MGMT8270 Chap.11 Evaluating Change and Learning From Failure
Evaluating Change and Learning From Failure
What failure means
Week 11 starts by retiring the claim that 70% of change efforts fail, which the lecture says is not based on any scientific fact. Failure is a deviation from expected and desired results, and outcomes are ambiguous, context-dependent and judged differently by different stakeholders.
Kotter's reasons for failure, three perspectives on failure and four ways organisations respond complete the picture.
Evaluating across the change
The chapter follows a national health records rollout through preintervention, intra-intervention and postintervention evaluation, showing what each phase found.
It compares internal, external and hybrid evaluators, sets out criteria from compliance to culture, and lists data methods, then works an evaluation plan for a new hybrid-work policy that also models the review points your Development Plan needs.
Evaluation in your own plan
The Leadership Development Plan asks for indicators of progress and review points, which is evaluation applied to yourself.
The three-phase logic transfers directly: know your starting point, check during the plan so you can adjust, and judge the result afterwards against more than one criterion. The failure material adds honesty: a priority that does not move is evidence to learn from, not something to hide.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Defining failure in change
- 02
The 70% claim
- 03
Kotter's reasons for failure
- 04
Deterministic, voluntaristic and entrepreneurial views
- 05
Responses to failure
- 06
Pre, intra and postintervention evaluation
- 07
Choosing an evaluator
- 08
Criteria and data methods
Worked example · free
Testing a claim that a change failed
- 1Failure means deviation from expected and desired results, so first ask which results were expected: cost, staff wellbeing or both.
- 1Different stakeholders can judge the same change differently, and one quarter is an early point, so the claim reflects one criterion at one time.
- 1A fair verdict needs postintervention evaluation over time against several criteria, such as cost, outcomes and engagement.
Key terms
- Organisational Failure
- A deviation from expected and desired results, in Cannon and Edmondson's definition.
- Intra-Intervention Evaluation
- Evaluation carried out during a change so that it can be adjusted before it derails.
- Hybrid Evaluation Team
- An evaluation team that combines insiders' knowledge of the context with outsiders' objectivity.
- Postintervention Evaluation
- Assessment of a change's outcomes at completion and over the following period, used to inform future change.
- Unobtrusive Measure
- Evaluation data gathered without asking people directly, such as records or usage logs.
Evaluating Change and Learning From Failure FAQ
Do 70% of change efforts really fail?
The lecture says the figure is not based on any scientific fact, and the module calls it folklore. Measuring failure is hard because outcomes are ambiguous, stakeholders disagree, and a single initiative is rarely isolated from everything else happening.
What are the three phases of evaluating a change?
Preintervention evaluation checks readiness and clarifies objectives, intra-intervention evaluation monitors progress so the change can be adjusted, and postintervention evaluation measures outcomes at completion and over time.
Should an internal or external person evaluate a change?
Internal evaluators know the context but may be biased or lack influence; external evaluators bring objectivity but need time to learn the setting. A hybrid team combines both strengths.
Why did Kotter think change efforts fail?
He listed eight errors: too little urgency, a weak guiding coalition, a missing vision, a vision under-communicated, obstacles left in place, no planned short-term wins, declaring victory too early, and failing to anchor changes in the organisation's culture. The course pairs this list with the harder question of what failure means.
Assessment move
Write the evaluation plan for your own development: one criterion per priority, one data method for each phase, and three dated review points. Choose an internal, external or hybrid source of feedback for each priority and justify the choice in one sentence.
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