The 3 main reasons change initiatives fail & why we shouldn’t play the blame game

Why couldn’t they just… What’s wrong with them? How can they be so difficult? It’s all ……’s fault!

Being human, we hate when things don’t go according to plan because it makes us feel helpless and out of control. This is especially so when it comes to change because it inherently brings uncertainty and the unknown. Our egos therefore step in and look for something to blame, something to explain and add certainty to the outcome.?

The thing we choose to blame will almost always be outside of ourselves. While in some situations the blame may be assigned to the situation, it will almost always land on another person. But what if I told you that those you’re choosing to blame have picked the best choices they could see based on where they were at that moment in time?

This is the belief that underpins my approach to change. There is no me vs you in my approach. There’s only an us vs the problem/hurdle.

I truly believe that everyone wants to make their lives easier, wants to support good ideas and wants to exist peacefully with others. But more often than not, we find ourselves in situations where we’re simply not able to make the objectively best choice. We all want the best for ourselves and those we care about but we’ve placed roadblocks in our path that make doing the ‘right thing’ so hard that it’s either not viable or not sustainable.

So please, when considering the three main causes of change failure below, try to step back from blame and into a state of compassion where you and the thing/person you’re blaming can look for ways to get back on track to achieving your underlying change objective.

Focusing on the wrong need

Have you ever found yourself in a company where as soon as senior staff are under pressure to impress shareholders, it feels like a game of smoke and mirrors where solutions magically appear and seem to present everything as it should be only to fall apart months later? Or maybe you were one of those creative people who was told to do the right thing and get a corporate, well paid job because financial security and a mortgage should be top priorities in life.

So often when changes go wrong, it’s because the focus has been on the wrong thing.?

Instead of looking at meaningful, aligned objectives, the focus shifts to quick-fix surface needs driven by a desire to make the pain go away.?

It’s seeing shareholders yelling at you for poor returns instead of exploring why the business may not be performing as expected or seeing the disappointed look on your mum’s face or the friends that stop hanging out with you because you’re not following the crowd and fitting in.

Because the focus is on the pain, making the decision is coming from a compromised state of survival mode where you can’t see whether the solution chosen is a good or bad one. Whether we’re trying to change things in our own lives or the way others behave, our attention as decision makers isn’t always focused on the greatest impact or the most sustainable outcome. If we’re designing solutions for ourselves, we wind up unsatisfied with the outcome or abandoning our pursuit as more effort is demanded. If we’re designing solutions for others, we may not even get that far unless the power imbalance means we can metaphorically plug a hole in a bucket with sticky tape until the problem once again becomes big enough for us to go back to the drawing board for a new solution.

How to address this problem:

Do the work when designing a change intervention. Decision sciences are an incredible tool to help you structure how you choose your problem and solution so that you’re less likely to fall victim to personal biases and heuristics that may lead you astray. Equally, the more self aware you become, the more capable you’ll be of exploring the deepest ‘WHY’ driving you to solve the problem which can enable you to examine other solutions which may be more suitable.

The environment doesn’t support the new reality/result of the change

Have you ever tried to give up junk food while living near amazing restaurants or next to a convenience or candy store??

What about trying to get fit when your friends only ever want to catch up for a coffee/food and hate the idea of a walk.

Perhaps your company has rolled out a new software solution that requires staff to be chained to their desks to access it despite spending 90% of their day driving around meeting clients.?

In case you hadn’t guessed from the above examples, the external environment in which the change has to exist can be really important. That said, the importance of environment really depends on the situation you’re in. If the change is something you know people either don’t care either way or if they want the outcome but will need a great deal of momentum to achieve it in the wrong environment, it can be a really critical piece in achieving change outcomes. As such it either determines whether the change is even possible or it determines just how much effort will be required to implement the change and maintain the new behaviour or situation. If the environment makes it physically impossible or incredibly difficult to adopt and sustain the change, it’s going to require some very skilled and determined people to make it work.

How to address this problem:

Understanding your environment means understanding the effect it has on those who need to adopt the change. Whether you utilise the skills of behavioural scientists, designers or market research teams, experimenting with subtle ways to change the environment to become more supportive can do wonders.

The recipients can’t/won’t embrace it

Do you remember as a kid being told you had to do something and then on questioning being met with the response because I said so!? How did you feel? Did you do what you were told or look for ways to rebel or avoid it? If you did as asked, did you look for ways to make yourself feel better after?

Of every problem responsible for failed change, telling people they have to do something that doesn’t appeal to (or scare) them is THE most complained about reason. And unfairly so which is why I adamantly believe there is no room for blame when implementing change.

Whether the effort required outweighs the incentive/reward, they’re too overwhelmed to deal with yet another change or their past experiences and the narratives shaping their perspective frame the likely outcome as far more negative than you as implementer do, opposition to a change isn’t simply a case of people being difficult.?

How to address this problem:

Problems like these often rest with the person designing the change.?

If you’re designing a solution for yourself and you slip up, it means there’s something you subconsciously value about what was that you can’t get met by the changed situation. If this is the case, try a ‘5 whys’ deep dive to try and uncover what it is and then explore different ways that second need could still be met.

If you’re designing a solution for other people and they resist, it means they lack the support or ability to adopt the change. Often strong opposition comes from the subconscious and so a simple conversation may not reveal the real reason but some cleverly phrased questions might point to the narratives. Similarly, for overwhelm, consider what other changes might be happening and whether you can restructure the way the change is presented.?

Do you agree with my three main change problems? Is there an equally important one you think I've missed or a strategy you've experimented with that could help with one of the above?

Let me know in the comments below!