Change Initiatives - Beating the Odds of Failure

An  article in the McKinsey Quarterly entitled The Irrational Side of Change Management reflected that "most change programs fail, but the odds of success can be greatly improved by taking into account (certain) insights about how employees interpret their environment and choose to act".

One of the insights provided in the article was that

Employees are what they think, feel, and believe in. As managers attempt to drive performance by changing the way employees behave, they all too often neglect the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that, in turn, drive behaviour.

As this thinking relects almost exactly FranklinCovey's 'Basic Change Model' (and the focus we encourage on beliefs to drive behaviours and, in turn, to deliver results) it caught my eye, and it also reminded me of an observation from Stephen Covey, our co-founder

Successful people often share similar characteristics. But I have come to believe that the single thing they have most in common is that they find success on the far side of failure. What do I mean by that? I find that almost all successful people have experienced significant failures in life or in their work, but they have learned from their failure

The fear of failure can drive counterproductive behaviours in any change initiative. However, if leaders hold the belief (and encourage it in others) that success can often lie on the far side of failure, they can embolden 'fear-less' behaviour and deliver higher level results.