Seventy percent of large organization transformations fail. The reason these transformations fail is that a structured change management program has not been incorporated into the initiative.

Instead of using such a program, senior leaders often attempt change by simply training the workforce to do something different, changing processes to enable work to be done better, faster, and cheaper, or simply compelling workers to do things differently. While implementing any of these processes may seem like a logical approach to driving change, these actions do not lead to the desired transformation.

When you review the 30 percent of transformation programs that succeed, you will find a common pattern for why they are successful. These programs take a top-down, bottom-up approach and have in common four steps that embody this approach, and one additional ingredient that is absolutely essential—grit.

Assess and Spread

In the first step, the senior leader will assess the organization and its needed change and will set the direction for this change, aligning it with the goals of the overall transformation initiative. This executive also will begin spreading the message to employees about what this change is and will start identifying "mission owners," champions of change among the management ranks who will help drive change throughout the organization.

At the very beginning of this step and each of the other steps, the senior leader will define a set of questions to keep the change management program on course. Key questions relating to this step include:

  • Is there a clear vision of the future state and path forward for the organization?
  • Is there an understanding of the need for change across the organization?
  • Is there commitment from senior leadership to champion the change?

Shift

The senior leader cannot implement the change management program alone. In this step, therefore, the executive will shift ownership of the change initiatives to the mission owners by bringing them into the program and giving them responsibility for implementing the initiatives.

Questions relating to this step include:

  • What specific progresses, roles, and structures will change?
  • Are there communication and engagement mechanisms in place to cascade the case for change across the organization?
  • Is the organizational infrastructure in place to support the desired future state behaviors?

Deepen

The senior leader and mission owners will drive the capacity for change adoption throughout the organization by altering employee behavioral norms and reinforcing cultural principles underlying the transformation program. Although they will drive the initiatives from the top, they will strengthen the program's bottom-up approach by understanding and addressing the issues, concerns, and barriers to change of those at the lower levels of the organization.

This step is the most difficult to achieve. But it's also the most important to the success of the program because here is where employees are asked to really change and where the senior leader and mission owners will monitor the program to make sure the transformation is taking hold. Such monitoring may need to be continued for months or years, requiring patience and commitment.

Questions relating to this step include:

  • What type of organizational culture is needed in the end state?
  • How do efforts uphold underlying organizational values?
  • How can the organization capture people’s emotional commitment to the change?

In this step, the mission owners institute measures to track the efficacy and "stickiness" of the change initiatives. They oversee the implementation of the drive for change, while the senior leader supervises the program to make sure progress is being made.

Questions relating to this step include:

  • What is the plan to address challenges as the program matures beyond the transformation period?
  • What is the plan to maintain urgency as new priorities emerge?
  • How will the organization embed the responsibility for driving the vision into day-to-day leadership objectives and plans?

Grit

Across all four steps, "grit" is needed to succeed.

"Grit," as stated by Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth, "is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality." Without grit, this step in the change management program will fail, and the otherwise-successful transformation that gets off to a good start will eventually languish unaccomplished.

All successful change management programs have these four steps—and grit, the key ingredient that differentiates the success of one program from the failure of another. In a federal environment where change takes on increasing urgency, the most important decision an executive makes is not why or when or even how to change the organization—but how to build the internal grit needed to make any change succeed.

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