Almost everyone has experienced an initiative started by someone high up in an organization, with good intentions to make the place better, fail miserably to make a dent in the problem at-hand. I’ve seen this outcome more than I can count. Good ideas. Good tactics. Failing to make an impact. Failing to make any kind of change. Why?

As an organization gets bigger, it becomes significantly harder to act with a single agenda. There are writings that talk about the magic number of 150 people. An organization of this size (give or take) is impossible to influence through sheer force of will of a single person. One leader cannot reach this volume of people and share a single message in a consistent way. Larger organizations begin to rely on intermediate managers to convey the message of the organization.

I experienced this first hand when I moved from running a division of approximately sixty people to a division of over one-hundred. My team grew from there, and the tactics I was used to no longer were effective. It is even harder when the organization grows around you - as in the boiling frog metaphor. I see leaders fail to realize that the organization has changed, and their tactics need to change to get the results they desire. Some leaders are crippled with the experience that they were successful in the smaller organization using tactics that no longer are effective.

I recall a leader that observed the organization going off track in decision making. She chose to start an initiative that could save the day - using a tool called RACI. RACI brings clarity to who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed on projects. This tool is fantastic to help drive clarity in organizations on what different roles exist to get work done for the organization. This leader didn’t have the intermediate managers in place to fully implement RACI and change the organization, and it ultimately fell by the wayside as a good idea not implemented.

My eyes were opened in my larger organization only through establishing feedback mechanisms from my staff. The most effective was “skip level” meetings, where I talked directly with staff at least one level down in the organization (thus “skipping levels”). I began to hold these meetings quarterly and I learned what parts of my organization were getting the right messages, and what parts seemed confused or off mission. Without meetings such as these, I had to assume the leaders I relied on were communicating effectively and that turned out to be an unreasonable assumption.

As a leader, the first real question is whether your organization can adequately change. Regardless of what the new initiative is, you may need to tackle communication before assuming you can tackle what you see as the highest priority to delivering results. Does your organization have the communication tools necessary to propagate a new message? Do you have the feedback loop to know that the communication is happening? If not, what success will the organization have taking a new idea from the outside and applying it effectively?