Seventy percent of change initiatives fail. Some reach the goal but do not meet expectations. Some achieve partial success. Some fade and disappear. Still others stop intentionally.
So how can you tell if your project is at risk of a similar fate? Watch for these three tell-tale signs that your initiative is headed for the grass.
1. Leaders are not happy with progress
Leaders in an organization have limited tolerance for continuing to put resources into something that does not generate tangible benefits. If the initiative does not meet expectations, they may decide to end it.
Example: A process improvement effort met its goals of increasing employee submissions, but struggled to meet its financial goals of cost reduction. After 18 months, the top executives pulled the plug.
Remedy: Manage expectations. Progress report. Generate profit as soon as possible.
2. People stick with the old style, even if it’s extra work
When implementing a new process, method, or tool, it is common for people to duplicate work in parallel (both old and new) for a limited period of time. If, after that period of time, people are still duplicating the same work with the old method, “just in case”, they are still not convinced that it will work for them. It is a sign that the new form will be dropped as soon as you turn your attention to something else.
Example: A new reporting system made a production schedule maintained in an Excel spreadsheet redundant. The plant programmer continued to enter the information into both systems, even after the trial period. Eventually, the new report was removed.
Remedy: Fix what doesn’t work on the new system. Stay with him until the old tool is out of circulation.
3. It falls off the agenda
If your change initiative is added to a meeting agenda as an afterthought, or left at the end so it can be discarded if time runs out, watch out! It is a clear sign that the project has lost its priority.
Example: An organization’s balanced scorecard was definitely top of the agenda at monthly leadership team meetings. Until a month, when the end of the meeting was scheduled. The following month it was not on the agenda at all. Then the scorecard was completely forgotten.
Remedy: Hold separate meetings for your initiative. Address underlying resistance.
It can be difficult, even impossible, to regain your initiative from the brink. To prevent your initiative from reaching that point, apply the essential ingredients of change early on and throughout the life of the project.
