Lack of Planning and Preparation 

We’re back with the second instalment of ‘The Reasons Why Many Change Programmes Fail’. 

In part 2, we’re discussing a common mistake- 

Lack of planning and preparation. 

Firstly, I think it’s important to state that with planning and preparation, there is a fine line between doing too little and too much. 

There are far too many examples of Senior Managers spending endless days, weeks and months presenting and communicating to their workforce in a hope that the more this is done, the more employees will engage. 

But sadly, this is not the case. 

How Much Planning And Preparation Is Required? 

Let’s look at planning first. 

With true Transformational Change programmes, there are two levels of planning: 

1. Long-term, high level. 

That is the overall journey from Now to the Vision of where the organisation will be when reaching its long-term goals. 

2. Short-term (3-4 months detail plans)

These are detailed week-by-week plans that cover a relatively short period in relation to the overall change timetable. 

Even somewhat small transformational programmes (i.e. one location, 300-600 people) can take 3 years.

18 months to implement and involve. 

18 months to sustain and create a continuous improvement infrastructure. 

The diagram below shows the elements highlighted above, but also importantly, it shows the non-linear journey to the Vision, which means that detailed planning will only be accurate for a 3-4 month period. 

Therefore, it is critical to create a mentality that a ‘rolling plan’ is required. 

(Rolling plan - A plan that regularly will change with the dynamic created by the organic movement as people travel with the change process.)

The required approach is simple.

But unfortunately, managers and leaders tend to overcomplicate things.

This is driven by people struggling with “simple is smart” and instead believing that everything needs to be done in a rush. 

This is sometimes a result of financial yearend performance recognition (one of the largest issues in modern corporate business). 

Now, I’m a fan of creating urgency. 

BUT people are people, and with the complexities of human nature, it’s hard to predict when a criteria mass will follow new ways of working. 

Forcing tools and techniques into a business without the hearts and minds of people will never bring sustainable results. 

Now, Preparation. 

When preparing a large programme, it’s critical to identify the customer(s) of the programme. 

This person or small group of people are the ones to work with from the very beginning of the process. 

 (Typically, these are top-level leaders.)

 It’s at this point overall measures of success are drafted along with a vision of the future. 

 I’ve seen MANY examples of visions. 

Some are almost technical documents which aren’t too useful when creating the right mindset for an organisation embarking on a Transformational Change process. 

But sometimes the vision is too small i.e. a slogan; “We will be the greatest!”. This doesn’t create a mental picture of the future. 

A vision should be about three paragraphs and written well to provoke a mental picture of the future organisation where the infrastructure, performance and behaviours are captured to motivate people’s desire to get involved. 

I’m hearing some of you shout “I WILL TELL THEM TO GET INVOLVED”. 

Will they? Hm…

Once the vision is agreed upon, with tangible measures of success, it should be communicated to the workforce. 

 If detailed plans are presented to the workforce at this stage, it won’t induce a sense of further development for people. 

This will be followed by criticisms and resistance. 

The more detail and the more it looks like a ‘done deal’, the fewer people will feel motivated. 

Ironically there needs to be a core of motivated people to be creative during this journey. 

One really engaging technique that I’ve come across is when the Senior Managers present the vision but declare to the workforce that they don’t fully know where the journey will take them. 

By doing this, the workforce understands that they need to be involved in reviewing and improving the overall process.

Sometimes Senior Managers are reluctant to open up to the fact that they may not know every detail, as it may seem like they’re vulnerable. 

But the reality is that it’s a very engaging process. 

The diagram below, one of my old favourites, will remind us that the journey is not linear and requires constant review and updating of the plan through quality reviews, improvement discussions, in teams and 1:1s and informal conversations throughout the journey. 

If you’re still struggling to find the balance between planning and preparation, please do get in touch. 

I’m more than happy to assist you in your transformational change journey. 

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