Executive Summary

The IBM Global Making Change Work Study examines how organizations can manage change and identifies strategies for improving project outcomes. This report continues the conversation that began in the IBM Global CEO Study 2008 regarding forward-thinking companies that are “Hungry for Change.” For its very survival, the Enterprise of the Future must better prepare itself as the pace, variety and pervasiveness of change continue to increase.

Over a two-year period, the percentage of CEOs expecting substantial change climbed from 65 percent in 2006 to 83 percent in 2008 but those reporting they had successfully managed change in the past rose just 4 percentage points, up from 57 percent in 2006 to 61 percent in 2008. This disparity between expecting change and feeling able to manage it – the “Change Gap” – nearly tripled between 2006 and 2008.

Our Making Change Work Study focuses on how to close the Change Gap. Through surveys and face-to-face interviews with 316 practitioners in China ( more than 1,500 worldwide) – project leaders, sponsors, project managers and change managers – we gained practical knowledge about how to increase the likelihood of project success.

Most CEOs consider themselves and their organizations to be executing change poorly, but some practitioners have begun to learn how to improve their outcomes. From the practitioners themselves, we found that, on average, 53 percent of projects in making change work2 China were considered successful in meeting project objectives within planned time, budget and quality constraints, compared to the remaining 47 percent of projects which missed at least one objective or failed entirely.

Even though just 53 percent of projects were described as successful, those with the highest project success rate (the top 20 percent of our sample) – we call them Change Masters – reported an 88 percent project success rate, nearly 1.7 times the average. In sharp contrast, the bottom 20 percent of our sample – the group we describe as Change Novices – reported a disappointing project success rate of 19 percent.

What accounts for these vastly different rates of project success? We found in our detailed analysis of study results that achieving project success does not hinge primarily on technology – instead, success depends largely on people. But what is more illuminating is the discovery that four common factors helped these practitioners address their greatest project challenges. When used in combination, these factors provided a synergistic benefit that was even greater than the sum of their individual impacts, resulting in higher rates of project success.

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