Why your change management strategy might need an overhaul

Change is life’s only constant. Businesses call it a pivot, rebrand, transformation, even an extensive overhaul. Buzzwords aside, that change requires meticulous planning, broad executive alignment and—perhaps most importantly—employee consensus.

As technology races ahead of our ability to understand it, revenue leaders are scrambling to adapt. Sophisticated agents and chatbots are reshaping workflows, shifting the employee productivity playbook, and putting a premium on the jobs humans do best.

A recent Deloitte report found that most organizations are falling short of intended value during their change campaigns—creating talent headaches and leaving cash on the table. Leaders must now react to a constantly evolving market, while ensuring they build trust within their own company.

“This is why so many initiatives fail,” said Bob Kelly, chair of the Sales Management Association, a professional group for sales leaders. “They just don’t have the gravity of leadership behind them.”

Making change a culture fit

Say your company wants to boost its bottom line, and the C-suite sets a goal that more than half of employees will be using an in-house agent for daily tasks by next spring. A change leader is the person who would spearhead the AI training and adoption campaign needed to make that happen. Perhaps their most important role is explaining why change is needed in the first place.

Half of the leaders surveyed by Deloitte said their company has gaps in change management execution. In some cases, the barrier can be bureaucratic red tape. In others, Kelly said technology itself can be a challenge because. AI is “a fairly tricky thing to implement.”

The report—which is based on a survey of 1,000 C-suite leaders and executives across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada—was conducted alongside the independent research firm Workplace Intelligence.

“AI is willing to pick up almost all of the administrative and project management burden of change implementation,” Kelly said. “What doesn’t get easier is winning support for change, understanding what’s at stake among those who were asking to change, and making sure we’ve addressed their issues with job responsibilities, incentives, performance measures.”

Companies can foster change in one of two ways: Just over half of respondents to the Deloitte survey said their organization relies on traditional change management techniques—leaning on communications, scheduled training, and in-office champions to encourage employee participation. Others embed AI tools into their workflows off the bat, pushing employees to use them through real-time behavioral nudges and micro-learning opportunities. This is especially true on sales teams, Kelly said, because consumer needs change rapidly.

Forty-three percent of leaders, however, said they don’t know how AI is actually affecting their employees. A third said their company’s leaders don’t consistently model the behaviors and changes they ask employees to adopt. Understanding the work staff is already doing, and how disruptive a change will be to their daily routine, is important for any successful initiative. The report also flagged burnout and talent turnover as risks.

The potential rewards are clear: Deloitte found that, for every $1 invested, the median organization saw a $4 return in business value. Leaders typically measure success both internally and externally, the report said.

Whether they’re middle managers or the CEO, that success starts with strong leadership.

“You can’t underestimate culture,” Kelly said. “A leader who is good at executing change is a leader who’s thoughtful and interested in fostering a productive culture, one that is capable of absorbing and reacting to change, and that can make decisions that help the organization through challenges.”