Change is rarely easy. Old habits do indeed die hard. When your business needs a change, it won’t happen overnight. You need a change management strategy — but more than that, you need to continuously work on that strategy in real time to ensure you meet your goals.
You can have what looks like a great change management strategy, but many change management strategies end up failing. Why? The short answer is human nature. People are uncomfortable with change, always have been, always will be. But in my experience, the main reason change management strategies fail is because leaders forget individuals are crucial to a successful process. If a single, or few individuals are resistant to change, it can derail the whole process. That’s why change management is a process, not a plan.
“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” –Joe Louis