likely to judge change projects as "almost always" successful as non-C-level managers.
Why would the senior execs be so much more positive?
a. Maybe they are better informed about the big picture, are more satisfied, but not getting the message out to the people who are "making it happen."
b. Maybe they aren't in touch with what's really happening.
c. Perhaps "success" is measured differently at different levels in an organization.
Two other key findings:
More than a third believed there are too many independent or disconnected initiatives in different areas of their organization.
And fewer than 20% thought change "always succeeded" in their organization.
This really isn't all that surprising to me. First, there's no guarantee that making a change in the way you set out to do it will yield success. However, that 20% figure would indicate that, if universal, managers and employees--over time--could become wary of the "change" mantra.
The part that rings most true is the plethora of priorities. Sitting in a conference room not long ago, an executive tried to get guidance from his CEO. "I've got no less than than twelve initiatives going simultaneously. Which should I really focus on?"
The CEO answered, "Yes", and sat silently. He thought it was a clever response. We'll see what the results yield.
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