The Change Implementation Challenge
Despite significant investments in change initiatives, nearly 70% of change efforts fail to deliver intended results. This often gets overlooked or glossed over with dismissive comments like ‘That’s for those who don’t execute properly.’ While organisations often focus on designing the right changes, they frequently overlook a critical element: establishing the structured processes needed to implement and sustain these changes through effective two-way communication.
At Arkaro, we’ve successfully utilised a powerful but often overlooked catalyst: the disciplined meeting cadence of Integrated Business Planning (IBP). When properly introduced – which is key since it represents a significant change for an organisation – and implemented, IBP creates a natural platform for embedding change, facilitating robust two-way communication, and ensuring strategic initiatives translate into operational reality.
Arkaro's Change Management Approach
Arkaro’s approach to change management follows four essential stages:
1. Understand – Assessing the current state, identifying stakeholder needs, and developing and communicating effectively the case for change based on organisational context and culture.
2. Co-create – Working collaboratively with your team to design solutions that fit your organisation’s unique needs rather than imposing generic best practices. This phase should at least secure buy-in from an initial group of change agents who will help champion the initiative.
3. Enable – Building capabilities, providing tools, and establishing processes that allow your organisation to implement change effectively.
4. Sustain – Creating mechanisms to ensure changes become permanently embedded in your organisation’s DNA and continue to evolve with changing needs.
While all four stages are crucial, the Sustain phase is where most organisations struggle most intensely. Initial enthusiasm and focus often give way to competing priorities and a gradual return to old habits. There can also be subtle undermining of new procedures that has to be surfaced! This is precisely where IBP processes offer unique advantages as vehicles for change.
How IBP Enables and Sustains Change
Enabling Change Through Structure
IBP provides a robust framework that actively enable change implementation:
Structured Skill Development The regular cycle creates natural opportunities for applying new skills in a supported environment. Each monthly review becomes a practical learning laboratory for teams to practice new approaches and surface issues and concerns in a respectful and open way.
Cross-Functional Collaboration The process design necessitates collaboration across departmental boundaries, creating “forced integration” that breaks down silos and enables coordinated change efforts.
Clear Decision Pathways Well-designed IBP processes establish explicit decision rights and escalation protocols, enabling teams to resolve barriers to change implementation efficiently.
Mid-Level Managers as Enablers The process positions mid-level managers as crucial “strategy translators” who:
- Connect change objectives to specific operational actions
- Enable teams by interpreting high-level direction into practical next steps
- Develop workable approaches that balance strategic intent with operational realities
Sustaining Change Through Rhythm
The greatest value of IBP for change management lies in its ability to sustain momentum beyond initial implementation:
Consistent Cadence The monthly rhythm prevents initiative fatigue by embedding change activities into the regular business cycle rather than treating them as additional work.
Built-in Accountability The sequential review structure creates natural accountability mechanisms with regular check-ins on progress and commitments.
Assumption Testing The regular review of planning assumptions creates a natural mechanism for validating whether changes are delivering expected results and adjusting as needed.
Continuous Improvement Mechanism The plan-do-check-act cycle inherent in monthly planning reviews enables ongoing surfacing and refinement of change initiatives based on implementation experience.
The Five Steps as Change Enablers and Sustainers
Each step of the IBP process creates specific opportunities for enabling and sustaining change:
1. Product Review: Connects change initiatives to product strategy and product portfolio.
2. Demand Review: Ensures changes align with evolving customer needs, enabling market-focused implementation
3. Supply Review: Assesses operational readiness and production limitations, enabling realistic capability development and sustaining operational excellence
4. Integrated Reconciliation: Resolves cross-functional barriers, enabling coordinated implementation and sustaining collaborative problem-solving
5. Management Business Review: Provides executive decision-making, enabling resource allocation and sustaining visible leadership commitment
Practical Steps for Leveraging IBP for Change
To use IBP effectively to enable and sustain change:
1. Embed Change Initiatives Directly
- Include initiative updates as standard agenda items
- Ensures all parties have input and a voice at the table
- Track change-specific KPIs through the IBP dashboards
- Make change part of “how we do business” rather than “another initiative”
2. Establish Structured Communication Rhythms
- Create defined touch-points between monthly IBP meetings for mid-level managers to connect with their teams
- Implement regular team briefings after each monthly cycle to communicate course corrections and celebrate successes
- Develop formal listening channels to gather implementation challenges from frontline teams
- Design escalation protocols for issues that need visibility at higher levels of the process
Conclusion: Managing Processes Create Lasting Change
The distinction between successful and unsuccessful change often comes down to how well new ways of working are sustained over time. By leveraging the established cadence and cross-functional nature of IBP processes, organisations create natural vehicles and a “rhythm” for maintaining momentum and embedding change into organisational routines.
At Arkaro, our “do it with you” approach means we work alongside clients to integrate our four-stage change methodology with your planning processes. The result is change that becomes part of your operational rhythm rather than a separate initiative fighting for attention. This integration is especially powerful in the crucial Sustain phase, where many traditional change efforts ultimately falter.
About Arkaro
Arkaro is a B2B consultancy specialising in Strategy, Innovation Process, Product Management, Commercial Excellence & Business Development, and Integrated Business Planning. With industry expertise across Agriculture, Food, and Chemicals, Arkaro’s team combines practical business experience with formal consultancy training to deliver impactful solutions.
Our collaborative ‘do it with you’ approach works closely with clients to leave behind sustainable, value-generating solutions—not just a slide deck.
“We don’t just coach – we get on the pitch with you”
