Achieving 'Sticky' Business Transformation

Marketing, Mind-manipulation, Rational explanation, or none of the above? What is the secret of 'sticky' Business Transformation?

Most of us would accept that we posses 'filters' through which we observe and make sense of the world in which we operate. Our filters are a kind of shorthand we use to enable us to rapidly make a decision which usually boils down to act, don’t act, or wait.

Senior leaders in particular have to be conscious of their own filters, and be prepared to have them challenged or face the risk of filtering out the commercially or politically crucial thing to focus on. 

So perhaps this is why when it comes to delivering successful Business Transformations many senior leaders seem to trust their preconceived opinions that expert programme management and Governance structures will deliver a successful outcome, despite repeated evidence to the contrary. 

If you ask them, as I have done, what in their view the keys are to making transformations 'stick' they will commonly fall back upon these metrics and control measures. If you ask them why some transformations don’t 'stick' they rarely fall back upon these measures choosing rather to pull from their own experiences. They might site weak engagement, poor internal marketing, and cultural inertia. Should we see this as an example of Orwell's 'Doublethink'?  ('The ability to hold two completely contradictory thoughts simultaneously while believing both of them to be true').

Just doing the same things doesn’t seem to be inspiring confidence in this leadership community either. In the 2018 Harvey Nash / KPMG CIO Survey https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2018/06/harvey-nash-kpmg-cio-survey-2018.pdf

78%of respondents believe their digital strategy is only moderately effective, or worse. 38%of respondents think their digital strategy would fail without an innovative and experimental culture.  49%of respondents are experiencing budget increases at their highest level since tracking began.

So we can see that Business Transformation and Digital Transformation in particular is very much at the forefront of senior leadership thinking. Despite the mantras of 'customer centric thinking' and 'driving innovation' senior leaders however are still focussing on delivering the technology rather than enabling the Business outcomes. 

As I've touched on in previous posts we have been trained to confuse and conflate deliverables and actual outcomes. It's much easier to sell deliverables and then measure them, as opposed to outcomes which can take months or even years to be fully realised.

It's important to remember that these are smart and 'savvy' leaders who know they need to transform their organisations through technology and know that the organisation cannot afford to fail or even only partially succeed. They need these transformations to stick.

If we examine the offerings which senior leaders are generally faced with when they want to increase the 'stickiness' of their transformation they tell me broadly they fall into three camps. Marketing, Mind-manipulation, and Rational explanation. There are many 'niche' consultancies operating in these spaces however to make life simple I'll provide a brief synopsis of what these offerings broadly are.

Marketing is easily understood by senior leaders and fundamentally it fits with other elements within their businesses. Presenting the transformation in the most positive light, driving awareness of the transformation, and seeking to create energy and enthusiasm as the primary driver for engagement. What a sales leader would understand as 'selling on the positive.'

Mind-manipulation is actually much closer to leadership learning and development approaches. Also familiar to senior leaders this is about seeking to engage with key influencers within the organisation by using immersive sessions enable them to develop and embed a new language and culture which is supportive and accepting of the transformation. The intent is that this will cascade through the organisation.

Rational explanation would be understood as classic communications strategy. Explaining the benefits and the challenges of making the transformation. Outlining the journey plan and how the recipient will be impacted by the changes, then the detail through focussed support to enable the recipient to have all the information available that they require to engage with the transformation.

This is where the filters kick in for many senior leaders. Some grab at Marketing and focus on selling the positive. Often this means using the same tactics they deployed to get funding originally. It all gets very BIG and dramatic and unreal. These leaders become frustrated when the organisation sees through the 'relentless positivism' and sometimes they actually succeed in driving engagement down rather than up. Others embrace the L&D approach but in large organisations this is expensive and time consuming and frequently the trickle down or up doesn’t happen as the premise relies upon shared experience and common values which are created by the process. Others make the assumption that creating a mountain of communications collateral and blasting this into the organisation will build enough momentum that acceptance will follow, belatedly realising that the vast majority of the organisation ignores the carefully crafted messaging.

So how do we increase the 'stickiness' of a transformation programme?  Here's 5 things to help your organisation be more sticky.

1.    Understand the context– What sort of an organisation are you, what are you for, how do you collectively see yourselves, what does good look like and how is it really measured? A sense of identity and common understanding of purpose appears to be a crucial factor in stickiness. 

2.    Understand the delta– Be clear at the outset how different a post transformation world will be, and importantly who in the organisation will feel that difference the most, be that positive or negative? Is this one of a number of ongoing business changes or is it a true game changing business transformation? Will this impact everyone or a handful of individuals? A particular vice of Digital Transformation is the requirement to convince senior leadership to obtain funding. The scale and ambition of the transformation is inflated eventually becoming hyperbole. While this may be effective to obtain funding it can be seen to be absurd outside of that context. A strong connection between the wider organisations reality and the transformations intended impacts is another key element in stickiness.

3.    Understand the intended outcome- Articulate why – Make sure that the driver for the transformation is clear. The deliverables may well be all about enabling performance improvement, efficiency, market share, cost reduction etc. The organisation however wants to know why those matter. If we improve all these things how does it connect with who we are and what we are for? Evidence suggests that organisations can be remarkably resilient to major change impacts, adapting to new ways of working and changing cultural and behavioural norms. From Outsourcing to Merger & Acquisition to shrinking in size people cope better regardless of the positive or negative impacts if they understand the 'why'.

4.    Use the right tool(s) – Be led by context not ideology. If the organisation is Agile then use Agile if its waterfall then use waterfall. If it’s a hybrid then pick what works and use that. If the organisation needs enthusing then Marketing approaches may be ideal, providing you can moderate the hyperbole. If key groups are identified that need significant upskilling or mind-set adjustment, then an L&D approach may be ideal. Where there is a murky or poorly understood rational for the transformation then high quality communications would be ideal. In reality it is almost certain that you will need some of each of these along with Business Impact management and the host of usual deliverables for a high quality transformation programme, but be consistent in your message especially about intended outcomes

5.    Know when to end– The most successful stories have a beginning middle and end. The human brain is linear and feels comfortable in this narrative construction. One of the most common phrases and complaints I hear is that we live in a period of constant change. When you dig into that from a business perspective it becomes clear that people feel that one major transformation project slides into the next. When it comes to stickiness a crucial element is to be clear about what's been achieved, acknowledging the effort and indeed in some cases sacrifice that collectively the organisation has made to achieve the intended outcome. Enabling an individual to associate their effort to a shared outcome can have a significant impact upon their view of the outcome and increase their engagement with it.

So taking my own advice it's time for me to end. Good luck with your transformations and if you would like to comment or get in touch please feel free to do so.

John Hunter - MD Veritive Consulting Ltd.