By Maya Townsend, MSOD, a member of the NTL Institute. The NTL Institute delivers powerful learning solutions for organizations, leaders and practitioners who have a clear stake in accelerating individual, team and organization effectiveness.

It takes time and a surprising amount of effort to shift an organization to a new way of operating. Yet, organizations change constantly in order to implement new processes, adopt new technologies, shift strategic direction, shut down product lines, introduce new services or increase performance. Change can be painful and, unfortunately, many fall short of expectations.

According to a recent McKinsey study, only 38 percent of responding organizations believed their transformation was completely or mostly successful at improving the company’s performance. The good news is that a planned, focused, disciplined approach to organization change can greatly enhance the likelihood of success. This approach takes more up-front time and energy. Yet, it is considerably more cost-effective than cleaning up the aftermath of a failed change effort.

This article explains the success factors for organization change efforts. If an organization puts these factors in place, it greatly increases the likelihood of success.