#2 Why I Invested in Prosci and Why Change Management Has Never Mattered More
By Krystyna Litwa
Updated March 2026
In most change programs, the human side isn't taken seriously enough, not with real structure, not with dedicated resource, not with the right expertise.
In this blog, I unpack why change management has quietly become the most underfunded, misunderstood capability in organizations today and what the research says about the cost of getting it wrong.
Up to 7× more likely to meet objectives
Projects with excellent vs. poor change management93% vs. 15% success rate
Well-managed change vs. poorly managed change
These aren't motivational statistics. They're the gap between organizations that treat change as a discipline and those that treat it as a workstream.
Worth a read if you're leading or living through any kind of transformation right now.
Almost 15 years.
That is how long I spent working in HR, People & Culture, Leadership Development, and Organizational Development across the Middle East, Africa, and EMEA before I made a deliberate, significant investment in deepening my change management expertise through the Prosci certification.
It wasn't an impulsive decision. It was the result of watching up close, repeatedly, and with increasing frustration how change was being done. Or rather, how it was being done wrong. And it was the result of asking myself a hard question: Where do I want to stand to have the most meaningful impact on the organizations and leaders I serve?
The answer was clear. I needed to be at the table where change strategy is designed, not just advising on people and culture after the decisions had already been made.
That is what led me to Prosci. And I have not looked back.
The uncomfortable truth about change today
Studies show that 70% of change programs fail or fail to achieve targets. Seventy percent. That is not a rounding error. That is a pattern. And companies with failed change programs identify employee resistance and unsupportive manager behavior as the major barriers.
Here is what I find most interesting about that statistic: it is rarely a technology failure. It is almost always a failure to manage the people side of change. Every single time
We already know it well: Organizations do not change. People do. One person at a time, one decision at a time, one behavior at a time. And if that human side of transformation is not actively managed, with structure, with expertise, and with the right tools, the return of some of the biggest investments are entirely left to chance.
I have seen this play out too many times. And it is exactly why I believe change management has never been more important than it is right now.
5 reasons why change management is no longer optional
The pace of change is accelerating — and it is not slowing down.
Digital transformation, AI adoption, workforce restructuring, regulatory shifts, post-merger integration. The volume and velocity of change hitting organizations today is unlike anything we have seen before.
Multiple research firms, including McKinsey and BCG, report failure rates between 70–95% across industries and the persistence of those numbers, despite decades of experience, points to something systemic. Organizations are not becoming better at change by default. They need to build that capability deliberately.
Change is not just for large-scale digital transformations.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions I encounter. Leaders assume change management is something that is brought in for an ERP implementation or a major restructure.
It is not. Any change that requires people to behave differently — a new process, a new reporting line, a new performance framework, a new way of working — requires proper change management. The stakes may differ. The human dynamics do not.
The cost of doing it wrong is enormous.
When organizations whose leadership clearly defined roles and responsibilities and communicated progress were studied, they were up to 8 times more likely to succeed than their peers. That is the difference between a transformation that delivers and one that quietly destroys value, confidence, and momentum, sometimes for years.
The financial and human cost of failed change is vastly underestimated by most leaders until they are living through it.
Most organizations are still winging it.
In my experience, change management is often treated as a communications plan and a training schedule. Someone in the team "takes it on" alongside their real job. A consultant delivers a workshop. A PowerPoint deck is shared. And then leaders wonder why adoption is poor, resistance is high, and the ROI of a multi-million-dollar investment never materializes.
Prosci research shows that projects with excellent change management are up to 7 times more likely to achieve success, but only when it is done with structure, with dedicated resource, and with the right methodology.
The human side of change is the hardest — and the most neglected.
Technology can be implemented on a timeline. Processes can be redesigned in a workshop. But shifting beliefs, habits, and behaviors at scale? That takes sustained, structured, expert-led effort.
Companies that take the time to identify and shift deep-seated mindsets are four times more likely to rate their change programs as successful — yet this is precisely what most transformation programs cut first when timelines are tight or budgets are under pressure.
Why Prosci and why it gives me the strongest position at the table
I have worked with many frameworks over my career. What drew me to Prosci was not just its methodology, it was the research behind it. Built on 25+ years of benchmarking data, spanning tens of thousands of practitioners and projects globally, Prosci's ADKAR model is not a consulting firm's proprietary tool. It is the most widely used, most rigorously tested change management framework in the world.
According to Prosci's research, 59% of participants who used a structured methodology achieved good or excellent levels of change management effectiveness. That is evidence. And it is the kind of evidence that allows me to walk into a conversation with a CEO or a transformation director and speak about change strategy, risk mitigation, and recovery with confidence — not opinion.
That is the position I wanted. And that is the position Prosci has given me.
For executives navigating transformation today, the question is no longer whether they need change management. The question is whether they are giving it the seriousness, the structure, the expertise, and the dedicated resource that it deserves.
Change is constant. The pace will only increase.
The organizations that will thrive in the years ahead are the ones that develop the ability to change faster, better, more humanely, over and over again. At the individual level, at the team level, at the organizational level.
In the world we are operating in, across the Middle East and beyond, it is the capability that will determine who leads and who gets left behind.
I made my investment in Prosci because I believe that. And because I want to help the leaders and companies I work with build exactly that.
Change done right is possible. And it is a competitive advantage.
So where do you start?
Do you need a Prosci certification, or a full-time resource dedicated to change management? The honest answer is: it depends.
There are real advantages to building in-house change capability, trained people who know the organization, its culture, and its dynamics. But if that resource lacks the authority, influence, or organizational positioning to lead change effectively, the effort can be quietly undermined by the very dynamics it is trying to shift.
The right answer looks different for every organization. What matters is that you make a deliberate choice.
If you are navigating that question right now, I would be glad to help you think it through.
Whether you are exploring certification, building internal capability, or figuring out where to start, feel free to reach out. I am always happy to talk.
