Change management 193 Implementing change The problems of implementing strategic change were summed up by Lawler and Mohrman (2003: 24) as follows: Most strategies, like most mergers, fail not because of poor thinking, but because of poor implementation. Implementation failures usually involve the failure to acknowledge and build the needed skills and organizational capabilities, to gain support of the workforce, and to support the organizational changes and learning required to behave in new ways. In short, execution failures are often the result of poor human capital management. This opens the door for HR to add important value if it can deliver change strategies, plans, and thinking that aid in the development and execution of business strategy. Implementing change can indeed be difficult. Research by Carnall (1991) in 93 organizations identified the following explanations for failures to imple- ment change effectively: Implementation took more time than was originally allowed. Major problems emerged during implementation which had not been identified beforehand. Coordination of implementation activities was not effective enough.