You may think that once individual performance objectives have been identified, your employees should be off and running in terms of executing the change agenda and you can exhale.

This would be a mistake.

Despite best intentions and efforts, change management deliverables have a mixed report card against sought-after expectations. Research has found that only about half of joint ventures and only a third of big mergers—the ultimate organizational change—do work.

What causes such projections to go astray? The answer is usually found in your organization’s culture.

An organization’s “culture” is a mix of many different factors, such as observed behaviors, norms and rites that involve working groups, values embraced by the organization, and the managerial philosophy and attitudes of senior management. Its impact is all-encompassing as culture helps define, among other factors, an organization’s patterns of communications, how problems are solved, who participates in decision-making, the language used, the physical environment, and policies and procedures.

An organization’s culture can be a valuable indicator of loyalty and commitment. It is an intangible that requires your full time attention.

When you sense any uneasiness within your team’s culture about the change agenda, it’s time to quell the concerns.

First, human nature tends to fear and resist change. This is driven by the potential erosion of—through the possibility of a diminished paycheck or professional capacity—our needs for physiological satisfaction, safety and security, love and belonging, and recognition and status. Change also threatens our personal “cocoon of perceived indispensability,” wherein we fool ourselves into believing that our role is too valuable to the organization—only to find out otherwise.

You must address this with firm and convincing optimism. Discuss the desirable state of the organization and how every role contributes toward this end. Present the challenge as an opportunity to learn new skills, abilities, and attitudes. Build employees’ self-esteem through your expressed confidence in them. Explain the roadmap in small journeys, allowing for easier understanding and adaptation. Suggest that change is in their self-interests for their professional self-preservation, development, and perpetuation.

Second, complacency could be a prevailing mindset within the organization that leads people to be too comfortable and reliant upon the business models that have resulted in their past success.

Complacency is best combated with information, but you need to be cognizant of both the medium and the message you desire to convey. Give as much relevant information and as many facts as possible. Probe employees’ understanding with reflexive questions. Compel them to action by pointing to examples of what may happen if new thinking and work practices aren’t embraced.

When employees come to view change from a similar perspective, they will likely perceive similar causes and solutions for it.

Third, values dissonance can hinder any ongoing change process. Value is both a verb and a noun. Values provide a framework for your culture. They should be introduced into your organization with kid gloves, not a hammer.

At an individual level, you should take every communications opportunity—especially where change is topical—to reinforce the organization’s values. This will help drive the salience of this message in the most personalized manner.

Within your organization, values and ethics should be likewise reinforced and “institutionalized.” For example, J&J has Credo workshops for executives; Sun Microsystems has a “business conduct office” and places all top executives and financial managers through its “Fiduciary Boot Camp”; business schools are expanding their curriculums to include courses upon values-based ethics and responsibility; most larger organizations have confidential “whistleblower” hotlines; and all companies are responding to Sarbanes-Oxley about corporate/personal responsibility.

If workshops and class attendance are not viable options, you should, at a minimum, hold staff meetings that focus upon and periodically reinforce the organization’s values.

You can find examples of how to address values at a collective level in Appendix H, “Prompting a Dialogue About Values,” on the book’s web site.

Fourth, one of the toughest challenges is to confront the individual considerations of inadequate skills and competencies, or the lack of performance. In these cases, you must reinforce the organization’s vision, the need for organizational transformation, and subsequent individual change. In good faith, visibly demonstrate your commitment to help each person attain the needed skills through the provision of training and educational resources. To the extent possible, allow people who will be affected by the change to participate in deciding what needs to be done and how to implement the changes.

Last, there may a trust issue. Look in the mirror. Is there any way that your team might sense a lack of commitment or sponsorship? Have you been guilty of playing favorites? Do you have a personal insecurity that surfaces in ways that you aren’t even aware?

The matter of trust is further explored in the next Truth.