Unfortunately, this euphoria is short-lived. Although this is contradictory to everything we have been taught up to this point, it somehow makes sense, so we become hopeful and optimistic. When we start our careers, eager to make an impact, we are told about the importance of working in teams. Roadblock: Rewards based on individual versus team performanceДЇrom the time we entered kindergarten, through high school and college, the instructions were always the same: keep your eyes on your own paper do your own assignment do not get help from your friends. This traditional, hierarchical system can promote a culture in which competing groups battle against each other-sometimes for the sake of competition-instead of working together to initiate improvement efforts that will meet the needs and expectations of their customers. This type of organization prevents individual groups from playing a part in the end-to-end processes that directly serve the customer base. These groups are focused solely on their own functional area without any interaction with the groups that are upstream or downstream in the overall process.

Many organizations still face the problem that they are organized along silo-like functions, instead of along cross-functional lines. Roadblock: Function versus process organization Leadership occurs at many levels, and similarly, change can occur at many levels. The important thing to keep in perspective is that while it is important to have senior leadership support, how you define senior leadership makes the difference between success and failure. Just as frequently, however, it is used as justification by middle managers to abdicate responsibility for ownership of their functions or as an excuse for a well-intentioned-but unsuccessful-change initiative. This belief makes sense for a variety of reasons and is frequently used as a lever to get senior managers on board. One widely held belief is that to achieve tangible change, the support of senior management is needed. Roadblock: Without support there can be no changeДЄmong people with functions like corporate quality director, change agent, and vice president of human resources, there is a great debate over the best way to achieve significant results from change initiatives. This will make it difficult for you to gain support from the group. As an outsider, you appear to know little about the real issues and how they can best be solved. Even if you have the best intentions, the group may perceive that you are interfering where you do not belong. It is very difficult to be responsible for improvement initiatives for a group that does not directly report to you. Roadblock: A group that reports to someone else As you read each of the descriptions, decide if the roadblock is affecting your progress. The following roadblocks are representative of some of the issues individuals are facing today when trying to implement organizational change. These roadblocks are as diverse as the companies they come from. There are a variety of obstacles that companies may need to overcome and that may hinder their efforts to achieve successful change. I f we know where to go, why is change so difficult?

Results of roadblock