The False Alignment Trap
Leaders often behave as if they agree on why, what, and how to change—when they actually don’t. That’s why most transformation efforts fail. by Julia Dhar, Kristy R. Ellmer and Philip Jameson

Cheuk Lun Alan Lo & Vanessa Lyu
Summary.
Decades of experience and research have consistently shown that most organizational change efforts fail. In 1993 Michael Hammer, who launched the business-process-reengineering movement, somberly concluded in his book Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution that “as many as 50% to 70% of the organizations that undertake a reengineering effort do not achieve the dramatic results they intended.”
Read more on Change management or related topics Managerial behavior, Collaboration and teams, Interpersonal communication, Internal communication and Management communication
A version of this article appeared in the forthcoming July–August 2026 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Read more on Change management or related topics Managerial behavior, Collaboration and teams, Interpersonal communication, Internal communication and Management communication