At one level all leadership teams and employees understand that change and improvement is an important part of the continued success and sometimes just to stay competitive.
Yet as most know, actually initiating, delivering and realising the benefits of change and improvement is much harder than it seems. Some statistics suggest that as much as 70% of changes fail to deliver the intended benefits.
Whether we like it or not, there often tends to be a reluctance to embrace change. People tend to be more comfortable with what they know and what’s familiar. 
Doing something different brings challenge, fear and a possibility of failure. When you look at it from this perspective, perhaps it’s not that surprising that there is a reluctance to change.
So what are the implications for organisations who are looking to make change or improvement?
One of the first questions that will come up with when change is on the agenda is why is it necessary?
This is not an unreasonable question to ask. Answering it on the other hand is a lot tougher than you might think.
It’s vital to remember that in any change situation, people’s readiness to change will be at a different point. Some are in the camp of wanting to get on with it as quickly as possible. Others will only come on board when dealing with a tried and tested solution, backed by evidence.
If you are a leadership team you have to be able to present a compelling case for change to those with a wide and varied appetite for change.
Your case will need to demonstrate very clearly the current situation and the implications of it for the organisation and the employees.
You will need to set out the consequences if progress is not made to make change.
You will need to paint a clear picture of how things will be different, after the change is made.
You will also need to address all of the concerns that all of the stakeholders and particularly employees have.
What this means that it is going to take time and patience from those on the leadership team.
You may well want to move fast. On the other hand trying to railroad a change through is never a great option. People will merely look to put more barriers in the way to hinder or even stop change completely.
It’s also important that there is consistency in the message from all of those on the leadership team. If one or a few of the leadership team go off message then it dilutes the impact.
In some respect a good way of testing whether your case for change is compelling enough, is to consider as a leadership team if you would buy into it if you didn’t have a vested interest.
If the answer is no, there’s probably more work to do in order to make your case for change compelling enough.
Goals and Achievements work with organisations and leadership teams to deliver change and improvement.