John P. Kotter: How do you inspire a team that has failed?

“The statistics of you seeing them are kind of depressing. The vast majority of large scale change efforts fail. Which means that the probability that you have actually experienced a failure, and your people know that and are pessimistic therefore about trying something again, is very high. I’m often asked what do you do about that. I think the single biggest thing you can do is be honest. Tell them–you failed in the past and are going to do it differently this time.” — John P. Kotter