Ensuring Organizational Change Programs Fail - Never Admit Mistakes

Have you ever been asked to implement an organizational change that you find distasteful? As program manager, how can you ensure that the organizational change never happens, without exposing yourself to criticism for poor performance?

Do what hundreds of program managers in large and small organizations have done. Apply the five principles guaranteed to ensure program failure:

Principle One: Set Unrealistic Deadlines
Principle Two: Never Admit Mistakes
Principle Three: Kill the Messenger
Principle Four: Don't Waste Time Talking to People
Principle Five: Continually Increase Scope

Principle Two: Never Admit Mistakes

Principle Two can help in two ways. First, people never get motivated to make significant change since they are constantly being told that everything is great. Second, the unmotivated employees will begin to resist your program. They will utilize all sorts of subtle tactics to derail progress. And you won't have to be involved - they'll do it on their own!

Make sure that management messages are relentlessly positive. For example:

Even though productivity has been dropping steadily over the last five years, Division XYZ is doing everything right. There is no need to do anything differently. We have the best people and they know their jobs. The current performance problems are simply a blip on the radar screen. After all, if something were wrong, someone would be to blame. And we at XYZ never make mistakes. Okay, so we may be experiencing minor problems. But why focus on the negative? We need positive thinking to move forward.

Hopefully, your culture has a strong focus on blame, so mistakes are never used as an opportunity for learning, since people are loath to acknowledge their existence. It is better to bury your head in the sand and keep a smile on your face. If not, you can still build a culture of blame by applying Principle Three.

Be sure to read my next post for a description of Principle Three: Kill the Messenger.