Why Most Reorgs Fail

Studies suggest that up to 70% of change initiatives fail to produce their intended outcomes.

These high failure rates are mostly due to three principle factors:

1) team resistance; 2) a lack of clear communication; and 3) insufficient leadership support.

All three of these factors can be avoided through effective and thoughtful communications that explain clearly, and without corporate-speak, why the change is needed, who the change will affect, and what the timeline for change looks like.

Accomplishing this all within a conversational and authentic tone, and where possible, using narratives that articulate important abstract points, is critical.

Otherwise, that re-org memo you wrote will be heard something like this:

Subject: Embracing Change: A Strategic Re-Realignment for Our Future

Team,

As we continue our journey toward operational excellence and market leadership, it is imperative we remain agile, responsive, and forward-thinking in the face of shifting industry dynamics.

That is why six months ago, senior leadership realized that resting on our laurels has cost us millions of dollars and likely would cost us more if we did not engage a very expensive consultant (and friend of the Board Chairman) to help us stop habitually looking in the rearview mirror.

Identifying evolving customer behaviors and heightened competitive pressures, our consultant has advised us to take decisive action to enhance efficiencies, optimize synergies, and unlock new opportunities for growth. It looked great in the PowerPoint they presented last week.

Some of their suggestions, what we are calling Re-Alignment 2.0 and ?, sounds a lot like employee recommendations posted in our online feedback forum. Any similarities are purely coincidental.

This transformation will include a holistic realignment of our Operations and Technology teams to foster greater cross-functional functioning, drive end-to-end innovation, and embed executional rigor within our core strategic pillars. Fun Fact: those pillars are also being redesigned from doric to ionic as part of our latest rebrand.

Many of you will recall we realigned these teams 18 months ago in the reverse direction, a move that, while executed with great enthusiasm, has yielded no measurable benefit to our company or our customers. In keeping with our commitment to iterative reinvention, we embark on this re-alignment with great optimism, albeit with no additional data or specific revenue/profit goals to support its efficacy.

As some of you have stated anonymously on several job boards, many of our clients have grown weary of our frequent organizational reshufflings as they tend to disrupt service levels and introduce new inefficiencies just as our clients have adapted to the last set of changes. We appreciate everyone’s patience and firmly believe that our clients’ lack of viable, low-cost alternatives creates tremendous loyalty to our brand—at least until a competitor undercuts our pricing model.

We recognize that transitions of this magnitude are not without impact. As part of this evolution, some senior executives are being blamed for Re-Alignment 1.3’s failure, so certain positions will be phased out to ensure we are leveraging resources in the most strategic and results-oriented manner possible.

We acknowledge change brings uncertainty – and that this memo resolves none of that for you. Still, trust that we are committed to supporting impacted team members through this transition, including providing a comprehensive support framework that may, or may not, include career transition services, professional guidance, and other resources. We remain dedicated to treating everyone with the utmost respect and care.

For those of you not already being recruited by our competitors, this transformation presents a unique opportunity to upskill, evolve, and contribute in new and impactful ways. Please ensure you have received PTO time approval from your supervisor for any and all hours required for your self-funded, public or private education journey.

Additionally, we are pleased to announce that John Smith and Terry Jones have been promoted to Senior Vice President, overseeing broadly defined areas of strategic importance. While their new responsibilities remain fluid, we have every confidence in their leadership. Their familial ties to members of the board of directors is purely coincidental and entirely unfounded.

We recognize you may have questions about what this means for your role and how these changes will manifest in day-to-day operations. Can’t help you with that right now. Your immediate supervisor just learned about Re-Alignment 2.0 two hours ago and has a cheat sheet. Shoot them a company-monitored email.

This is a transformational journey. While everything might feel like it is changing, what remains unchanged is our collective commitment to ambiguity and top-down directives. If it helps, I want to express my sincere appreciation for your dedication, resilience, and adaptability. If that doesn’t help, I don’t know what else to say.

Finally, our technology supporting the online employee feedback forum has been realigned and will be off-line until we can fix it. No ETA for that at this time.

Best regards,

Your Senior Leadership Team

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