Close to 75% of businesses expect to expand the types of major change initiatives they will undertake from 2020-2023, but 50% of change initiatives fail. Ronan Cloud, Director of Economic Development at Copper, explains why.

Now, more than ever, we’re living through a period of change. It’s happening in every industry. From adopting digital-first approaches to implementing policies that support the race to net zero, organisations are restructuring the way they do things.

Building resilience to change itself is also becoming more prevalent, with many businesses taking a data-led approach to stimulate, predict and facilitate internal change.

However, half of all change initiatives fail.

Why?

Many change initiatives are imposed upon employees, reducing their longevity as they are not tailored to and embedded within company ethos. Employee sentiment plays a pivotal role in change initiatives, so engaging them in the journey is key.

  • Change generally isn’t communicated effectively to employees and the benefits aren’t demonstrated convincingly.

A dedicated communication strategy for rolling out change is often overlooked in favour of advancing operational models, which often leaves communication by the wayside.

  • Change management efforts fail to be tracked, evaluated and adapted.

The success of a change programme is largely based on employee reception and an organisation’s ability to adapt accordingly. This step can be the difference between ignored and accepted.

  • There is a lack of executive sponsorship or leadership.

A top-down approach is often not considered, resulting in a lack of senior buy-in and advocacy. Change is about vision and inspiration, which needs to be driven from the top.

Building change to last

While operational change is the key to changing business models, the real shift in people comes from behaviour change. That’s why we recently launched our change management solution – C:change.

C:change enables organisations to build momentum for their change programme by engaging stakeholders and bringing them on a journey. The five-step model takes a co-creation approach, working with your audience to develop and deploy change management programmes, ensuring we build advocacy at every step.

Capture the imagination

Communication remains avital aspect of articulating and demonstrating the benefits that businesses are making. But, more importantly, it’s the platform for companies to explain why the change matters and to showcase their vision for the future – capturing the imagination. After all, people are far more likely to come on the journey if they know the destination.

Striking the right balance

Change management programmes must strike the right balance between driving advocacy and empowering change. This stems from having a rich understanding of employee behaviours and attitudes, which can help futureproof change strategies. Essentially, taking more of a psychologist’s view will ensure change lasts.

For change to be successful, a behavioural shift is required – both in how you operate and communicate.

Find out more. Contact Ronan Cloud, Director of Economic Development at Copper.

Learn more about C:change.