Change fails mainly for one reason. That reason is that those who initiate the change initiatives work and think only at what I will call the “hard skill” level.

Hard skills are those tasks we perform every day as part of our jobs. Examples include reactive and even proactive maintenance. Trying to change or improve one of these tasks is a superficial approach to change and usually leads to failure of the change initiative. Think of hard skill change as the top of a pyramid. Below this level are two others that support it. Failing to address these levels will lead to failure of the initiative and, in turn, the skeptical workforce I referred to previously. These two other levels, which are the foundations for hard skill change, are called the soft skills and the organizational culture.  

Tip from "The Journey To Improved Business Performance" by Stephen J. Thomas.