Seventy to eighty percent of cultural change programs fail.

The stark truth is that 70 to 80% of cultural change programs fail. There are many reasons for that, not least of which is that whilst organisations and executives might recognise the need for change, they are rarely clear about what they want to change into.

What often happens is Cultural Change Consultants are engaged to run a few workshops, which those who attend find a nice break from their daily routine. The workshop group as a whole might agree to do things differently and attendees may make pledges in line with that. Then everyone returns to work after the first, second or third costly workshop is over where life and work return to normal i.e. just the way it was before. The attitudes, behaviours, processes and procedures employees are required to follow remain unchanged.

Within a month or two the workshops are forgotten and the finance department can look back at how much the whole exercise cost. Not just the cost of the Change Consultants, but that of taking people away from their jobs and the impact on productivity.

Culture is incredibly difficult and time-consuming to change, but if you don’t manage the culture of your organisation you will in all likelihood end up with the sort of culture you don’t want.

There are better ways. One such approach is to implement a new business framework or in other words a new way of working. Service Profit Chain is a different way of working, a holistic business framework. It isn’t a short-term fix to cultural problems. It can’t be because there is no such thing. It requires absolute commitment from senior management and as it is progressively implemented across an organisation, the culture changes for the better. Employees and Customers notice the difference.