Every change initiative starts the same way. Leadership builds the case, communicates the plan, and rolls it out with confidence. Six months later, the new process is technically "live," and everyone's quietly still doing it the old way. It's tempting to call this resistance. It isn't, not really. It's loss.
Canadian productivity growth has dropped from 3% a year in the 1960s and 70s to just 1% since 2000, and a meaningful part of that gap is organizations that can announce change but can't make it stick. The tools get bought. The training gets scheduled. The habit never forms.
Here's why change management actually fails, and what it takes to make the new way the only way.
Why does change management fail? Most change initiatives fail not because the plan was wrong, but because leaders address logic and skip loss. People don't resist change itself; they resist what they're afraid of losing, whether that's competence, certainty, or control. Change sticks when organizations do three things: address the psychological loss underneath resistance, design the operating structure that supports the new behavior, and make the old way of working harder to access than the new one.
Why Do Some Change Management Strategies Fail?
There is plenty of research exploring the reasons why change management fails in organizations. Most of the causes fall into these three categories:
- Ignorance of the nature of change itself
- Lack of resources and planning
- Poor communication
Sean Fitzgerald explains the 3 Pitfalls of Change Management
Organizational change is less about assets, money, or processes, and much more about people. If enough people resist a particular change initiative, no matter how logical and needed it is, it just won’t happen.
In this article, we’ll explore in detail the causes of change management failures, and what you can do about it.
For now, let’s look at the most common examples of failed change management, their pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Pitfalls in Change Initiatives
Here’s a list of the most common pitfalls and how to plan for or even diffuse them proactively:
Reason #1: Leaders Treat Resistance as Opposition, Not Loss
- Assuming change is easy - Understand that change is complex in organizations. It can impact people, processes, tools, systems, and structure.
- Not knowing the stages of change - Recognize that change moves through 3 distinct phases – the starting point or current state, the transition period, and the future state - and different actions and tactics are required for each of these stages.
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Name what people are actually losing. Sean Fitzgerald, partner and chief transformation officer at Results, argues the real barrier to change isn't the new strategy itself — it's the pull of the familiar. Leaders often assume employees are pushing back against the plan, when what they're actually protecting is what they already have: mastery of a system they know, certainty about their role, or control over how they work. As he put it at a recent industry conference:
"The leadership lesson for us is that people don't resist change; they resist loss."
Before rolling out any initiative, name what employees stand to lose specifically, and address that directly rather than just selling the upside of what's coming.
Reason #2: The New Behavior Isn't Built Into the System
- Not identifying the vital behaviors. Every change initiative has a small number of specific actions that actually determine success or failure; the rest is noise. Organizations regularly invest in new systems and tools without ever pinning down the one or two behaviors that make the system work, then wonder why adoption stalls.
- Leaving the old way easy to access. New processes fail to displace old ones when both remain equally available. Fitzgerald made this point at the same conference: the fastest way to stall adoption isn't failing to launch something new, it's leaving the legacy method just as convenient as the one you're trying to establish. This is where a defined operating system matters — it's built to remove the old path, not just introduce a new one.
- Poor alignment of the change to the business needs and direction - All change management plans must be undertaken in the context of a sound business strategy and vision. Ask yourself, does this change move us closer to our vision?
- Lack of buy in from all stakeholders - Significant change projects should be viewed from all perspectives – company owners, ALL employees, departments, customers, vendors, government agencies, and the community at large. To whatever extent possible, change project planning should involve people from each stakeholder group. As the old saying goes, "those who plan the battle don't battle the plan."
- Insufficient time and money - Change has a cost. Sound project management approaches can help identify the needed money and time required to execute the change.
- Not establishing clear roles for the change project — Significant change projects must have at least three roles. The project manager creates and stewards the goals, tasks, schedule, and milestones of the project. The change champion is the liaison to all employees, listening to their concerns and supporting individualized skill development and training. The change sponsor is a senior leader ensuring the resources are available for the project and keeps the project visible to the senior team.
- Too much rigidity during change project execution - Things never go exactly as planned. As experience grows and new information presents itself, be prepared to shift and adapt. Revisit the plan frequently.
- Organizational change fatigue - Leaders must take stock of all the change projects taking place and carefully sequence them. Research shows that companies often try to execute too much change simultaneously. Stacking change projects risks everyone’s ability to cope.
- Lack of continuous learning - Regular checkpoints must exist in the project where progress is measured, learning is captured, and adjustments to the path are established. A formal debrief should also be conducted following project execution to capture lessons learned which will be applied to future projects.
Reason #3: Communication Stops Once the Announcement Is Made
- Assuming the reasons a change are obvious and self-evident - Leaders typically have more and different information than other employees. Don’t assume what you know is known to everyone – transparently share, educate, and repeat the rationale and purpose for the change.
- Loss of momentum - In our fast-paced world, new opportunities and threats arrive almost daily. And it can be easy to forget about past decisions and projects that are still in progress. Leaders must maintain a rhythm of communication around change projects, sharing progress and celebrating even the smallest of wins.
- Thinking communication is only needed internally - All organizations are interdependent with other parties outside the organization itself. The communication plan for the change needs to include internal and external components. Think broadly and don’t forget about suppliers and vendors, shareholders, customers, community and possibly even regulators and government agencies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do most change management initiatives fail?
Most fail because leaders focus on justifying the change logically while ignoring what people feel they're losing, whether that's competence, certainty, or control. Addressing that loss directly is more effective than repeating the business case.
What are vital behaviors in change management?
Vital behaviors are the small number of specific actions that determine whether a change initiative succeeds. Identifying and reinforcing them matters more than announcing a broad new process.
How do you stop employees from reverting to old habits?
Make the old way harder to access than the new one, structurally, not just through communication. If both options remain equally available, people default to what they already know.
That closes out every section of the article. Want a full top-to-bottom assembled version now to do one last read-through before you take it into HubSpot?
Successfully Navigating Change
Without change organizations will not remain relevant and competitive. Eventually they die. Becoming change-able, adaptable and nimble, is very likely the most important characteristic for our companies now and in the future.
Diagnosing why change fails is only part of the picture. Leaders play a distinct role in driving it forward (see The Role of Leaders in Driving Innovation and Change), and individuals need their own path through it (see 4 Principles to Motivate People to Change).
At Results, this is the gap we exist to close. As Western Canada's Execution Authority, we don't just help leadership teams plan change, we help them build the structure that makes the new way the only way. We make execution unavoidable.
If you’d like to learn how to lead change more effectively in your organization, or other ways you can take the simpler path to creating a great business, connect with us or consider attending one of our upcoming leadership events.