60% of organisational change fails unless…

A friend, Nick Petrie, sent me some information that I think you really need to be aware of. Nick is a facilitator of the Creative Leadership Centre in the United States. He said:

‘Over the last 18 months we analysed 1,188 changes at 11 global companies to see what works when leading change. What we uncovered was eye -opening.  When staff were asked to rate the success of a change against 4 measures* the data showed that organizational changes had a 60% failure rate.'

So changes that were needed, important and had urgency, 60% never happened!  Just think about that and the impact of under-performance, stress, profits and morale. 

Of course projects were set up to address the 1,118 changes by the companies, to analyse the 60% that would make the organisation more effective, profitable and staff happier!  NOPE! Everyone one is just to busy and probably most would find it difficult to find trends, take the time and effort to make things happen.  

I was fascinated by this so I did some research and here’s what I’ve learnt that will make your changes stick and effective. 

Let’s look at some actual impressive changes that work!

Tali Sharot In her book 'The Influential Mind,' shares some great results. Chapter 3, Should you scare people in to action, provides the following;

The department of disease control found out 62% of employees failed to wash their hands in food outlets in America, despite displaying signs to do so. Hundreds of joints were visited. Just to let you know over 60,000 people in the USA are hospitalised due to food borne disease from restaurants or delis.

They found a similar percentage in hospitals too. Only 38.7% of people sanitized their hands, even though they were reminded with signs as well as verbally.

A study group, even with a budget of $50,000 and 24 months to address this problem of compliance within the hospital in the northeastern United States, found compliance was alarmingly low.

A different approach

The study group, with the consent of the staff, placed cameras at each sanitizer in the ICU unit and staff in India 24/7 monitored the cameras and even though staff knew about this, only 1 in 10 staff were compliant with the rules.

Game Changer

Electronic boards were placed in each room and instantly recorded when people washed their hands. The boards also showed how the current shift was doing. What percentage of workers, doctors, nurses, etc. was washing their hands and what the weekly rate was.

This instant electronic feedback reinforced pleasurable results and feedback. They also got a message like, ‘Well done you’re dong a great job. Thank you!’ Positive instant feedback was greater than the threat of spreading disease.

Compliance shot up to 90%

The results did so astonish that no one believed them. So they did they same in other departments and compliance went through the roof too. See figure 3.1 below from Tali Sharot In her book The Influential Mind, shares some great results.

From the research and my experience these are the areas to address in order for change to happen and become habit-forming: 

1. People are only interested in solving what jobs they needed to do, you need to tie in what they will gain or what they will lose from doing or not doing what you want them to do. This way they will willingly take action. It must resonate personally to them. 
2. Input is needed from people involved otherwise you don’t get any emotionally commitment. No commitment means no change.  See the IKEA affect. There is a Harvard Paper on it here should you wish to further your knowledge on it. 
3. Prickly truths need putting forward as to what the problems are and the time issue involved and or lack of resources  

I hope this stimulates your mind to come up with some great ways to instantly reward, people and teams when they carry out behaviours that are needed to make your people and company work better. 

P.S. The entrances to offices might be a good place for updates and results or a webpage online that everyone can see and instantly update to show their input.

 *The Four Success Measures

• Achieved its Desired Outcome
• Executed on Schedule
• Sustained Over Time
• Helped Organization Develop New Change Capabilities for Future