The hyper-changing reality that characterizes the 21st century forces companies to adapt by building a dynamic-strategy and changing according to it. Easy to say, but not always easy to do... Despite the importance of adaptation and change required for companies' ability to survive and thrive in the 21st century, many of these processes fail (partially or fully) to achieve their objectives.

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Two hurdles are common across all adaptation processes – strategic hurdles and human resources management hurdles:

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1. The strategic hurdles are reflected in the difficulty to pre-see the potential challenges and prepare a strategic plan to effectively adjust to them:

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    The first aspect is the ability to anticipate the challenges in the external or internal environment of the company.

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    The second aspect is the ability to build a strategic plan that will enable the company to successfully cope with future challenges and even use them as an advantage. The plan often includes change processes that will allow the company to adapt to these challenges in an optimal way - change in products/  target audiences, changes in the work process, acquisition of new technology and more.

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    The third aspect is implementing the changes efficiently into the company's long-term plans - from a technical and financial point of view.

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2. The human resources management hurdles refer to difficulties to incorporate the change into the organization’s workflow. It is not enough for the managers to build an efficient plan to carry out the change, the employees also need to take an active part in the process - learn the change and integrate it into their daily work. This is a critical step in the management of the organizational change process and a necessary condition for the organization's ability to benefit from it.  

However, the employees often do not welcome the change processes. It usually requires them to make a significant effort to learn and change their work habits. It may also raise employees’ concerns about their role/place in the company following the change. The efforts and concerns involved in the process often provoke strong resistance of the employees to the change, which prevents the company from implementing it successfully.

The organization's managers play a crucial role in the organization's ability to face these two hurdles - the strategic and the human.