People do not resist change because they fail to understand the plan; they resist because no one has helped them arrive at the reasoning behind it themselves, says Dr Philios Andreou Sphika of BTS Group.
Some years ago, I sat in a boardroom where the chief executive had just spent 40 minutes describing an ambitious three-year transformation programme: a new go-to-market model, a new technology stack, a rebranded set of values freshly painted on the wall.When he finished, he asked if there were any questions. There was a long silence, broken eventually by one of his most senior directors: “What exactly do you want me to do differently on Monday morning?” I thought, that is exactly the key question.
That silence explains almost everything about why transformation programmes fail. The statistics have barely moved in a decade: most large-scale change efforts still do not deliver on their stated ambition, whether measured in time, in scope, or in results that actually stick.
The reasons offered are usually technical — unrealistic targets, insufficient investment, poor sequencing. In my experience advising leadership teams across markets, the real reason is simpler and far more uncomfortable. Transformation fails because of people, not plans.
