Why do most change initiatives fail — even when we “know” how to manage change?

In this week’s Knowledge Management Global Network (KMGN) course "From Strategy to Impact", Dr. Tathagat Varma challenged one of our core assumptions:

• Maybe change does not fail because we execute poorly.

• Maybe it fails because we misunderstand what kind of change we are dealing with.
  

In today’s world, change is continuous, complex, and often unpredictable.
Yet we still apply structured methods designed for stable environments.
This leads to what he described as a category error: applying the wrong tools to the wrong type of change.
And the implications for Knowledge Management are significant.

⭐️ When cause and effect are clear, KM can act as a map. But when change is complex and emergent, KM must become a compass.
⭐️ Not just capturing knowledge. But enabling sense making.
⭐️ Not only managing tacit knowledge. But recognizing emergent knowledge that is created in interaction, in real time.

Because in complex change, we don’t move from knowledge to action.We move from sensing… to understanding… to acting.
And if we don’t adapt KM to that reality, we may continue managing knowledge well — and still fail in driving change ✨

Thank you, Rudolf DSouza for the connection.