Debunked: The Myth That 70 Percent of Change Initiatives Fail This myth that has kept leaders frozen with fear at the prospect of change.

After a long and painful existence, the "Myth that 70 Percent of Change Initiatives Fail" was laid to rest alongside other tenacious old saws like the "Myth that The Customer is Always Right" (thank you, Steve Jobs, who exposed that customers had no idea that they wanted) and the "Myth to Under Promise and Over Deliver " (thank you, Jeff Bezos, who created enormous promises and then, quite literally, delivered). Now, the "Myth that 70 Percent of Change Initiatives Fail" has been a boogeyman for leaders of startups to leaders of multinational corporations. It has frozen leaders with fear of failure in the decades since its birth. But it is a phantom, a myth concocted to sell consulting services and create dependency on those firms.

Related: Why Are Leaders So Afraid of Change?

The birth of a myth