Big business failing to cope with change, survey tells 06-11-09
Many UK companies are failing to achieve benefits from their change programmes, despite investing millions in the hope of finding more efficient ways of working, new research tells.
The survey, commissioned by programme and project management advisory specialists Moorhouse and the Financial Times (FT), found that less than 20% of respondents believed their organisations consistently delivered the efficiencies they sought, and that fundamental barriers existed - such as lack of organisational buy-in, unclear goals, and insufficient skills – preventing them from getting optimal value from their change initiatives.
Bob Hendicott of Moorhouse said: "There is a long list of things companies get wrong when it comes to managing their organisational change. There appears to be a significant disconnect between what leaders want to achieve and the capability and investment needed to deliver it, and too many organisations determine end goals working from the 'bottom up' rather than aligning change with their strategic goals. Half of the survey respondents had no formal framework in place to manage the benefits of change and only 16% felt their approaches were effective."
The research, which gathered the thoughts of 150 leaders from the UK private and public sectors, also revealed that whilst 37% of Board members believe their organisations regularly deliver the planned benefits, only 5% of middle management agreed with them.
Bob concluded: "Interestingly, the public sector was ahead of the private sector when it came to establishing a benefits realisation management (BRM) framework and language, but had a poorer view of its capability to deliver. At Moorhouse, we see benefits neglected or lost all too often in clients' change programmes, and companies are unnecessarily losing the value that change can bring."
The full results of the survey 'The Benefits of Organisational Change' can be accessed at here.
A thought leadership paper exploring how to achieve more from change and BRM is available here.
