It’s February, the month when new business transformation strategies, like diets, begin to fall apart

As someone who’s experienced numerous diets and business transformations, it recently struck me what the two have in common: Most don’t work.

And the results are strikingly similar. A 2022 McKinsey study found 70% of business transformations fail. And research by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that only 20% of individuals attempting to achieve long-term weight loss (defined as losing at least 10% of initial body weight and maintaining the loss for at least one year) were able to do so. These less-than-optimal outcomes also appear to share a similar cause: Whether it’s your body or your business, people are apt to ignore underlying conditions and believe that change just takes a sudden burst of newfound discipline.

While the efficacy of dieting has been the subject of much deserved skepticism in recent years, people in the corporate world still generally believe in the power of dramatic business transformation. And for many leaders, in these rocky times, the stakes could not seem to be higher. Forty percent of global CEOs believe their companies won’t be economically viable in 10 years if they don’t transform, according to PwC’s 26th Annual Global CEO Survey. The results were consistent across a range of industry sectors including telecommunications, healthcare and manufacturing due to changes in customer preferences, regulations and skills needed, to name a few.   

When it comes to addressing health goals, it’s important to start with an objective assessment of where a person is, what they want to change and establish a roadmap to get there. Cutting calories and doing cardio may work for a while, but ultimately elimination and working harder is not the key to long-term success. Changing a body’s composition—reducing fat and increasing lean muscle—and providing the food and activity to achieve that rebalance is essential.

It’s similar with major corporate transformations. Having experienced and led communications for more than one of these in my career, there’s generally months of prep, the big announcement and then an expectation the entire business—from the C-suite to the most junior employee—will support the effort with desired results accretive to the bottom-line next quarter.

It’s just not realistic. It also isn’t new. John P. Kotter wrote an influential Harvard Business Review article about this phenomena almost 30 years ago under the title, Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. And yet, little has changed to increase the likelihood of success. A complicated underlying structure won’t adapt instantly and will persistently fight to get back to its previously comfortable state unless there is a completely new approach.

According to McKinsey’s 2022 report, contributing factors to business failures in this regard include insufficiently high aspirations, lack of engagement within the organization and insufficient investment in building capabilities across the organization to sustain change. While we can learn from the majority that fall short, it’s important to remember that about one-third succeed with the right approach.

Here are four realities critical to the success of any transformation:

Vision. Establishing a clear, compelling and shareable vision for transformation is key. What will you be able to do if you make this change? Will you be able to climb K2 or Machu Picchu or serve twice as many customers with half the staff? You and those necessary to achieve these goals—in a business, that’s everyone from employees to suppliers, partners to investors—need to understand what they are and why they’re important. Too often we set goals that are achievable in a few months – I want to drop 15 pounds before the wedding or we need to add 5 cents to earnings per share. Sure, a short-term reach goal can sometimes be achievable, but they aren’t likely to lead to fundamental change.

Time. Real change takes time. Not weeks or months, years. In fact, as Kotter wrote in HBR back in 1995, it took one company that successfully transformed five years to finally achieve the peak results from its effort. Put another way, if you started today on a major business transformation and were as successful as they were, you wouldn’t know that for sure until 2028. While focusing on short-term wins fuels the desire to keep going, time is needed to build new skills and knowledge, reward the right behaviors, address potential roadblocks and more.

Nourishment. This is what’s needed for growth, health and good conditioning—whether in a body or a business. Our bodies are nourished by foods that provide a mix of needed nutrients and vitamins. People also are nourished by education and opportunities that teach, challenge and stretch us, as well as periods of rest and renewal. Too often, in the quest to achieve goals quickly, we miss this critical step. Consider what results from malnutrition:  increased stress, tiredness, disease and limited capacity to work, according to medical research. Does that sound like the right condition for transforming anything?

Consistency. While there will certainly be setbacks along the way, it is essential to keep marching towards the vision established at the outset. Too often, when we don’t reach goals quickly enough, we change the goal or the way we’ll achieve it. That’s why so many companies are perennially announcing new transformations, because the last one didn’t take. In doing so, we lose all the benefits of consistency and must start over. If you do something consistently, it becomes a habit and gets easier to do, so you can do more of it. That creates momentum and spurs greater challenges. Plus, your employees and anatomic cells prefer consistency to change and become less likely to drag you back to their comfort zone. 

While succeeded at a major transformation is difficult, it is achievable. But the key, in business as in life, is we must match ambitious goals with reasonable timelines and the proper care and commitment along the way.

Anne Marie Squeo is CEO and founder of Proof Point Communications, a boutique marketing and communications firm, and a former Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist.