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CHANGE as a central element in an organization's survival strategy needs little elaboration. Most organizations today are contemplating or implementing one or more change initiatives
- whether incremental or radical
- involving the whole organization or selected parts, conceived to block threats or seize opportunities.
Not even iconic brands like Coca Cola can rest on their laurels. On the occasion of its 120th anniversary, that company's CEO said, "Today consumers invite us into their homes more than a billion times a day... We understand, however, that what has sustained us these first 12 decades will not be sufficient for the future."
Whatever form these initiatives take, organizations have a lot riding on them, and they know it. In fact, well over half of the change leaders in a recent AchieveGlobal survey agreed that the ability to change is an organization's main competitive advantage.
What's interesting, given this view, is how unsuccessful so many change initiatives are. According to some estimates, as many as 85 percent either fail completely or fall far short of their original promise.
Although leaders may cite people's "inborn resistance to change" to explain away failure, this excuse no longer carries the weight it once did. It is true that employees are much more disaffected and skeptical than they used to be -
about almost everything. Still, nearly every employee these days can tell you that change is "the name of the game," "the only constant," or even in some cases "a primary competitive differentiator."
As one manager said in our survey, "People aren't stupid. They see how fast the world is moving today. They feel it in their own lives. If they see that it makes sense to do things differently - and if they're invited to participate - they're more than willing to join in. They just need to know what to hang on to, and what to let go of."
What are the new challenges for leaders?
To learn more about the realities of making change happen in the first years of the twenty-first century, AchieveGlobal gathered and analyzed today's best thinking about how organizations can succeed. It then conducted an analysis of this thinking, and from it designed a Webhosted survey that explored key trends in greater detail.