Another day, another change. Such is a day in the life of every CEO and senior executive I encounter. Consider one client, a senior vice president of sales at a global payments company experiencing her second company restructuring in 18 months. When she received news that her team was being integrated into a new, centralized function (located five states away), just four months after the last reorganization, her inbox was flooded by employees wondering what this would mean for them. Needless to say, she was as surprised as they were. Having seen her fair share of changes over the years, her only remark was a wry, “Well, this isn’t going to be good for our employee engagement scores.”
Change can be good. It is often needed, and in many cases, long overdue. The question is not whether to change, but how, and how often. By now, there isn’t a CEO out there who hasn’t heard the oft-cited statistic that 70% of change initiatives fail. It’s no secret that leading change is difficult, and the reasons are many: People prefer the status quo, the case for change wasn’t well articulated; the communications plan was insufficient and uninspiring, and the list goes on.
But what about the fact that we are just changing too often? Is it possible that the rate of change itself is the real problem why so many company initiatives don’t achieve their desired objectives?
Students of change management might say no. After all, the rate of change in large companies was far slower 20 or 30 years ago, and just as painful then. Here’s what is also true: that pain has not gone away, likely because we have legions of employees who have witnessed poorly executed change initiatives over the years. To top it off, companies today change on a much more frequent basis, and experts predict that continued external forces (technology, competitive disruptors, demographic changes) will only increase the pressure on companies to adapt.
Given that, it seems like a no-brainer to consider the current pace and rate of change. However, if you’re prepared to do so, get ready for strong resistance from others because slowing down is not a popular idea. Instead, here’s what you’ll hear: There are customer commitments, our investors would object, we’ve already announced the changes, our competitors would overtake us, so even if we wanted to slow down, we can’t. Plus, we’re doing fine. We’re nimble, we’re agile, we get a tremendous amount accomplished – that’s our workplace culture.
If you’re willing to consider slowing down, here’s what it can do for your organization:
Research confirms what we already know: Too much change is counterproductive. Employees can absorb only so much before they become oversaturated, stretched too thin, and performance suffers. Worse, the level of ongoing change and what accompanies it breeds a level of skepticism and mistrust from employees that lingers long after the changes have taken place. For instance, a 2017 study from the American Psychological Association found 30% of all workers surveyed believe management has a hidden agenda for instituting change. By slowing down, companies give themselves a better opportunity to gather information, ask questions, seek input, and understand what’s behind the mistrust, so they’re in a position to credibly speak to concerns and address them.
