Creating a culture of change and ensuring that people understand and support the transformation appears to greatly increase the likelihood of success.

Booz & Company subscribes to this theory, and the firm recently conducted a survey to test the hypothesis. “One of the questions we were trying to answer is whether focusing on change and on people when you are changing an organisation has a positive impact on the overall programme”, explains Christopher Hannegan, a Booz & Company Principal.

Survey respondents who had gone through change programmes overwhelmingly pointed to the importance of leaders in the process. Ninety percent said that in hindsight they would have focused on development and alignment of leaders going into the effort.

While ensuring leaders are aligned with planned change is essential, survey respondents reported that front line staff was most resistant to change. “That says to me you need to hit it from both ends”, notes Hannegan. “You need to make sure that there is very clear and genuine alignment at the leadership level. But then you also need to make sure that there is engagement straight down to the front lines.”

Continued in Management Consultant International © 2008 Kennedy Information, Inc.

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