Why do some well-intentioned change initiatives fall apart when you go to deploy them across the enterprise?
The problem is rarely the specific initiative itself. More often, it's hidden realities within the organization that are quietly blocking success.
Consider this example of a mid-sized company attempting to increase retention by offering more career development opportunities. While everyone enthusiastically embraces the idea when it's announced by the leadership team, quiet resistance builds in the background as it begins to take effect:
- Managers delay the participation of high performers "for now," worrying that development makes them more marketable, potentially accelerating departures rather than preventing them
- Talent teams face pressure to prove ROI on development investments, even as other retention factors beyond their control continue driving turnover
- Operational teams can't spare people for training without impacting workflow and service, building disengagement among employees who desire training and development opportunities
While the initiative has broad support in principle, it struggles to gain traction due to operational constraints and underlying concerns. Taking a step back before moving forward will increase the probability of success. Consider these tips:
4 Key Considerations Before Scaling Organizational Change
1. Assess change readiness early on – Change doesn't impact everyone the same way. In the workplace, each team's capacity depends on the people, their relationships with one another, their perceptions of the organization, and their unique challenges or circumstances. Uncover readiness gaps upfront so your implementation roadmap can include steps for addressing them.
2. ROI – When you start by ensuring alignment with organizational values and KPIs, you're better positioned to estimate your change initiative's ROI. Our science-backed behavioral training and analytics solution provides a dashboard that tracks the behavioral, attitudinal and cultural changes occurring in the organization. You'll see aggregated data identifying strengths and potential risks across the organization—or at the location, department, or job function level—and receive targeted next-step recommendations for driving improvement.
3. Leadership support for the initiative – Alignment around stated values and business KPIs goes a long way to getting leaders on board, but they also need proof that the initiative is impacting the bottom line. With Atana, training transforms from a mandated expense into strategic value through AI-enhanced data visualizations and insights that are easily shared with the C-Suite. Employees receive the training they need, training impact is measured consistently, and leaders gain actionable business intelligence on what's working—and what isn't—across the organization.
4. Consistent messaging – Consistent messaging starts with communicating how the change initiative supports company values and business goals. But messaging alone isn't enough — training must reinforce those messages and equip staff to implement the change.
Regardless of topic—harassment prevention, overcoming bias, workplace violence prevention—Atana courses reinforce and measure critical values-aligned workplace behaviors, including:
- Speaking up when you experience or witness inappropriate conduct (employees), and making it safe for employees to bring concerns forward (managers)
- Valuing differences and treating others with respect
- Being personally responsible for maintaining a positive and safe workplace culture
To ensure alignment across the organization, our employee and manager courses are built around consistent content with examples that resonate at every level. Launch Guides provided with the courses help L&D launch the training, prepare the learners and follow up after the eLearning.
2. Anchor change in what already matters – Align your initiative with the organization's values and business KPIs so that the change feels less like 'something new' added to people's workload and more like a natural extension of who the organization already is. This cultural alignment will increase buy-in and signal that the change supports—rather than competes with—existing goals.
3. Lock in leadership support – After aligning the initiative with organizational values and KPIs, you'll be in a better position to estimate your change initiative's ROI and build a business case you can share with leaders. Be sure to include how the progress of the initiative will be measured, how potential challenges will be identified, and what will be done to keep things on track so ROI goals can be achieved.
4. Keep your messaging consistent – To build credibility, continually communicate how the change initiative supports company values and business goals. Then back every message with the training, resources, and support people need to actually do things differently.
5. Organizational Clarity – When it comes to embracing change, each work group’s level of readiness depends on the people, their relationships with one another, their perceptions of the organization, and their unique challenges or circumstances. Measuring this readiness before undertaking a large initiative shines light on where there might be issues with implementation.
Through in-context assessments embedded into its courses, Atana gathers attitudinal and behavioral data that:
- Reveals how ready employees are to embrace new behaviors
- Helps makes sense of engagement survey findings by adding context to employee input (which is vital when interpreting negative feedback)
- Uncovers causes of culture clash where different groups are operating from different playbooks, especially after a merger, acquisition or reorganization
True change only happens when people not only know what to do but believe in it and feel empowered to act. Leaders can support change more effectively and precisely when they understand strengths and obstacles.
Amanda Hagman, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Atana
- Brings to the surface hidden hazards in the culture that may be keeping people from embracing change and where these issues are occurring
- Captures employee perceptions regarding leader, manager and co-worker social support – which is vitally important to employees’ acceptance of change
Atana Can Help
Behavior-Based Training Courses
- Atana's respectful workplace, compliance, and manager development training courses teach and measure attitudes and behaviors that align with company values like accountability, growth, respect, and communication—values that support change and have a direct impact on KPIs like engagement, retention, productivity, innovation, and risk mitigation.
- Behavioral assessments embedded in the training capture learners' perceptions and beliefs about the organization and how likely they are to apply the desired workplace behaviors.
Organizational Insights Analytics Engine and Dashboard
- The behavioral data collected in the flow of learning is contextualized and detailed, so you're able to apply tailored solutions where needed saving time, money, and resources. You'll also see where the change is taking root, so you can provide recognition where due and turn early adopters into champions for the change.
- The Organizational Insights dashboard tracks behavioral, attitudinal and cultural changes over time. Leaders see aggregated data identifying strengths and potential risks across the organization—or at the location, department, or job function level—and receive targeted next-step recommendations for driving improvement. AI-enhanced data visualizations and insights are easily shared with the C-Suite, providing them with actionable business intelligence on what's working—and what isn't—across the organization.
Atana Organizational Insights assist with large-scale implementation of organizational change by:
- Revealing how ready employees are to embrace new behaviors
- Helping make sense of engagement survey findings by adding context to employee input (which is vital when interpreting negative feedback)
- Uncovering causes of culture clash where different groups are operating from different playbooks, especially after a merger, acquisition or reorganization
True change only happens when people not only know what to do but believe in it and feel empowered to act. Leaders can support change more effectively and precisely when they understand strengths and obstacles.
Amanda Hagman, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Atana
- Bringing to the surface hidden hazards in the culture that may be keeping people from embracing change, and where these issues are occurring
- Capturing employee perceptions regarding leader, manager and co-worker social support—which is vitally important to employees' acceptance of change.
6. Quick, Precise Action – Because Atana’s Organizational Insights data is contextualized and detailed, you're able to apply tailored solutions, not a one-size-fits-all approach, where needed, saving time, money, and resources. You’ll also see where the change is taking root, so you can provide recognition where due and turn early adopters into champions for the change.
Atana's combination of award-winning eLearning courses, analytics, and recommended next steps—built on behavioral science—lets you see what’s really driving your culture—revealing attitudes, actions, and engagement patterns across teams—and what to do about them. Let us show you what we can do for your organization.
6. Quick, Precise Action – Because Atana’s Organizational Insights data is contextualized and detailed, you're able to apply tailored solutions, not a one-size-fits-all approach, where needed, saving time, money, and resources. You’ll also see where the change is taking root, so you can provide recognition where due and turn early adopters into champions for the change.
Atana's combination of award-winning eLearning courses, analytics, and recommended next steps—built on behavioral science—lets you see what’s really driving your culture—revealing attitudes, actions, and engagement patterns across teams—and what to do about them. Let us show you what we can do for your organization.
Atana's combination of award-winning eLearning courses, analytics, and recommended next steps—built on behavioral science—lets you see what’s really driving your culture and its appetite for change—revealing attitudes, actions, and engagement patterns across teams—and what to do about them. Let us show you what we can do for your organization.
