70% : the failure rate of transformations
- Marie-Lorraine Rouy
- Apr 7
- 1 min read
The failure rate of transformations remains estimated at 70%—and up to 80% for digital transformations?
(source McKinsey - 2022).
Among the five most frequently cited causes of failure:
Two are operational: planning effectiveness and clarity of KPIs
Three are human: leadership engagement, communication transparency, and employee involvement.
At the same time, every leader who has driven strategic transformations has experienced it firsthand: The success of a transformation—and, more broadly, an organization’s resilience—does not depend equally on all employees.
Roughly 20% of “key talents” play a decisive role during critical times—whether in the face of transformation or crisis.
But those key talents are not always the “usual suspects.” Many of them still too often fly under the radar.
What if one of the keys to successful transformation lay in identifying these “silent talents”?
