Everybody has good intentions! In fact, when we talk to managers or business leaders, they all agree that it is important to consider the human aspect of change, and to do so proactively.  But what happens in real life? When we look at the facts, during transformation projects, regardless of their types and scopes, most action plans are focusing on processes, systems, deliverables and timelines. There are very few key activities related to human transformation, yet they are undeniably critical to maximizing the proposed changes. 

Why can’t we be coherent between what we hold to be self-evident and what we decide in the heat of the moment? When situations get tough, it is easy to cut corners and immediately tackle deliverables and timelines. We then sacrifice the human aspect in favor of immediate results not always achieved.

We must reverse the trend and approach organizational transformation or change by including the human element from the start and keeping it a priority throughout the transformation. One way to maximize change effectiveness is to measure the level of change adoption from the beginning to the end of a project, and even continue monitoring it for a specified period of time afterwards. The lower the change adoption, the more costly will be the implementation of your changes since you will constantly have to convince employees of its relevance, but mostly because you will have to ensure that they will indeed implement the proposed changes. The key is to first determine measurement indicators to monitor adoption throughout your change initiative.

Is your organization measuring its level of change adoption? Share your thoughts with us by leaving us your comments.