We may laugh about the fate of our health resolutions, but the negative consequences in terms of illness and loss of self-esteem have tragic proportions. Unfortunately, less than 30 percent of personal and organizational goals are ever achieved. Even with inspired leadership and well-motivated participants, cultural barriers eventually overwhelm change efforts. Individual New Year’s health resolutions rarely make it to March.

Important business goals for creating learning organizations, total quality management and principle-centered leadership begin with much fanfare and quickly disintegrate. Two independent studies in the 1990s, one published by Arthur D. Little and one by McKinsey & Co., found that out of the hundreds of total Quality Management (TQM) programs studied, about two thirds “grind to a halt because of the failure to produce hoped-for results.” Reengineering has fared no better; a number of articles, including some by reengineering’s founders, place the failure rate somewhere around 70 percent. Harvard’s John Kotter, in a study of one hundred top management-driven “corporate transformation” efforts, concluded that more than half did not survive the initial phases. He found a few that were “very successful” and a few that were “utter failures.” The vast majority lay “…somewhere in between with a distinct tilt toward the lower end of the scale.”

The result of such a high failure rate is lowered self-esteem and increased cynicism. Some groups even create their own jargon to laugh a bit at their skepticism: At Harley-Davidson, management’s latest great ideas are greeted with the phrase “AFP,” which is translated publicly as “Another Fine Program.” Insiders know what four letter word the F really stands for. Frustrated by failed initiatives, people are on constant lookout for new and more inspired goals. To stand out from past failures, some new-age and corporate gurus have advanced truly wacky, simplistic and potentially hurtful ideas. These fad diets and "business breakthroughs" are artifacts of failed sensible and compassionate approaches to change.

Many people are giving up on change. For example, doctors tend to prescribe expensive and dangerous drugs because they are reluctant to prescribe necessary lifestyle changes. After all, doctors rightly believe that few of their patients will achieve successful lifestyle change.