By Klaus Döring
To keep pace with a changing world, businesses continuously go through multiple organizational changes to outperform their competitors and innovate, to improve productivity and drive revenue. While there is an increase in change volumes and complexities, only one in three change management initiatives succeed.
Why are these change initiatives failing? Organizations often tend to neglect the people aspect of change management.
It’s important to humanize change. Organizations tend to underestimate the power dynamics within their org and contextual considerations, as well as downplay internal resistance to change. They address change management with a top-to-bottom approach, forgetting that change imposition is often met with pushback.
To decrease this pushback, leaders should conduct a baseline assessment to identify the barriers to change and address them for a successful change initiative.
What are the most common barriers to change projects?
Lack of Clarity
Ineffective Change Communication
Strategic Shortcoming
Change Resistant Culture
Lack of Organizational Buy-In
Change Fatigue
Lack of Governance
“I have nothing to offer but blood, tears and sweat!” The former British statesman Sir Winstin L. Churchill (1874-1965) said this in 1940 – certainly in a very sad interrelation during World War II.
Blood, tears and sweat also are there because of changes and challenges in our daily life. Yes, how many times does our life challenge us to a duel? I am not talking about the provocative or defiant people around us who just love to block or eventually want to change our lives into negativism. These people just make “much ado about nothing” (thank you William Shakespeare for this quotation!). These people carry their curt and not-binding smile, but for a long time, these people didn’t try even a single step in the direction of changes and challenges.
The rest is silence. And allow me to quote Shakespeare again: “There are more things in heaven and earth. Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy!”
Every change means a challenge. Changes in life are always important and necessary. Let’s alter or make a difference; let’s put one thing for another; let’s shift, let’s quit one state for another, let’s take fresh clothing! Change is a transformation from the old to the new, from negative to positive, from ignorance to knowledge, from doubts and worries to understanding and awareness, from fear to faith, from death to growth, from sadness to happiness, from “I cannot” to ” I can”!
Nothing is permanent except a change. A change cannot be avoided, even if we close our eyes. A change can be only delayed. Let’s open our eyes and take the challenge to be successful in life. Those who fail to change are history. We can’t always achieve new results using the old ways.
Burn the “Lock Fat” away – and maybe one day we awake one morning and find ourselves happy after experiencing times of blood, tears and sweat. Nothing comes from anything… .
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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com .
