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Stagnation means decline

Romke Velders, 21 februari 2018


Thanks to developments in the field of Cloud, IoT, Machine Learning, Artificial Itelligence, and Process mining, organizations continue to feel the pressure to start change processes.
There is an increase in initiatives within organizations to change on the topics mentioned above.
It is generally assumed that 70% of all change processes fail or in any case do not succeed for the full 100%.

70%?
That is a lot!


In the world of Customer Engagement we notice that change management processes do not succeed or do not succeed entirely. Would this percentage also be scientifically substantiated or would there be demonstrable reasons for these figures?
According to a study by SIOO (the interuniversity knowledge center in the field of change management and organizational science), the substantiation of this percentage can only be partially found in the scientific literature.
According to SIOO, mainly mergers, IT projects and cultural changes are least successful. According to the knowledge center, it is difficult to assess the success of change and they indicate that the figures in their research (whitepaper) do not support the often mentioned 70% failed change processes.
SIOO therefore concludes that mentioning a failure rate of 70% can only be maintained empirically when a strict and limited criterion is used.

So it is less than 70% which does not succeed, but the percentage remains incredibly high, despite the lack of exact scientific figures.
Even if it’s only the feeling within organizations that a project has not been completed successfully it has a negative impact on the organization.

When such a process is not successful, the technique or tool, is often referred to. As far as I am concerned, it is usually not right, success always stands or falls on the human factor!



It should therefore be a logical step to ultimately put people and not technology at the heart of every change.
Putting people at the center also means that you involve them with every change from the beginning and keep asking them why they do things in a certain way.
Only in this way you gain insight into the real need for change within the organization. When Employees are answering these ‘why’ questions they also gain
a better understanding of what needs to be done, which is ultimately a positive starting point for change management.

People ultimately want to change but not be changed!
In order for a change process to be successful, it is necessary to have the organization’s goal clear. That goal must be in line with the vision and strategy.
Here too you need keep asking, why? (circle of why, Simon Sinek)

Only when you have your goal clear and you know why you want to achieve it, you can start researching what options there are that support that change technically.
Many RFIs and ultimately RFPs are being set up without these questions being asked.
If you do not know where and why you want to go somewhere, it is also difficult to choose the right means of transport.




So before you start looking for the solution, the various stakeholders within Business and IT should themselves make a contribution to the ‘why’ question. The most valuable and useful ideas come from the employees.
The precondition is that you create an environment in which everyone feels free to share his or her knowledge and ideas.
How cool it would be if the change is widely supported within the organization and that the change itself contributes to the success of the organization.
In the first instance, it will cost you more time as an organization to get the goal clear, but ultimately the selection and implementation of the tool will be easier and easier and the adoption level will be higher.
After the implementation there will always be desired changes from the organization, but despite the sweet aftertaste of a successful implementation it is important to remain critical in the aftercare phase.
In other words, keep asking the why question!


After all, change trajectories are always in motion, just like a perpetuum mobile!

Romke Velders

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