How do we approach change management in New Zealand within the healthcare sector?

IT project failures are common. It is estimated that around 20–30% of projects are total failures and abandoned. Around 30–60% partially fail, with time and cost overruns or other problems. The minority of projects succeed. A recent Standish Group study found success in only 29% of projects. 

As Prof. Robin Gauld writes, there are multiple reasons why big IT projects fail, from bad planning and budgeting, misunderstood customer requirements to naivety over the scale of the opportunity or extent of the changes required. Undeniably however, the digital age has increased expectations around the sophistication of user experience and with it, the complexity of IT projects.

While digital transformations typically have architecture and technology solutions challenges, culture change is the primary challenge. Studies from tech research firm Gartner put the rate of clearly successful organisational change at 34%, with another 16% rated as “mixed results”. That leaves 50% marked as “clear failure". Culture change is not just about culture change in IT; it is required across the entire organisation.

The value of change management is under-appreciated. The International Project Management Association found that only 63% of companies involve change management in some capacity with their projects.

Change is meant to bring something different, but how different? We are creatures of habit. Routines become automatic, but change jolts us into consciousness, sometimes in uncomfortable ways. If change feels like walking off a cliff blindfolded, then people will reject it. People will often prefer to remain mired in misery than to head toward an unknown. Decisions imposed on people suddenly, with no time to get used to the idea or prepare for the consequences, are generally resisted. It’s always easier to say No than to say Yes.

Change is indeed more work. Those closest to the change in terms of designing and testing it are often overloaded, in part because of the inevitable unanticipated glitches per “Kanter’s Law” that “everything can look like a failure in the middle.”

Healthcare companies first need to identify and prioritise their critical sources of value. Second, they must build their service-delivery capabilities. Third, they should look for ways to modernise their IT foundations. And fourth, companies must ensure that they build and maintain core management competencies.

A survey from the American Hospital Association suggests that around 85% of hospital executives already factor digital innovation as part of their long-term strategy. Bringing about such a change requires heavy investments. To deliver its digital transformation ambitions up to 2024, the U. K.’s NHS is expected to need around £8.1 billion. With national endeavours, it is billions in taxpayers’ money that are at play. The question of whether those transformations deliver value for money solutions looms.