Disruptive technologies. New business models. Digitalization. And not least, unforeseeable global events like the Covid-19 pandemic. The dynamics of transformation encompass all business contexts. Clearly, transformations are essential for companies to remain relevant and successful. The central challenge of this process: getting the entire workforce on board and leaving nobody behind. Those affected need to be included and activated to help drive the necessary changes, so that a motivating sense of being an important part of the transformation can grow from within.
“In 80 percent of cases, transformations fail due to—often passive—resistance on the part of employees, and simultaneously due to insufficient abilities to guide and foster change on the part of their leaders,” explains Dr. Wolfgang Freibichler, a partner at Porsche Consulting and an expert in new and successful modes of collaboration. He supports top managers in guiding their transformations. “Interestingly, one of the main reasons why transformations stall or fail has to do with a scientifically outdated understanding of how the brain works,” he continues. The expert is convinced that insights from behavioral economics make it possible “to reach people not only on rational but also instinctual levels.” Freibichler and his team of specialists have identified five forces with the ability to spur and safeguard necessary changes.