Why is it that most organizations struggle tremendously to make real change? Whether consolidating a merger, re-engineering business processes, restructuring, changing value propositions, introducing new IT systems, or even relocating, all too often the change process is derailed by the resistance of employees. The challenge of change increases even more when the group is diverse and incorporates many cultures, nationalities, ages, genders religious beliefs, social classes and work experiences.

Most organizations make two fatal mistakes when it comes to dealing with resistance to change. First, they underestimate how important, deeply rooted cultures, behaviours and thinking styles play a part in the change process. Secondly, they underestimate what is required to change those behaviours and thinking styles and ensure the change isn’t interpreted as a threat.

As a leader you cannot impose change - people and teams need to believe their solutions and positive responses to the challenges are valued and therefore become part of the solution. The biggest leadership challenge is in creating that buy-in especially in multi-cultural, often multi-lingual environments.

In cultural change programs we use a globally recognized instrument to measure the gap between the leadership’s preferred culture and the one that actually exists. This allows us to recognize exactly where the best value for money can be implemented within the organization to ensure the change is a success.