We studied 6,000 executives and found the real reason 70% of transformations fail | Fortune

"Corporate transformations fail much more often than they succeed. The failure rate is around 70% and this figure has not improved in decades. Since the 1980s, human beings digitized the global economy, mapped the human genome, and built cars that can drive themselves. But over the same period, we did not become meaningfully better at helping groups of people do things differently."

"We all suffer the consequences. Shareholders lose capital. Customers are stuck with services that could be better and cheaper. And employees bear a heavy cost of wasted time, energy, and belief. Every failed change program leaves scar tissue in an organization, reducing its appetite and capacity for future adaptation."

"What we've found is this: change doesn't fail because people resist. It fails because leaders misunderstand how people really change. When organizations struggle with change, they usually do so not because leaders have a poor strategy or insufficient opportunities to win new business, but because they don't focus enough on how people are likely to behave, feel, and think throughout the process."

"Consider this real-world scenario. Executives don't intentionally withhold information about a change from affected employees, but they tell them late in the planning process because they believe those employees to be well-disposed toward it. Or they defer saying anything at all until the plan is "finished," so as not to distract employees."

Corporate transformations fail far more often than they succeed, with a failure rate around 70% that has not improved for decades. Despite major technological progress, organizations have not become meaningfully better at helping groups of people do things differently. Failures harm shareholders through lost capital, customers through worse and more expensive services, and employees through wasted time, energy, and belief. Each failed change program leaves lasting damage that reduces an organization’s ability to adapt. Failed change programs are common because leaders misunderstand how people actually change. Organizations struggle not mainly due to weak strategy or lack of business opportunities, but due to insufficient attention to how people behave, feel, and think during change.

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