Part 5 of my mini-series on why transformations often fail.

Reason 5 - Failure to identify and eliminate obstacles

We need to identify and eliminate obstacles that obstruct transformation progress.

Employees understand the vision ?

They want to contribute to its’ realisation ?

? But - there are obstacles in the way.

Sometimes it’s all in the mind. Employees think they can’t change because they’ve “always done it this way.” They need to be coached and encouraged.

But usually the barriers are real.

Organisational structure is often a culprit.

For example, restrictive job categories can impede efforts to improve productivity and create customer-centric thinking. Salary, bonus and appraisal systems can force people to choose between their personal self-interest and the new vision. Unsurprisingly, people often choose to protect their own interests.

Most damaging can be middle managers, who can use both active and passive resistance to thwart the effectiveness of change.

For transformation to be effective, organisational structure and culture often need to change. That means C-Suite who live and breathe the vision, and are highly visible in doing so. It often means that like-minded people need to be seeded at all levels and in all functions.

That doesn’t happen very often. And so transformations fail, or at best only realise a fraction of the planned benefits.