Incessant change is the norm. Why 59% of projects don't fully succeed...
The IBM Global Making Change Work Study examines how organisations can manage change and identifies strategies for improving project outcomes. This report continues the conversation that began in the IBM Global CEO Study 2008 regarding forward-thinking companies that are "Hungry for Change." For its very survival, the Enterprise of the Future must better prepare itself as the pace, variety and pervasiveness of change continue to increase.
Over a two-year period, the percentage of CEOs expecting substantial change climbed 18 percentage points, from 65 percent in 2006 to 83 percent in 2008 but those reporting they had successfully managed change in the past rose just 4 percentage points. This disparity between expecting change and feeling able to manage it – the "Change Gap" – nearly tripled between 2006 and 2008. Our Making Change Work Study focuses on how to close the Change Gap.
Through surveys and face-to-face interviews with more than 1,500 change leaders worldwide we gained practical knowledge about how to increase the likelihood of project success. Most CEOs consider themselves and their organisations to be executing change poorly, but some practitioners have begun to learn how to improve their outcomes. Even though just 41 percent of projects were described as successful study, those with the highest project success rate (the top 20 percent of our sample) – we call them Change Masters – reported an 80 percent project success rate, nearly double that average.
So what are these Change Masters doing to improve project success? Read the Making Change Work study and see how four common factors helped the Change Masters succeed.
