Succssessful Change. Paying Attention To The Intangibles

“What does it take to make fundamental, lasting, deep change? I have long wondered if there are some identifiable conditions that distinguish successful change efforts from unsuccessful ones—some key success factors.” Successful Change Paying Attention to the Intangibles By John D. Adams OR THE LAST 35 years, I have been involved in promoting and leading changes—both individual life style change and organization systems change—almost constantly. However, I am sad to report, the percentage of completely successful change processes that I have had a direct involvement with has been extremely low. And, I am finding, my experience is not at all unusual. Michael Beer has estimated that 50% of all intentional organizational change projects fail (Beer and Nohria 2000, p. 430). Similarly, Maurer (1996, p. 18) suggests that a majority of organizational change efforts fail in their early stages due to insufficient “buy-in.” And clearly, a large percentage of those changes that do not fail outright come up far short of their original goals or visions. This article is about my journey to date to find out what it takes to make successful, enduring changes—both individual and organization changes. I have been collecting stories of successful changes on both of these levels for over 10 years. This article is a summary of what I have found out so far. For many of the years between 1975 and 1995, I spent most of my professional time teaching, coaching and consulting about issues of stress management, health protection, and worklife balance. Also, between the late 1960s and the present, I have almost always been involved in some sort of large-scale organizational change project, sometimes as an internal OD consultant, and more often from an external position. I have worked with thousands of people in the organizational stress and health arena, and more often than not, intentions such as losing weight, starting an exercise program, or getting more relaxation have faded away rather quickly. As a result, a few people changed their life styles radically, and the rest achieved little or no long-term individual change. Likewise, F O D P R AC T I T I O N E R | VO L . 3 5 | N O . 4 | 2 0 0 3 organizational commitments to alter corporate cultures to produce less unnecessary pressure and stress have foundered more often than not. I know that saving one life makes an expensive corporate wellness program cost effective; and I am confident that my work has prevented a lot of heart attacks. But the majority of the people I’ve worked with haven’t sustained the changes they promised to make. I have worked on large-scale transformational change teams in large government agencies and health care systems; and in a variety of high tech, manufacturing, and insurance companies. I must admit that I have never seen any of these change projects even approach the original goals and visions for transformational change. And it has long seemed to me that the reason for these shortcomings is almost always due to insufficient attention having been paid to the people factors—the “intangibles of change.” So, one burning question I have been living with throughout my career is “What does it take to make fundamental, lasting, deep change?” I have long wondered if there are some identifiable conditions that distinguish successful change efforts from unsuccessful ones—some “key success factors.” Why do cha