People don't just deliver transformation; they are the transformation
With your Purpose established, the next bit should be easy…right?
Picture it…the transformation program kicks off with genuine energy. We need this. We deserve it. The technology promises exciting opportunities. This will fix everything. There is a Big Announcement.
And then nothing much happens. Lots of meetings. Comms are sent. Workshops are held. Then it starts to grind.
Why?
Transformation and change teams don’t deliver transformation and change. They facilitate it.
Key roles are filled by people who were already at capacity and are now doing two jobs. The steer co cadence is out of sync with the pace of the program. Sponsors are unavailable. The change team and other ‘owners’ have no real authority to decide anything.
With something as complex as transforming a business, there is no team that ‘delivers the transformation’. Dedicated change people are a huge help, but they can't ‘deliver transformation’ any more than a personal trainer can ‘make people fitter’.
Without the rest of the business actively pulling for change, the role is set up to fail from day one.
You cannot squeeze transformation into an already full bucket by drafting a few people onto a change team and hoping for the best.
I've been on the customer side of multi-million-dollar transformations, and nothing kills the momentum quicker than ‘sorry, I’m too busy’.
I’ve also been at the pointy end of operations and project delivery enough to know that ‘sorry, I’m too busy’ is usually true. The immediacy and pressure of the day to day business is real, hard graft and it cannot be ignored or put on pause.
But here's the rub. Changing how your business operates, how it's experienced by your people, and your customers, is also immediate, real, hard graft that cannot be ignored or put on pause.
Both states, running the business and changing the business, take focus, dedicated effort, time and money.
The organisations that do this well are honest about the cost upfront and make space for the work.
The ones who struggle are often trying to improve the current state and design the future state simultaneously, with the same people and on the same timeline as implementation.
Which brings us to the honest questions worth asking before you commit:
Does the benefit of where you're going outweigh the very real cost of slowing down to get there?
And
Do we have enough of the right people, genuinely available, with the authority to act?
If the answer is yes, then the work is worth doing.
If the answer is no, then don't do it. No consultant on earth will get you across the line.
If the answer is ‘not sure’, that’s where our practical Readiness Guide can help. It walks through ‘People’ and five other focus areas that determine whether transformations deliver. It's free, and it might help you out if you’re stuck.