Change management in practice: what determines the success of implementing change in a company?

Ron Johnson, the man who created the Apple Store empire, one of the most revolutionary concepts in retail history, seemed the perfect choice. In 2011, he became CEO of J.C. Penney and had one goal – to replicate Apple’s success in the traditional department store chain. The plan was brilliant in its simplicity: do away with annoying promotions, introduce fair, fixed prices, and transform stores into a modern shopping destination. Johnson wasted no time. Within the first few months, he laid off 19,000 employees, replaced the entire management with outsiders and, without any tests, implemented the radical change in all 1,100 stores at once. “I don’t need to test customers … I have instinct,” he said in an interview with Fast Company.Seventeen months later, the board of directors threw him out with a bang. Sales fell by $4.3 billion, net losses exceeded a billion, shares collapsed from $42 to $18 a share. The cost of the experiment? More than $4 billion and the near bankruptcy of the 111-year-old company.

What went wrong? Johnson had vision, strategy, experience, and unlimited authority. The problem was that he overlooked the most crucial element – people. The employees who were supposed to implement his revolution, the customers who were supposed to embrace it, and, above all, the methodical management of the change process itself.

This is not an isolated case. It is a pattern that repeats itself in thousands of organizations around the world. Spectacular failures that cost billions share one common denominator — the neglect of the human side of transformation.

The Invisible Epidemic: 70% of failures in an Era of Constant Change

We live in an era of constant change — digitalization, automation, business model shifts, reorganizations, mergers, and acquisitions. Paradoxically, even though change has become a daily reality, our ability to implement it has not kept pace with the speed at which it is needed.

A recent McKinsey & Company study shows brutal numbers: only 26% of organizational transformations achieve full success in improving performance and its long-term maintenance. This means that three-quarters of billion-dollar investments in change fail to deliver the expected results.

Prosci, a global firm studying change management practices, has uncovered further patterns. Their analysis of thousands of projects shows that organizations with very high change management capabilities are seven times more likely to achieve their objectives than those that ignore the discipline. 88% of projects with a professional approach to change management meet or exceed their goals. Without this support, the success rate plummets to a dramatic 13%.

Badania pokazują również że połowa liderów nie potrafi nawet ocenić, czy ostatnie zmiany w ich organizacji się udały.

The hidden cost of ignoring change management

It’s not just about project failures. It’s about the hidden costs that remain invisible in financial reports but tear the organization apart from within.

Failed changes burn out teams, erode trust in leadership, and foster a culture of cynicism toward new initiatives. A vicious cycle emerges: the more transformations fail, the greater the resistance to the next ones, and the lower the chances of success for future projects.

Eighty-five percent of managers report an increase in the number of change initiatives within their organizations, yet only 25% consider their leaders effective at managing these processes.

Why are people the key to successful transformation?

The secret lies in understanding a simple truth: change happens at the level of individual people. You can have the best strategy in the world, the latest technologies, and unlimited budgets, but if people do not go through their personal process of adaptation, the change will not occur.

Neuroscience explains why this happens. The brain perceives any organizational change as a potential threat. The amygdala activates, cortisol levels rise, and the ability to think logically decreases. This resistance is not born of malice — it’s an evolutionary survival mechanism.

Research on the brain’s response to change reveals five key areas that determine whether people will embrace a transformation. These are:

✅status: Will I be more important or less important after the change?

✅certainty: What exactly will change in my work, and when?

✅autonomy: Will I have any influence over how the change is implemented?

✅relationships: How will the change affect my connections within the team?

✅fairness: Is the process fair for everyone?

Organizations that consciously address these needs achieve 2.6 times better transformation results. This is not a coincidence — it is the result of systematically designing the change experience from a human-centered perspective.

The anatomy of success: what do winning companies do?

Amazon achieves an 80% success rate in change initiatives. Their secret? Every transformation starts with a small experiment. They test hypotheses on a selected group, gather data, learn, iterate, and only then scale. Jeff Bezos called this the “approach to failure” — the organization’s ability to learn quickly through experimentation.

Microsoft achieved 95% employee satisfaction during one of the largest reorganizations in the company’s history. CEO Satya Nadella invested in a systematic change management program based on proven methodologies. The key was equipping every manager with concrete communication tools, creating a network of change ambassadors, and regularly celebrating progress.

These successes share a common denominator: none of these companies left change management to chance. Each invested in a professional approach to managing the human side of transformation.

ADKAR: A proven model that changes the game

In a world full of trendy management theories, one model stands out for its solid empirical evidence. The ADKAR methodology, developed by Prosci based on research involving over 10,000 change leaders worldwide, focuses on five sequential stages that every individual must go through to successfully adopt a change.

Awareness – understanding why the change is necessary and what the consequences of not implementing it will be. This is not communication along the lines of “we’re doing this because management said so.” It is a compelling explanation of the business rationale and the personal benefits.

Desire – building engagement with the change and support for it. People need to ask themselves, “What’s in it for me?” Without internal motivation, even the best strategy will remain on paper.

Knowledge – understanding how to operate effectively in the new reality. This goes beyond technical training to encompass a comprehensive grasp of new processes, roles, and expectations.

Ability – the ability to practically apply new knowledge in everyday work. This is the difference between knowing the theory and actually implementing it.

Reinforcement – mechanisms to perpetuate the change and prevent a return to old habits. Without this last element, even the best-implemented change dies after a few months.

Organizations using the ADKAR model achieve project goals six times more effectively.

The Economics of Change Management: numbers that convince boards

Here are a few figures that should capture the attention of any CFO.

Projects with excellent change management have an 88% chance of achieving their objectives. Without this support, the success rate falls to just 13%. The difference between success and failure often comes down to a professional approach to managing the human side of transformation.

The average ROI from investing in change management is 143%, whereas projects without this support generate only a 35% return. These are not theoretical calculations — they are based on the real results of thousands of projects.

The time to return to full productivity after implementing a change is reduced fivefold with professional change management and implementation.

The hidden savings are equally impressive: reduced costs from errors and rework, lower turnover of key employees, faster return to full productivity, and higher customer satisfaction during periods of change.

Competitive advantage in an era of constant change

Modern business is not a sprint; it’s an obstacle-filled marathon. Organizations that master the art of change management gain a fundamental competitive advantage — the ability to adapt quickly and effectively to ever-changing conditions.

How to build Change Management Competencies in your organization?

Change management is not an innate talent — it’s a skill that can be developed systematically. The best organizations invest in building internal capabilities: training their leaders in change management methodologies, creating networks of transformation ambassadors, and fostering a culture of learning and experimentation.

But transformation also requires courage — the courage to admit that previous approaches aren’t working, the courage to invest in professional support, and the courage to focus on people, not just processes and technologies.

About the author:

Tomasz Jastrzębski is a manager with 20 years of experience, a trainer, consultant, and HR expert specializing in team transformation, training, leading and implementing HR projects, mentoring, and optimizing business processes. In his work, he combines a holistic view of organizations with deep fact-based analysis, enabling him to create practical solutions that truly meet clients’ needs. He collaborates with companies across industries such as banking, IT, biotechnology, logistics, electronics manufacturing, and automotive, supporting both international corporations and family-owned businesses.

This article kicks off a series of publications dedicated to change management.

In upcoming articles, we will delve into aspects such as building awareness of the need for change, fostering the desire to engage, equipping the organization with the necessary knowledge and skills, and reinforcing transformation results. We will discuss the crucial role of change sponsors, how to work effectively with line managers, and how to turn natural resistance into constructive engagement.