What happens when changes fail--what is the business impact?
The impact of a failed change initiative, particularly an IT project, can be substantial. Failed change initiatives are costly and when they occur in membership organisations or associations, members will stridently express their outrage to the Board that membership funds ‘wasted’ in this manner is not to be tolerated. They will call for heads to roll either at the board level or at senior management.
Usually the CEO or the CIO will be targeted and they will either be subjected to pressure to resign or will be asked to leave. The irony is that the CEO or the CIO become the fall-guys; but they are regularly the ones who have championed the change project only for it to fail for reasons out of their control. Such drastic measures only lead to further disruption and instability to the business, while the change initiative is consigned to a filing cabinet, never to be re-opened.
Why do these types of change projects fail? There are many reasons including lack of funding, cost blowouts, delays in build, lack of senior management buy-in, or the initiative just didn’t deploy because the technology didn’t work. In my time as change management consultant I have seen a number of key IT projects fail. While these are all valid explanations as to why an IT change initiative has failed, the major causes are inextricably linked to a failure to capture not only IT requirements, but the business requirements and the associated change processes that need to occur across the full spectrum of an organisation’ s operations.
When commencing IT change initiatives, senior management and project owners tend to instinctively move towards a cost-effective solution that can be rapidly deployed. This approach is expedient to minimise business interruptions. However, while minimising disruption is important, it misses a number of key steps. An approach that is likely to be more successful captures all the requirements across the entire organisation including the contribution of end-users. Before looking for solutions, it is critical to understand and carefully articulate what the issue is. Then, identify who you’re building for.
Identifying the people or groups that are directly involved in the change before adding peripherally relevant people is a key area often overlooked. There can be multiple types of end users and their unique view of the issue which will help to create user stories. It is vital that end users are included in all stages of the change process so as their unique requirements are captured and recorded. With these perspectives in mind, experts can then be consulted to assist in identifying the best options. End-users must be involved identifying the solution which may include prototyping stages. Prototyping ideally tests each user story to look for problems and issues which can be addressed and managed.
When change fails, it can have a major impact on business. The steps described here underpin a Human Centred Design approach to design thinking. This approach may take longer to implement and may be more costly initially. However, it is insignificant compared to the costs of a change failure. Importantly, the solution to the issue includes those that are most impacted on the frontline of the business. Best of all, they will become the champions on the ground who will support the smooth transition and ensure uptake.
Brendan Grabau (PhD, MBA) is an independent change management consultant based in Melbourne.