A few have been successful, a few have been utter failures, most fall somewhere in the middle, with a distinct tilt towards the lower end of the scale.
(Kotter 1995)
Introduction
Leaders should work with stakeholders to set a common vision, then they must encourage and support others to make this vision a reality. Leading change is undoubtedly a complex and fraught task: over 70 per cent of change programmes fail in the private sector (Daft & Noe 2001). One leading thinker regarding transformation within major companies reported that:
The public sector, with its complicated governance, political accountability, and resource limitations is in many ways an even more challenging environment to achieve change successfully. Studies in the NHS suggest that one year after improvement projects had formally ended, a third had reverted to previous ways of working, a third had sustained the improvement but the change had not been adopted across the organisation, and a third had maintained the gain with evidence of adoption outside the core change area (NHSI, 2001). Research regarding the introduction of strengths-based practice highlights that whilst difficult, it is possible to embed within a health and care system if there is supportive and sustained leadership in place (Tew et al, 2020).
In this section, we will consider the two vital aspects of the change process – leading people, and leading process.