Top 3 Reasons Why Change Initiatives Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed

It’s not what you change: it’s how you change.

Even the best initiative will fail if it’s not implemented the right way.

Research conducted by the Harvard Business Review states that 75% of organizational change initiatives either fail outright or do not succeed in achieving desired goals.

Here are the top 3 reasons why most change initiatives fail and what companies should do instead:

#1 Poor Planning

❌ Most organizations throw things at the wall and hope they stick. Western culture values getting things done and praises being agile. One of the reasons why you often hear fire drills and band-aid solutions at work. What usually happens is that organizations focus too much on presenting solutions as fast as possible that they dive right into the design phase of a change initiative without adequate planning. This is a recipe for failure, and it’s a waste of time and money. Change initiatives shouldn’t be trial and error.

✅ What every organization should do is invest more time in the planning stage. When I worked at Toyota, we spent 60% of our time upfront on planning. This belief system backs the idea that if you…