The number is stubborn. Across decades and sectors, most large transformations fall short — not for lack of ambition, but because intent erodes on the way to delivery. Goals blur, ownership fragments, and measurement drifts toward activity.
Improving the rate is less about working harder and more about keeping the programme connected: strategy tied to plan, plan tied to result, decisions legible over time. Where that chain holds, success rates rise.
Understanding the rate matters because it sets realistic expectations and points at the real failure mode — the loss of continuity between intent and outcome.