To succeed at changing how you work, it must be done:
• iteratively, incrementslly, experimentally, in many smaller lower-risk changes.
• invitationally, collaboratively, inclusively. We change us, not we change them.
• open, transparently, without secrecy, with clear due process, honestly, with integrity.
You can’t step-change how you work. Changing behaviour is a continual graduated process.
Executives underestimate the risks of big change. Or put another way they underestimate how hard it is, they overestimate the probability of success.
I am of the belief – and it’s only a belief, I can’t prove it – that we never succeed with all-in big-bang change to how we work.
Oh sure, the expensive consultants can move a few numbers on the dial quickly but it doesn’t stick and there is hidden damage. It’s no surprise executive management can demonstrate success when asked to justify what they just did and how much they just spent.
Personally I think it never works. Organisational change can be fairly quick, or quite slow, but it needs to be steady continuous improvement not lurches and leaps.