Change - how often do you get to write the story?

I was reading an article from the McKinsey Quarterly on change management which was discussing how despite the huge amounts of work done on understanding and implementing change programmes, only a 1/3 of them were successful.

This struck me as a very low percentage given how much expertise and resource has been dedicated to change management in theoretical and practical terms. In the article it’s argued that there are 4 basic areas that need to be considered to make change successful, there needs to be: a compelling story, role modelling, reinforcing mechanisms, and capacity building.

They go onto talk through these 4 points arguing that there needs to be a re-evaluation of them, they aren’t wrong per se but the thinking within these areas needs to be reflected upon. The piece that really stuck for me was with regards the compelling story, as they argue that often the story is of the change manager and not of the employees, what motivates them will not necessarily motivate the employees.

A famous behavioural experiment was undertaken using lottery tickets. Half the group were given random “Lucky Dip” tickets and the other half were asked to choose their numbers. They were about to draw the winning numbers (cue images of a minor celebrity starting the National Lottery draw), when they offered to buy back the tickets. They found that regardless of geographical or demographic matters, those that chose their numbers had to be offered 5 times as much to sell them than those who had a Lucky Dip.

So what?

This suggests that when you chose yourselves you are much more committed to the outcome.
What does this mean for change management?

That to succeed you need those involved and affected by the change to play a part in creating the compelling story, and to own the change through investing their time, thoughts and energies in it.

This really resonated with me with change I am going through, in terms of making sure that everyone involved is writing the story, which in turn, fingers and toes crossed, will make it an effective and smooth transition.

I have heard a lot of people's personal experiences of change, and it's often said that the issue with the change is that is has been implemented from the top to the bottom, and that it doesn't resonate with anyone apart from those that designed it. Poor communication of the compelling story doesn't help either, but would the dissonance be lessened if they had let others write the story?

How often do you get to write the story? How often are you involved in the change? How often are your motivations taken into account?

A

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14545157/The-McKinsey-QuarterlyThe-irrational-side-of-change-management