A statistic published by McKinsey puts the failure rate of transformation initiatives at 70%. 

Four years ago, when I first came across that statistic, I hoped it would have shifted. It hasn’t.

Higher education is under constant pressure. Financial constraints are tightening, the student population is diversifying, and the pace of change institutions must sustain is accelerating.

When I was asked to deliver a change management session for Tribal, I was upfront with the audience: this wasn’t going to be a masterclass in the traditional sense. I’m not claiming to have all the answers. For me, change management goes well beyond getting people to do something differently. It encompasses technology change, people change, and everything that connects them.

What I shared were nine lessons drawn from real delivery experience. They apply to any scale of change, from a ten-day engagement through to a full institutional reimagine.

Lesson 1: Start with why

Every project should begin with a clear answer to the question: why are we doing this?

It sounds obvious. But, it is often the first thing that gets skipped.

When a project is framed purely as a technical necessity, such as replacing a system because it is approaching end of life, it rarely motivates the people behind the scenes. The people who use that system every day are not motivated by technical debt. They are motivated by what they can do for students.

In higher education, that is a powerful asset. Most people in this sector are here because they believe in what universities do. When change is anchored to that shared purpose, it becomes far easier to sustain when things get difficult. Your “why” is the thing you return to when it does.

Lesson 2: Make planning simple

Complex project plans get opened once and never revisited. I have seen MS Project files with an abundance of lines that no one had looked at for years. Eventually, this leads to the failure of the project, further adding to the percentage of projects that fail. 

At PACT, we encourage teams to get their plan on a single page. If you cannot capture the essentials on one page, there is a chance you are holding too much yourself rather than delegating appropriately. A one-page plan is enough to start meaningful conversations with your project team, your stakeholders, and your sponsors.

The point is to have a plan that people actually use.

Lesson 3: Define your exit before you start

One of the most consistent problems I encounter on transformation projects is teams that have no clear exit. They start projects with no idea when they will finish.

Before a project gets off the ground, you need a clear exit criteria and a test strategy to prove you have met it. Testing should be one of the first questions you ask. How are we going to prove this works? If you cannot answer that, you are not ready to start.

At Solent University during our major Student Records System Implementation, we knew our exit and mapped backwards from go-live to define our testing windows, a full year ahead of time. We kept to that plan and went live exactly when planned. It is the only project I have ever been on where that has happened, and I believe it was because we set the exit before we began.

Lesson 4: Accept that you can’t do everything

A tight timeline and a wide scope will always create a conflict. The answer is not to push harder; it is to prioritise.

We use the principle of adopting, not adapting. Where possible, take systems out of the box and adapt your processes to fit. Processes are faster and cheaper to change than systems. Many can be adjusted after go-live, which gives you breathing room when you need it most.

This also means defining your minimum viable position honestly. What absolutely must be in place on day one and what comes after? At PACT, we apply a set of criteria to make these calls: does this affect the student experience? Does it carry regulatory or financial risk? If the answer to either is yes,it’s a priority. If not, it can wait.

Being clear and honest about the minimum is far better than promising everything and delivering nothing.

Lesson 5: Get the right people in

The wrong team is, in my view, the second biggest reason projects fail. Getting the right people in, and being prepared to fight for them is a must.

Too many projects ask people to run a major transformation programme alongside their day job. That does not work. It burns people out. You need to invest properly in people, which sometimes means going to your sponsor with a clear case, including the risks of not doing it.

At PACT, we look for the right mix of seconded subject matter experts who understand the business processes, external specialists who have delivered this kind of work before, and experienced partners who can provide quality assurance and foresight. Between them, they cover the gaps that internal teams almost always have, through no fault of their own.

Lesson 6: Empower the team to make decisions

Once you have the right people, let them lead within their areas. Micromanagement kills speed and morale, and transformation projects need both to be healthy.

If your subject matter experts are telling you something needs to happen a certain way, trust them. Your job as a change leader is to set direction, connect the dots across workstreams, and clear the path.

When mistakes happen, and they will, focus on fixing them. Do not respond by pulling authority back to the centre. That only slows things down and signals to the team that their judgement is not trusted.

Lesson 7: Break down silos before they form

On any complex implementation, teams working in isolation from one another is one of the fastest routes to failure. If the finance team talks only to their team. Nobody compares notes until the last minute, and by then it is too late.

Breaking down silos requires deliberate structure. At PACT, we use regular cross-team stand-ups, team leads sharing updates, and visible issue and action tracking. Tools that give everyone sight of what is in progress, what is blocked, and what is at risk are not nice to have; they are essential.

Lesson 8: Don’t just review your risk log. Live it.

A risk log with 110 entries that has not been updated in four months is not a risk log. It is a graveyard of good intentions.

Risk management only works if it is active. As a change leader, you should live in your risk log regularly, not reviewing it occasionally. Every risk should have a status, an owner, and a current mitigation.

At PACT, we use Jira, a workflow-based risk tracking that moves each item from identified through to mitigated, accepted, or closed. This makes it easy to see what risks require the most attention. It also ties risks directly to the workstreams they affect, so your RAG (Red, Amber, Green) status reflects reality.

Lesson 9: Bring your people on the journey early

Resistance to change is, in my experience, the single biggest reason transformation fails. You can have the right system, the right budget, the right testing approach, and the right timeline, and still not land the change if people are not brought with you.

The key insight is that most people do not resist change because they are obstructive. They resist because change introduces risk, and we are all wired to avoid risk. The goal is not to convince people they are wrong to feel that way. The goal is to shift who they see leading the change.

Within any organisation, roughly 13.5% of people are early adopters. They embrace new ways of working before the majority and, crucially, the majority watches them. These are your change champions. If you can get this group working visibly with you, using new tools and speaking positively about the work, the wider population will begin to follow.

The important point is not to appoint change champions; let them self-select. When you share the vision and ask who wants to be part of it, the right people will put their hands up. They are intrinsically motivated. That is exactly what you need.

These nine lessons are not exhaustive, and they are not a formula. Change is too context-dependent for that. But in my experience, they apply at every scale: a ten-day engagement, a phased programme, or a full institutional transformation. Working through them honestly at the start of any project will put you in a stronger position than most.

Interested in how PACT approaches change management in higher education? Get in touch.

Aaron Tyler
Co-Founder & Director
PACT Solutions