When it comes to ‘change’, few people know how to get it right. Indeed, so many very smart people and consulting groups work with the change first, the assumption being that if you give people good, rational data as to why they need to change, how and what they need to change, and a route forward, that change will happen according to plan. But of course that’s not true: information does not teach people how to decide to change. By assuming that rational data will help them decide to change, the underlying change is not being managed at all – it’s being left to luck; those people who resonate with the proposed change will change. Others will revolt. And failure will result.

According to Jeff Barnes at the Change Delivery group (www.changeperfect.com), traditional change methods will fail to deliver business value 85-95% of the time. These numbers feel right to me, paralleling them with the 90%+ failure rate of the sales model.

The Change Delivery Group is a company that speaks to my heart: instead of working with change from the initiative/rules basis, it works with people systems, understanding that the only way to create change is to start with the people first. Change the people, then change the culture – not the other way ’round.

In olden times (before Web 2.0 or Sales 2.0) we used to think it was about the product/solution and we were wrong. And so it is with change. This group actually does an interesting blend of managing change from the science of change AND from the people end.

Using Decision Facilitation, the Change Delivery Group will get even more success, as they will then have the capability to teach each person how to design their own solution, or modify the one that’s been handed to them in a way that is congruent with the other folks and with the initiative. But even doing the change work without the additional material, they are focusing on change management in a way that I applaud. And, they have a much higher success ratio than the statistics.

Have a look at what they are doing and see if it resonates. It’s so good to know that change no longer has to carry such failure and can indeed move forward with integrity WITH people being taken into account. Take a look at the books they have and see if they fit with your thinking.

http://www.changeperfect.com/books.html