THREE COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN LEADING CHANGES

According to research by McKinsey, about 70% of all changes in all organizations fail. After almost two decades of intense change from corporate reorganizations, new software systems, and quality-improvement projects, the failure rate remains at 70%.

Rick Maurer, describes four major reasons why changes fail, and sums up some key ideas from three significant business books:

1. Knowing-doing gap. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton coined the phrase “the knowing-doing gap” in their compelling book by the same title. They found that there’s a huge gap between what people know and what they do. All that knowledge not being applied, all that talent not being used costs organizations billions of dollars every year.

LEADING COLLABORATIVE DECISION MAKING PROCESSES

Collaborative decision-making can be difficult. However, using a simple six-step process, managers can structure their decision making processes in a way that promotes team and stakeholder collaboration.

Most decisions fail because of organizational rather than analytical issues. Poor leadership, a faulty problem-solving process, poor teamwork, and lack of commitment are often the underpinnings of failed decision processes. Failed decision processes lead to conflict, loss of credibility, diminished competitive advantage, increased costs, inadequate inclusion of stakeholders, and poor implementation. Here is a six-step process to help to improve organizational processes and teams to improve decision-making.