In my conversations with organizational change practitioners, I’ve noticed there are at least seven common challenges they face:

1. Leadership buy-in - how do we get the leadership team, especially the CEO, to take on ownership of the changes?
2. Communication – how do we move beyond the prescribed speeches by leadership and get everyday managers and employees talking about this every day?
3. Motivation – what are the best incentives to use to motivate people to change?
4. Overcoming skepticism – how do we make people understand this is not “flavor of the month?”
5. Project justification – how can we quantify intangibles so we can justify key change projects?
6. Subjugating the urgent – how do we keep transformation from taking a back seat to firefighting?
7. Longevity - once we build momentum and change starts to happen, how do we ensure it survives turnover in key positions (especially the chief executive)?

What are other challenges you face?