The Irrational Side of Change Management

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The McKinsey Quarterly published an excellent paper by Carolyn Aiken and Scott Keller, that explains why change management theory often doesn’t work just like that. The background to their work is a 2008 McKinsey survey confirming that the success rate of change programs remains stuck at around 30%, more than 10 years after John Kotter’s similar survey leading to his famous 8 step approach for leading change.
Aiken and Keller’s approach is not to challenge the widely accepted principles of change management but to look at what makes the theory successful or not, from a psychological angle. In other words, this isn’t about the right change management things to do; it is about how to do it right.
The base to their work is a McKinsey model suggesting that four basic conditions are necessary before employees will change their behaviour:

• a compelling story
• role modeling
• reinforcing mechanisms
• capability building

While the model makes perfect sense and is a good reflection of common change management theory, things can be quite different in practice as Aiken and Keller explain:
“The prescription is right, but rational managers who attempt to put the four conditions in place by applying “common sense” typically misdirect time and energy, create messages that miss the mark, and experience frustrating unintended consequences from their efforts to influence change. Why? Because when they implement the prescription, they disregard certain, sometimes irrational—but predictable—elements of human nature.”
From their research they have therefore identified nine insights into how human nature gets in the way of successfully applying the four basic conditions for behavioural change:

1. What motivates you doesn’t motivate most of your employees
2. You’re better off letting them write their own story
3. It takes a story with both + and – to create real energy
4. Leaders believe mistakenly that they already “are the change.”
5. “Influence leaders” aren’t a panacea for making change happen
6. Money is the most expensive way to motivate people
7. The process and the outcome have got to be fair
8. Employees are what they think, feel, and believe in
9. Good intentions aren’t enough

Each insight is described in details in Aiken and Keller's article. As simplistic as these 9 points may sound, I think they will help change leaders tremendously .
Access the full article here (free access through the Forbes website) and see other selections of change articles