Seven in Ten Change Efforts Fail. The Problem Is Rarely the Plan.
Most change efforts fail, and almost never because of the plan. They fail on people. Here is how to lead change in your firm so it sticks, without losing the staff, clients, and culture that make the business work.
Most change efforts fail. McKinsey puts the figure at around 70 per cent, and the reason is almost never the plan. It is the people.
Change asks people to work differently. Many resist, disengage, or quietly slip back to old habits, unless you lead them through it. That is why a good plan is not enough on its own.
For a professional services firm, the stakes are high. Your value is your people and your client relationships, and both can walk out the door if change is mishandled. So leading change is, above all, a people task.
Give people a compelling why. Model the change yourself. Bring your team and clients with you, and follow through. Do that, and change becomes the thing that pulls you ahead, not the thing that breaks the business.
If you take one thing from this article, take these four moves
- Give people a compelling why, not just a what. Change sticks when people choose it.
- Model the change yourself. People follow what leaders do, not what they say.
- Bring your people and clients with you. Communicate early, often, and honestly.
- Build capability and follow through. Most change dies in the months after launch.
Everything below is optional depth. Read on for the evidence, the Australian picture, and the practical detail on leading change well.
Digging Deeper
Below sits the supporting case. It covers why most change efforts fail, what the Australian evidence shows, and how to lead change so it actually sticks.
Why most change efforts fail
The headline number is sobering. McKinsey’s research finds that around 70 per cent of large change efforts fail to meet their goals.
The causes are consistent, and they are human. Leaders set an unclear or unambitious goal. They never attach a compelling why. They focus on activity instead of outcomes, and they act too slowly on difficult people decisions.
Most of all, leaders forget that change asks people to behave differently. McKinsey is blunt that transformational change requires individuals to act differently in their daily work, which means leaders must address how people think, not just what they do.
People are the variable. Roughly two-thirds of employees resist change to some degree. Often it is quiet, low engagement, scepticism, or a slow slide back to the old way once the launch buzz fades. Ignore that, and the plan fails no matter how good it looks.
This is the core truth about leading change. It is less a planning exercise than a leadership one, and the leadership part is where most efforts come undone.
The Australian picture: the upside is huge, the barrier is human
If change is so hard, is it worth it? The Australian evidence says yes, emphatically.
Xero’s behavioural research found that small businesses which readily adopt new technology enjoy, on average, 120 per cent higher revenue and 106 per cent higher productivity than those that repeatedly fail to. They are also happier in their work.
Yet only about one in five small businesses consider themselves technology adopters, while nearly one in three admit they continually delay. The gap is striking, and telling.
Crucially, the barrier is behavioural, not technical. It is mindset, confusion, and fear of a leap, rather than the tool itself. That is the same truth McKinsey found in big firms. Change succeeds or fails on people, not plans.
Smaller firms feel this most. The research found sole traders especially likely to feel confused by the options and reluctant to take the leap. The fewer hands on deck, the heavier change feels.
For a firm, that reframes the task. Leading change is not mainly about choosing the right software. It is about helping real people move from the familiar to the new.
Start with a compelling why
So begin where change actually lives, with people choosing it. And people choose change when they understand why it matters to them.
Protecting the bottom line is not enough motivation. Your team needs a reason that speaks to them directly, and it needs to answer the unspoken question. What does this mean for me?
In a firm, connect the change to something people care about. Better client outcomes. Less grunt work. Fairer workloads. A stronger, more secure firm. Say it plainly, and say it in a sentence your team would actually repeat.
A quick test helps. If you cannot say why the change matters in one honest sentence, you are not ready to ask your team to make it. The why comes first, always.
Then repeat it. A message lands only when people have heard it far more often than feels necessary to you. Say the why at the start, the middle, and the end, not just on day one.
Model it yourself
People follow what leaders do, far more than what they say. If the partners exempt themselves from the change, everyone notices, and the change quietly dies.
McKinsey calls role-modelling essential, because change asks people to behave differently and leaders set the example. Use the new system first. Adopt the new way visibly. Admit your own learning curve.
Your behaviour is the loudest message in the building. If you want the firm to take the change seriously, be the first to live it, not the last.
This is where many leaders quietly undermine their own change. They sponsor it in the meeting, then carry on as before at their desk. The team reads that gap instantly.
Bring your people, and your clients, with you
Here is the risk that is sharpest for a professional services firm. Your assets walk out the door. Mishandle change and key people leave, taking knowledge and clients with them.
So over-communicate. Early, often, honest, and two-way. Tell people what is changing, why, and what it means for them, before the rumour mill does it for you.
Involve people in the how. People support what they help build, and your team often sees practical problems you cannot. Resistance frequently contains information worth hearing.
And protect the client experience throughout. Internal upheaval should never reach the client as dropped balls or mixed messages. Manage the change so your clients feel steadiness, not disruption.
Picture a firm rolling out a new practice-management system. The partners announce it, then keep working the old way and never explain the why. Within a month the team has quietly slipped back, and the investment is wasted. The technology was fine. The change was not led.
Don’t try to do everything at once
A common way change fails is simply too much, too fast. Teams are already carrying near-constant change, and change fatigue is real.
So choose the change that matters most, and sequence the rest. Trying to transform everything at once usually means nothing lands properly.
Build belief with quick, visible wins. A small success early proves the change is real and worth the effort. A stalled, half-finished change teaches the opposite, that change here does not stick.
Sequencing is itself a skill of leading change. Decide what comes first, finish it, then move on. Momentum compounds, and so does its absence. A team asked to change three things at once usually changes none of them well.
Build capability and follow through
Most change does not fail at launch. It fails in the quiet months afterwards, when attention moves on and people drift back to the familiar.
McKinsey points to weak follow-through and too little investment in capability as classic failure points. So train people properly, not just once. Give them the skills the new way demands.
Then reinforce it. Update your systems, expectations, and recognition so the new way is the easy way. Keep a regular rhythm of checking progress. Do not declare victory at go-live, because that is exactly when the real work begins.
A simple habit helps here. Put one recurring item on your leadership agenda to check how the change is bedding in. Small, steady attention beats a big launch every time.
What to ignore, and how to start
Ignore the comforting idea that a great plan is enough. The plan is the easy part. The people are the work, and that is where your attention belongs. That is the discipline of leading change, and it is learnable.
Start small and concrete. Pick one change. Write the why in a single line your team would repeat. Model it yourself. Involve a few people in the how, and follow through for ninety days before moving on.
Be honest about resistance, too. Some of it is noise, but much of it is information. Listen to what your people push back on. It often reveals what your plan missed.
Where to from here
Change is not optional. Standing still is its own risk, and the firms that adapt well pull clearly ahead of those that do not.
So lead the people, not just the project. Give them a compelling why, model the change, bring your team and clients with you, and follow through. Do that, and you can change your firm without ever losing the business that change was meant to strengthen.
If you are planning a significant change, from new systems and ways of working to restructure or growth, and you want to lead it without losing your people or clients, SBAAS can guide you through it. We help Australian professional firms and small businesses make change stick. To learn more about how we work, visit https://sbaas.com.au/about-us/ or call (07) 3916 9896 to talk it through.
Sources
Australian Industry Group. (2024). Technology adoption in Australian industry. https://www.australianindustrygroup.com.au/resourcecentre/research-economics/technology-adoption-in-australian-industry/
Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. (2025). Small Business Pulse, August 2025. https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/august-2025-small-business-pulse-cautious-optimism-amid-modest
McKinsey & Company. (2022). Common pitfalls in transformations: A conversation with Jon Garcia. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/common-pitfalls-in-transformations-a-conversation-with-jon-garcia
McKinsey & Company. (2019). Why do most transformations fail? A conversation with Harry Robinson. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/why-do-most-transformations-fail-a-conversation-with-harry-robinson
Xero. (2023). One step: Behavioural research uncovers barriers to small business technology adoption. https://www.xero.com/au/media-releases/behavioural-research-by-xero-uncovers-barriers-for-au-small-businesses/
Eric Allgood is the Managing Director of SBAAS and brings over two decades of experience in corporate guidance, with a focus on governance and risk, crisis management, industrial relations, and sustainability.
He founded SBAAS in 2019 to extend his corporate strategies to small businesses, quickly becoming a vital support. His background in IR, governance and risk management, combined with his crisis management skills, has enabled businesses to navigate challenges effectively.
Eric’s commitment to sustainability shapes his approach to fostering inclusive and ethical practices within organisations. His strategic acumen and dedication to sustainable growth have positioned SBAAS as a leader in supporting small businesses through integrity and resilience.
Qualifications:
- Master of Business Law
- MBA (USA)
- Graduate Certificate of Business Administration
- Graduate Certificate of Training and Development
- Diploma of Psychology (University of Warwickshire)
- Bachelor of Applied Management
Memberships:
- Small Business Association of Australia –
International Think Tank Member and Sponsor - Australian Institute of Company Directors – MAICD
- Institute of Community Directors Australia – ICDA
- Australian Human Resource Institute – CAHRI
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