执行概要

Change is the only constant. ——赫拉克利特

所有的公司, 大或小, at some point in their lives face periods in which significant change is necessary. Either due to shifting consumer preferences, or the entry of new competitors, or the impact of regulation, change is always required 和 often can be the defining moment in the lifecycle of a business. 但是，在整个商业历史中，变化一直是不变的, one could argue that it is ever more so today, 考虑到技术进步的快速和加速的步伐. The time between innovation 和 adoption has shortened tremendously (chart below on the left), 这给传统企业带来了巨大压力，进而显著缩短了它们的平均寿命(下图右图)。. 如果说企业曾经有过关注变革管理的时候， 定义为 “[the] collective term for all approaches to prepare 和 support individuals, 团队, 组织在进行组织变革,“那个时刻就是现在.

但是改变很难. 最近的一次 article 《欧博体育app下载》声称，大约75%的变革努力没有达到预期的效果. A 研究 by 麦肯锡 shows similar failure rates (70%). The Boston Consulting Group 引用 self-reported CEO data that indicates “that 50% of change programs fail to achieve their objectives; the failure rate rises to 75% for more complex 和 ambitious programs,” 和 that “these rates have remained much the same for the past few decades.取而代之的是IBM 索赔 that only 20% of change efforts are successful.

I have seen this dilemma—on the one h和, the importance 和 necessity of change, 另一方面，很难直接有效地执行它. With over 20 years of experience in the finance functions of corporations across a range of industries, 尤其是有十年CFO经验的人, 我不得不一次又一次地面对变化带来的挑战. Sometimes these change processes were successful 和 helped propel the organizations to new heights. 但很多时候，他们并没有这样做，导致停滞和沮丧. 因此，本文的目的很简单:与读者分享我的一些来之不易的想法，即为什么大多数变更管理工作导致失败或不合格的结果, 以及一些实用的建议，说明为了使这些努力的投资回报率最大化，应该采取哪些不同的做法.

为什么 Do Change Management 项目 Fail?

If we are to discuss how to effectively implement change management projects, perhaps the starting point should be a review of why most change management projects fail. 我将回顾关于这个主题的文献(相当广泛)和我自己的经验和观点.

文献综述

对变更管理文献的回顾揭示了对失败原因的相对强烈的一致性. 对这一主题最著名的贡献来自约翰·P. Kotter, who in 1996 published one of the 开创性的书 关于这个问题. The 8 biggest mistakes identified by John P. Kotter are as summarized in the graphic below.

But digging further, 试图创造一个更详尽的文献摘要, I took five recent articles 和 studies 和 listed the most commonly cited reasons for failure. The results are interesting (see chart below). Looking at the data, 可怜的计划 和 缺乏承诺 在80%的文章中被认为是失败的主要原因. 似乎许多失败的原因是相互关联的. 例如, 可怜的计划 or 支持不足 from leadership automatically results in 可怜的过程.

My Thoughts on 为什么 Change Often Fails

在我的职业生涯中，我参与了多个变革计划. 虽然我同意文献中概述的各种问题, 我的观点是，有一个更普遍、更重要的原因可以解释为什么大多数这些举措都失败了: 糟糕的领导. More often than not, change management projects are well defined, have clear 和 measurable milestones, 和 have a realistic implementation schedule. But what usually holds these processes back is a more fundamental issue: The company is simply not 准备好了 改变. Company leaders fail to create a culture, 叙述, 以及公司内部对变革的理解, 这意味着, 尽管有所有善意的计划和里程碑, the organization doesn’t 吸收 change, 和 the whole process 因此 fails.

在我的职业生涯中，上述最明显的例子与我参与的一个SAP实施项目有关. We originally thought the hardest part was going to be the technical implementation itself, 但我们错了. 到目前为止，最难面对的事情是必须改变程序和人们习惯的工作方式. At a senior management level, a change process was also initiated, 在外部变更顾问的支持下. However, fairly early on, we realized that the organization lacked a clear 和 common vision. 因为以前实施变革的尝试都失败了, we decided to stop the project altogether, despite the significant efforts al准备好了 made, 和 go back to the drawing board. 我们的首要任务是集中精力创造一种文化和工作环境 准备好了 改变.

上面的例子说明了为什么变革计划失败的大多数原因实际上归结为领导层中一个更普遍的潜在问题. In fact, the data supports this conclusion. 我上面的研究结果表明，三分之二的时间, 失败的责任可以归咎于领导本身, 与所讨论的具体变更管理项目相反. If leadership is not well prepared 改变, 任何变更管理项目组几乎肯定会失败, regardless of all the management methodologies or tools which will have been used.

N.B. One has to distinguish between general business leadership 和 change leadership. 业务领导负责设定清晰的愿景，并根据正确的资源和人员管理组织, whereas change leadership is responsible for the change process in terms of goals, 工艺设计, 和执行. 在我看来, change leadership should represent an organization more broadly than the business leadership team. 举个例子, people with daily 和 direct customer contact will know exactly how customers perceive the company. On the other h和, a CEO of a company usually receives filtered 和 biased feedback.

Another common reason for failed change projects which I’ve witnessed relates to what 这篇文章 指为 change battle fatigue. Simply put, the more change projects are undertaken, the harder it gets. 如果以前的变更项目不成功，这尤其正确——员工将变得越来越怀疑，更不开放，更不愿意为变更项目的成功做出必要的牺牲.

How to Get Change Right

With all the above in mind, below are my suggestions on how to ensure change initiatives are successful.

Create a Solid Foundation

在启动任何变更管理项目之前, 必须建立一个坚实而成功的基础. 变更是一个多步骤的过程，因此结构化的方法是必不可少的.

在我看来, 三个主要要素是:构建一个引人注目的商业案例, planning accordingly, 和 communicating effectively.

Build a Compelling Business Case

在我看来, change management should be done based on a business case. At the end of the day, change needs to lead to results (as should always be the case with any management strategy). It should benefit the overall operating model.

When risks are present, financial modeling needs to be part of the process. It won’t be the easiest model to create, 会有很多场景和假设, but it will give essential information.

相应的计划

Based on my experience, 要做的最重要的事情之一是，从组织在愿景和一致性方面所处位置的清单开始. 这可能会得出令人痛苦的结论，但却是必要的.

Once that is complete, 下一步应该是在启动任何类型的变更管理计划之前评估您的组织是否为变更做好了准备. Here, you should also include leadership. 把你的员工分为三类是很有用的:

1. Employees who will embrace change,
2. 追随者——那些一旦被说服就会加入的人
3. Employees resistant to change

在我看来, 你应该至少有15-20%的员工属于A组, B组50-60%，C组不超过20%. 有效地管理不同类别的员工将有助于让尽可能多的人加入进来. 总会有抗拒改变的员工. 人们很容易把注意力集中在这个群体身上, 但是这个过程需要花费大量的时间和精力. 我在关注A组和B组方面取得了更多的成功. Once group C sees that employees are engaged with the change, a portion of them will follow.

N.B. Given the above, HR should play a key role in any change management project.

Communicate Effectively

人为因素是变更项目失败的最大原因之一. Change means risks, 和 it is, 因此, part of human nature to dislike change. It is 因此, critical that management effectively communicate the need 改变.

沟通不能局限于一次性的电子邮件或市政厅会议. It will take time before the message is effectively 吸收ed by all employees. 如前所述, 改变是一个多步骤的过程，沟通需要, 因此, be needed throughout the entire project.

Change should also not be sugarcoated. While it may be sometimes unpleasant to communicate, it is fundamental to be clear 和 transparent. 要清楚改变即将到来的事实和原因.

最后, 不要忽视以前失败的变更过程，并清楚地概述为什么这个变更是重要的，为什么以及它将如何起作用.

Executing Change Management

在我看来，失败的一个重要原因经常被低估，这与创建合适的团队来领导任何变革努力有关. The change management project team should not just consist of people from the leadership team. On the contrary; people from across the organization should be involved. 公司传统的等级组织结构并不能有效地处理变化. 约翰科特, mentioned earlier as the author of perhaps the seminal work on the topic of change management, 概述了除了现有的层次结构之外的第二种组织结构是如何正确地看待我完全赞同的观点的. This is the only way to ensure that all information that is needed is rendered visible. 日常与顾客接触的销售人员, the marketing department who has insights on the appropriate consumer/market trends, 技术团队给出他们对新技术发展的看法, 和 finance to provide the numbers.

使用这种方法的最大挑战是，你必须在一个项目管理结构中汇集来自各个学科的最优秀的员工, 这反过来又经常造成资源限制. 不幸的是, this is an inevitable challenge, but one that is more than compensated by the importance of the change project. Outside resources can also be a good contribution toward a successful change process. Given the failure rate, putting theory into practice is often the bottleneck; 因此, 利用在其他行业工作或经历过成功变革轨迹的外部资源的专业知识可能是有用的. Does an outsider see your company as you do? 这是一个非常有趣的问题，将提供有价值的见解.

最后，将变革融入到你的组织文化中. The most successful companies today are those that can adapt 和 evolve successfully.

The Stakes Are High

As has hopefully become clear by now, change management is today one of the most important challenges facing any organization. It’s 因此 unsurprising that the industry surrounding change management has exploded. As the Boston Consulting Group 笔记, “Over the past few years, the change management industry has been logging an average annual growth rate of 5%. 现在，世界各地的公司每年在变革欧博体育app下载上的花费接近100亿美元. 关于这一主题的出版物和报告激增. 它已成为许多商学院的一门主要学科. 在2003年到2013年的十年间，许多组织都在认真地将其纳入其运营模式, according to a recent survey, 采用“结构化方法”来改变管理的受访者比例从32%上升到80%.”

但考虑到失败率，成本是巨大的. 除了自付费用和花费的时间, the impact on the business of a failed change management process is huge. 有无数的例子表明，公司要么完全破产，要么失去了曾经的市场主导地位. 想想百视达、黑莓和诺基亚就知道了. 最后, although more challenging to quantify, 一个失败的变更管理计划的动机方面不能被忽视——员工会士气低落, 导致生产力下降，甚至更高的离职率.

因此，世界各地的组织将精力和思想投入变革管理的时机已经成熟. 计划周密，执行有效, 企业可以确保自己不会半途而废，并正面面对即将到来的技术颠覆浪潮.