Causes of Failure for Change Drivers within the Business Infrastructure

You are all excited about the results and business improvements you are going to achieve as you implement your first process change or embark on the development of a new market.  As you move down the road things do not seem to be happening the way you thought they would.  What went wrong? 

To avoid the bumps - opportunities for failure - you need to know what to watch out for and when to take action.  There are five major reasons that Change Drivers fail due to the business infrastructure.  Please look at these areas carefully because they will be some of the most difficult obstacles to overcome on your road to Leadership and Lean Practices!  They must be dealt with head-on and may require a change in your business culture, procedures, IT, and information dissemination, etc.  Look at how these areas will affect the possible outcome of your Change Process or Organizational Innovation Process.

Remember:  Failure is not an option!

Failure could mean the loss of your competitive edge, revenue losses, etc.  It must be avoided and the only way to avoid it is with an open, enlightened environment of collaborative personnel at all levels.

In today's 21st Century Organization knowledge is a valued commodity.  Knowledge is something you must retain and manage.  We will speak in more detail about knowledge management in future posts. Every organization has a vast amount of knowledge about their processes, products, and customers.  Keep that in mind as you look at the five most common reasons for failure for Change Drivers within the business infrastructure: (O'Sullivan, 2002)

1. Poor knowledge management (of people, processes, products, customers)
2. Poor organization of company infrastructure
3. Poor communication within the company in general
4. Poor empowerment of individuals to do the job
5. Poor leadership of the change and the company, division, unit, etc.

See also:
- Drivers for Organizational Innovation
- Causes of failure for Change Drivers within the Change Driver Process
- Example of a corporate Quality issue and suggested leadership approach

Causes of Failure within the Change Driver Process

On your road to Leadership and the implementation of Lean practices leading to the implementation of process changes there can be many bumps in the road.  The objective is to miss as many of these bumps or opportunities for failure as possible. Aside from the possible reasons for failure in the businesses' cultural infrastructure there are a number of reasons for the effort to fail due to causes within the process change itself.

Leading change is not a casual project - it can be costly in time, money, and even competitive advantage.  The desired business change must be carefully managed to result in a successful outcome. 

Remember: Failure is not an option!

In general, there are five common causes for failure.  These are obvious once you know them - but did you consider them before you jumped into your process changes?  Are you prepared to invest the necessary talent and time to ensure success and avoid the five things?

When you look at the five items below you will note their similarity to failures on any Project.  Think about large capital projects or the implementation of new management procedures, etc.  The five most common causes of failure within the Change Driver Process are:

1. Poor scope or goal definition for the process change
2. Poor definition of actions and their alignment to the stated goal(s)
3. Poor (or wrong) participation in the teams to accomplish the goal
4. Poor performance indicator monitoring of the results achieved
5. Poor communication of, and access to, the necessary information to accomplish the goal

See also:
- Drivers for Organizational Innovation
- Causes of failure for Change Drivers within the business infrastructure
- Example of a corporate Quality issue and suggested leadership approach

Change Drivers for Organizational Innovation

Every division, department, or organization in the 21st Century Company(TM) must undertake programs to maintain its competitive advantage or to meet other corporate objectives.  In today's business climate these programs may be focused on environmental stewardship, quality issues, costs, etc.  In general, there are 10 major Drivers of Change.  Of course, all of these items have been around for years - this is not something new!  These are not things that companies have never heard about.  I believe the main emphasis must be that these Drivers are constantly evaluated and a systematic approach be undertaken to ensure results are achieved when any one of them is undertaken.  A key skill to success is Project Management with Leadership skills.

Process change programs undertaken by companies can be distilled down into Ten Drivers of Change(TM):

1. Reduced environmental damage
2. Reducing energy usage
3. Conformance to government regulations
4. Developing new markets
5. Reduction in raw material usage
6. Improving manufacturing processes
7. Expanding a product line
8. Replacing products or services
9. Providing higher quality products and services
10. Minimizing labor costs

These ten can be sub-divided into many other more specific items.  There are others including financial areas, construction, etc.  However, these are the most often undertaken. 

With any program there are many opportunities to fail. You MUST understand the reasons many programs fail if you hope to succeed.  Some of the reasons may require significant cultural or process changes within your business if you hope to succeed at any of the listed Drivers above. Some of these reasons for failure will be presented in other blog posts.

See also:
- Causes of failure within the Change Driver Process
- Causes of failure for Change Drivers within the business infrastructure
- Example of a corporate Quality issue and suggested leadership approach