To implement change, you must rewire your organisation

WHY do organisational change efforts fail? Most often because leaders didn't give sufficient attention to the implementation phase of the process. When companies undertake major change initiatives, such as restructuring or post-acquisition integration, they typically do a good job in the design phase. They design the new strategy and structure. They create staffing plans and design unified processes and systems.

It's when the time comes for the organisation to "go live" that things start to go wrong. Executives often assume that so long as the design has been done well, and they provide clear guidance about goals and strategy, the new organisation will "gel" on its own. It will, but it will take much more time than is necessary for that to happen. And in the interim, the organisation may be paralysed by a lack of alignment and an inability to "get things done" so it fails to meet the goals that were the original reason for change.

Why? Because when a new organisation is born out of an old one (or two organisations are combined), the "wiring" that made the organisation work is destroyed and must be rebuilt. By wiring, I mean the tacit knowledge, relationships, culture norms and values that made day-to-day operations work smoothly. In every reorganisation relationships, levels of trust, and implicit agreements get lost.