Leaders seek to drive change through their organizations. Yet many of their efforts fail. Why? There are several reasons.

They try to do too much, too soon. Some leaders champion massive efforts to drive change through the organization only to see their efforts fall flat. The most common efforts along these lines include:

A complete restructuring of the organization, often based on a model they have seen attempted somewhere else or read about in the latest management guru's book.

A drastic cutting of staff, designed to reduce costs and to provide a wake-up call to those left standing.

A significant infusion of new leadership, outsiders brought in to refocus the energy of the firm.

An extensive marketing and visioning process intended to capture everyone's attention and to promote dedication to the new direction of the company.

These massive efforts rarely work, in part because they divert too much energy from the real work of the firm and in part because they try to implement changes faster and in greater amounts than the organization can handle.

Another reason that change efforts fail is that leaders underestimate the impact of company culture. Currently, I'm working with two organizations, both of which suffer from the resistance to change that is characteristic of their cultures.

In one case, a 100-year-old company, founded in the grain belt, was built on a foundation of steady, consistent, methodical approaches that worked for years but that now form a barrier to change when adaptability and flexibility are required.

In the other case, a nearly 40-year-old company, founded by intelligent technologists who valued thoughtful and rigorous analysis now realizes that the "paralysis of analysis" stymies their efforts to move quickly.

In both cases, the problem is recognized but, despite that, resistance to change is persistent and insidious. Company cultures naturally tend to remain relatively constant and efforts to change them take far more time, if they are successful at all, than most leaders plan for.

Leaders fail to drive change for other reason, too. Sometimes they create band-aid solutions, doomed from the start.

Band-aid solutions include such things as pronouncements from above encouraging people to be more accountable or flexible. They include the imposition of short-term mechanisms for tracking progress against new metrics that soon are left by the wayside. And, they include the creation of task forces to study the problems instead of helping the company do things differently.

Leaders fail because they don't lead by example; instead, they seem to be asking the rest of the organization to "do what I say, not what I do." Their hypocrisy not only undermines their change efforts, but contributes to a loss of respect for their leadership as well.

Given these reasons for why change efforts fail, what do you think are the keys to successful change? I'll suggest four. Make it simple. Be selective. Surprise people. Be patient.

Make it simple. Don't try to do everything now. Choose those things that are easily understood, easy to track, and easy to communicate. Avoid complexity and ambiguity.

Be selective. Choose a few things. Focus on a few behaviors which, if practiced, will move the organization in the right direction.

Surprise people. Find something that, if accomplished, will let people see that the change they thought impossible, happened. Prove that success is possible.

Be patient. Change doesn't happen overnight. And, it doesn't happen with just one initiative. Try a few things, see how it goes, then try something else. Keep trying.

What have your change efforts accomplished? What worked for you? What else might you do?

I've spent a lot of time recently on airplanes. It's not fun.

I'm being herded, along with a mass of others, into crowded spaces, with no room to move, kept waiting endlessly in the terminal or on the runway, rarely told the full story, and provided few services except those for which I have to pay too much.

I wonder. Do employees feel like me? Are their levels of dissatisfaction and subsequent attrition greater now because leaders are treating them like airline travelers - thinking more about efficiency and cost and profitability than anything else?

What do you think?

Socrates said, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

Leaders could benefit from recognizing what they don't know. Why? Because leaders get into trouble when they assume that what worked in the past will work now.

The best leaders don't expect the future to look like the past. Instead, they start afresh when trying to understand a new problem and get the data they need to make the right decision now. They've learned that Socrates' wisdom had practical value.

What about you? Does Socrates' advice pertain to any of the problems you're facing today?

email: archie@archietinelli.com archie@archietinelli.com