Why Improvement Efforts Fail
Robert Cenek
4 Comments
Thirteen years ago, I published an article in the Journal of Quality and Participation dealing with the underlying reasons for failed or stalled change efforts. About every two years, I find myself revisiting the article to check for its continued relevancy. The article hardly rocks, but it’s still relevant, and only in need of minor updating. I’d probably add these additional reasons why improvement efforts frequently fail:
Lack of resources. This is becoming a more significant issue in organizations. Consultants report to me that they find their clients increasingly short on time, money and energy;
Change fatigue. Some organizations do not provide folks with enough time to fully digest a change effort —- and then all of a sudden, a new one appears. Some employees are becoming “change drunk,” the organizational version of the “punch drunk” boxer;
Organizational arteriosclerosis – Some organizations have “hardening of the arteries,” and are led by individuals too arrogant to believe that they need to change – or that the organization needs to change. This is especially true in younger companies that were highly successful in their infancy.
What other reasons come to mind for you?
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Reader Comments (4)
A company's senior management sees a problem and decides to fix it. Instead of identify the root cause and work to change that, they simply "treat the symptoms instead of the disease". Not only does the change effort fail, many in the organization know it will fail from the get-go. Morale and productivity go ker-splat.
Your comments remind me of the phrase that Bill Passmore coined some time back: "treatment without diagnosis is malpractice!"
I did not publish the note because I could not determine whether the author was serious or if he/she was attempting to spam me!
In any event, I think most people would agree that the two can be used interchangeably. In most organizations, striving to improve through some programmatic effort is truly a change effort. Change in the sense that the organization is attempting to maintain equilibrium, or is pursuing a future state.
robert edward cenek