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Why Transformation Efforts Fail

Written by: Accessible Business Consultants

Article Overview: Why change initiatives, whether they were intended to boost quality, efficiency, sales or profitability, or reverse business spiral usually only generate lukewarm results or fail.

Why Transformation Efforts Fail

Most major change initiatives, whether they were intended to boost quality, efficiency, sales or profitability, or reverse a business death spiral, usually only generate lukewarm results or fail miserably. Too many of us don't realize that transformation is a process and not an event. It progresses through stages that build upon each other. Under pressure, or time restraints, we give into the temptation to skip stages and shortcuts never work. Equally troubling is declaring victory too soon, perhaps in one of the stages, which results in the loss of momentum, reversal of hard-won gains and devastation of the entire transformation effort.

By understanding the stages of change and common pitfalls, you boost your chances of successful transformation. The payoff is a business that flexes with tectonic shifts in competitors, markets and technologies and leaves your rivals far behind.

These are the stages of Transformation:
* Establish a sense of urgency
* Form a powerful guiding coalition
* Create a vision
* Communicate your vision
* Empower others to act on the vision
* Plan for and create short term wins
* Consolidate improvements and produce more changes
* Institutionalize new approaches

Once again, remember that the stages build upon each other and you cannot skip a stage and most of all you cannot ignore the tell-tail signs or pitfalls or under estimate their importance.

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Article Tags: change initiatives, death spiral, devastation, efficiency, flexes, improvements, momentum, pitfalls, profitability, rivals, sense of urgency, shortcuts, tail signs, tectonic shifts, temptation, time restraints, transformation, victory, vision plan



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