Summary of Do 70% of Organizational Change Projects Really Fail?

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It is often said that 70% of organizational change projects fail, but this figure is not supported by reliable research. The true rate of failure is likely to be around 6%. Factors that contribute to a successful change project include having a clear goal, strong leadership, and buy-in from employees.

• 00:00:00 The video discusses the common myths of organizational change, including the idea that 70% of change projects fail. It references research that suggests that this figure is not accurate, and instead suggests that only a small percentage of change projects actually succeed. The video then discusses how to trust academic sources, noting that not all journals are equal and that the impact factor is an important factor in determining a journal's trustworthiness.
• 00:05:00 whistle-blower John Kotter wrote a 1996 article in the Harvard Business Review called "Leading Change"; this article discusses how often corporate change projects fail, and cites three sources. In 2008, a self-published white paper by management consultancy company Baden claimed that 70% of all change initiatives fail. However, there is no evidence to support this claim.
• 00:10:00 The video discusses how 70% of organizational change projects fail. According to the video, this percentage is based on surveys that don't reference any surveys. Kotter's 1996 paper, "The Irrational Side of Change Management," is cited as an example of how change initiatives can be unsuccessful. The 2008 McKinsey Global Survey found that only one transformation in three succeeds. The 2009 paper, "The Irrational Side of Change Management" again cites Kotter's paper, this time saying that only four companies out of 3199 surveyed were successful. Jeffrey Pfeffer from Stanford University wrote an article in the journal "Management Studies" in 2016 that found that winning money is correlated with being a successful company.
• 00:15:00 Organizational change projects often fail, with a failure rate of around 6%. The lack of research reliability makes it difficult to determine the true rate of failure, but it is most likely around 6%. The Oxford Review provides up-to-date research intelligence, free of charge, to help individuals make informed decisions.