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Change Masters at Work
What fuels the notion that change is so devastating? Respondents cite several factors, the first of which is the poor management of change. The CIO at a major restaurant chain says poor management virtually guarantees failure because stakeholders aren't on board.
In a past project this CIO worked on, poor management gave way to revolt. "There were countless forms of resistance, depending on the impacted constituency," he says. "People manifested their concern by not being prepared, [through] passive resistance, [by] active lobbying to close down the effort and [by] using any issue to discount the benefits of the entire program," he says.
Past experience with failure can also undermine a current change initiative. The CIO at a troubled retailer recalls taking on an important project designed to improve the information flow from corporate headquarters to more than 1,000 stores. The project had been "attempted before and had failed quite visibly and dramatically," the CIO says. "Having failed in its first attempt, the company started this program already three-plus years behind the original."
Past change management failures also shape stakeholder expectations. The CIO at a quick-service restaurant says that an entire change process took four years, though it was divided into smaller projects, each with its own reasoning, business case and funding. "Since we were working under the cloud of the prior negative experience, expectations were initially low," he explains. But as the team began to deliver, objections switched from "You'll never get it done" to "You're going too fast," he says. "The entire cost was originally estimated at around $80 million," he says, "but it was completed in just over $60 million."
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