Transformation within organizations is critical. Any well constructed organization knows this. You either adapt, grow or you get left behind, and worse you close the doors. Whether it’s by way of technology, geopolitics, market competition or consumer evolutions, change and adaptation is inevitable.

Many times, transformation fails, and it’s risky business. According to Harvard Business Review, 70% of organizational transformations fail. This can cause negative impact to revenue, consumer, and stakeholders. So, that being said, what are the positive key factors to really emphasis when it comes to large scale organizational transformations?

One key that’s really important is to properly support your staff, both operationally and emotionally, (White, et. al, 2023). In order to succeed, you have to bring your employees along the way, and properly guide them through the transitions. Transitions can be tough, stressful, it’s really important to remember that people don’t embrace change well, so the more you coach your organization through change, answer questions, and provide proper support, the more successful you will be. You want the stress to “energize” your followership, not “drain them”, (White, et. al, 2023).

Another critical factor that I think faces many organizations starts with leadership. To bring change, you must be willing to lead change, to lead change you must be willing to change as well. How can you change an entire organization if you are not adaptable to change yourself? You must look inward before looking outward.

It’s really important to ensure your stakeholders, your followership are buying into the vision of change. You have to sell the change. You need to be able to answer they “why”, and be able to positively communicate the change and the anticipated results. If you think you can walk into a room, and just abruptly state “this is going to happen, so get used to it folks”, then it’s going to potentially be a bumpy ride. Now, if you can get your followership to buy into the vision, then you have multiple lanes driving the change, you have more synergies pushing for change, and you have increased energy and efforts.

No change occurs without trust, you have to have trust as leaders. We as leaders, have to remember that we have a responsibility to our followership to engage in trust. Without trust you cannot have everyone on board, you will not be able to successful transform an organization. If you don’t have everyone’s trust you will have higher turn over, lower KPI’s that are measured, all driving factors that could negatively impact your bottom line.

It’s really also important to be open, and don’t be subjected to blinders. If the organization has drawn up changes for an operational transformation, then that’s great. However, organizational change isn’t a blueprint for success without any expectation for deviance. There will be deviation. There will be need for change, adaptation, evolution, and new ideas that replace former ideas. Let your organization explore, come up with new ideas, and don’t discourage creativity and ingenuity. Don’t put up so much red tape and bureaucracy that you suffocate any transformative ideas. It’s key to remember that you don’t hire to surround yourself with dumb people, you hire to surround yourself with smarter people who support you and challenge you to success.

It’s important to really also recognize that many times with change, technology is involved. One of the biggest pitfalls I have seen with organizational change is failure to train, failure to support and failure to leadership to properly know the technological platforms they enact upon their organizations. You have to ensure your workforce is ready to handle the technology, and that you are not rushing the innovation.

All organizations require change, however, it’s the steps you take to change, that ensure change lasts. It’s really important to ensure that ownership is shared, we have to remember that organizations aren’t organizations without their stakeholders, and the people holding them up. To ensure success, you have to provide the tools, technology, support staff, trust and leadership that’s required to ensure organizational transformation.

White, A., et al. (2023). 6 Key Levers of a Successful Organizational Transformation. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/05/6-key-levers-of-a-successful-organizational-transformation