Beating the Odds: Resolutions & Transformations

It’s early January, and we all know what that means: New Year’s Resolutions. According to a recent CBS News poll, more than 40% of Americans make a resolution at the start of the new calendar year. Topping the list of most common resolutions are things like exercising more, eating healthier, learning a new skill or hobby, and saving more money. But unfortunately, making a New Year’s Resolution is far easier than following through on one. A 2019 Forbes article stated that an astonishing 80% of New Year’s Resolutions end in failure. 80%! Despite the best of intentions and an abundance of motivation right after the clock strikes midnight, the simple fact is that most resolutions fizzle out before Valentine’s Day.

As I was thinking about this topic and reading a few articles about why resolutions typically fail, I couldn’t help but notice an eerie similarity between New Year’s Resolutions and major Business & Technology Transformation Initiatives. Articles from CNN, Forbes, NPR, and Lifehack call out the jarring failure rates for annual resolutions and cite things like “trying to do it alone,” “not having an actionable plan,” and “not measuring progress” as common pitfalls. Sound familiar? If you’ve read any of my previous posts about digital and operational transformations, you’ll recall similar outcomes (75% of digital transformations fail to meet their stated objectives) and similar reasons (wrong partner, too technology-centric, lack of a compelling vision, etc.).

So, in the spirit of making 2022 a good year for all of us, here are five tips for making your big transformation initiative (or resolution) a resounding success.

1.????Define Your Why

Of all the reasons New Year’s Resolutions fail, one is most frequently cited as the root cause: defining your what, but not knowing your why. Many people want to lose weight, but why? Is it because it will make you feel more confident? Because you want to live longer so you can spend more time with your kids or grandkids? Because it will give you more mental fitness and energy in your everyday life? If you’ve got clarity on the why, your resolution is much more likely to succeed.

The same is true in business transformation.

All too often, organizations decide to invest in a big transformation project for all the wrong reasons. Maybe it’s trying to “keep up with the Joneses” (competitors are doing it). Perhaps an executive leader is looking to make a mark and thinks a big transformation could be their defining moment. Maybe your legacy tech stack is aging and becoming more costly to maintain, thus giving you an easy, IT-centric business case for investing in new tech. Or – and this one is happening a lot lately – there’s just so much momentum in the market around digital transformation that companies decide they better do it too before they become obsolete.

And while all of those are understandable drivers, none of them equates to a compelling “why” for what will inevitably be a costly and challenging endeavor. To truly set up your transformation for success, you need to define your compelling “why.” It should be a few sentences or a simple picture, not a novel. It should state WHAT you need to deliver, WHO will benefit from it, and WHY it will generate long-term value for your business. The CEO of one of my Energy clients did this exceptionally well at the outset of his organization’s big transformation. On Day 1 of the project, he said the project needs to make the frontline employee’s job easier, make the customer’s experience more seamless and positive, and make the overall operating model more efficient (i.e., lower costs). With that simple yet clear direction, the leadership team, project team, and entire organization had clarity on our North Star. The “what” then was in the service of the “why.”

In the same way that a New Year’s Resolution with no “why” is destined to fail, a transformation program with an unclear vision and a murky value prop will undoubtedly come up short. So, before you start building Gantt charts and selecting technologies, take the time to define and clearly communicate your compelling why.

2.????Define an Actionable Plan and Clear Goals (and Measure Your Progress)

“I want to learn to play the violin” is a pretty cool New Year’s Resolution (maybe I’ll give that a try this year!). But “cool” doesn’t translate to success. To successfully learn how to play the violin, you’ll need to define your action plan: find a teacher, schedule lessons, purchase a violin, determine when you’re going to practice, set some goals about what kind of music you want to play and how much you want to learn this year, etc. Without tackling some of those specifics, you’ll probably just end up sitting on the couch daydreaming about playing the violin but not making any progress.

In the same way, to get your digital or operational transformation program off the ground, you need to translate vision into action, and the first step is developing a good plan and clear success criteria for the journey. This is where many organizations miss the mark, accelerating straight from vision and funding approval to execution without taking the time to lay out a good plan. Dwight Eisenhower famously said, "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." That is absolutely the case when it comes to leading a major transformation initiative. Work closely with your internal stakeholders, your IT leaders, and your partner(s) to thoughtfully map out the project plan and understand that the plan is a living document that will change over time.

It’s also critically important to set clear, measurable goals and track your progress against them. I’m not just talking about a budget. I’m talking about operational Go-Live dates (when will we start seeing results?), clear KPIs (customer Net Promoter Score, internal operating costs, labor costs, incremental revenue generated, etc.), and interim milestones that will help you evaluate progress toward the end goal. If you build a clear plan and identify measurable targets, you’ll have the right framework in place to start executing.

3.????Execute with World-Class Discipline

Did you know that Strava (the fitness-tracking app) looks at user activity data each year and finds the specific day in January when users are most likely to give up on their exercise targets? True story: they call it “Quitter’s Day” (credit to The Atlantic for this fun fact). In the world of New Year’s Resolutions, picking the resolution is rarely where the failure occurs. Almost always, the resolution falters when it’s time to execute.

The same is true in large transformation programs. No matter how compelling your vision is and how well-designed your plan is, if you don’t execute at a high-level, you have no chance of succeeding in your transformation endeavor. You have to “walk the walk” and work through all the nuances and ups and downs of project execution to turn your vision into a reality.

That means discipline and rigor in everything you do. It means daily stand-ups, weekly deep dives, and monthly executive reviews. It means alignment in project delivery approaches, dedicated resources, effective risk and issue management, incentives for hitting project milestones, a culture of getting stuff done, and high-performing teams rallying around a common cause. It means executives actually digging in, understanding the project work, and helping remove roadblocks. And it means a personal and organizational commitment to accountability.

As innovator and speaker Gary Tomlinson wrote in his 2016 book Discovering Execution, “without execution, there's nothing else to manage. This is the unvarnished truth."

4.????Find an Accountability Partner Who You Trust

If you talk to folks who succeed with their resolutions, you’ll find a common theme: they didn’t do it alone. Those seeking to exercise more regularly often find a trainer. Those seeking to learn a new hobby find a friend to embark on the journey with them. Those seeking to learn a new language might connect virtually with someone else also learning the language so they can practice together. The secret here is not necessarily having a guide or expert (though there’s value in those roles, too). Rather, the value is in having an accountability partner: someone to check in and ask how things are going, to motivate you to get up and do your workout even when it’s cold outside, to encourage you to practice your new instrument even when you’re tired after work.

In the work I do helping organizations navigate key inflection points in their journey, I often find that my role as “accountability partner” is even more important than my role as expert and advisor. Every organizational leader wants to succeed on the “big project.” It’s not for lack of trying. But the fact of the matter is that day-to-day “fires” pop up all the time and easily distract from the project work.

If you’re serious about making your transformation project a success, find an external advisory partner who not only has the experience and expertise to guide you on the journey, but also the instincts, candor, and communication skills to hold you accountable if the organization is losing focus. If you have a partner like this – one you trust completely – you will be well-positioned to navigate the turbulence of your transformation project and deliver lasting results.

5.????Reflect Periodically & Be Willing to Adapt Your Approach

Twelve months is a long time. To expect one’s New Year’s Resolution goals and approach to remain static for an entire year, then, would be rather na?ve. Those who are most successful with their resolutions realize this and plan from the start to adjust and adapt along the way. Putting a monthly placeholder on the calendar to review your progress, reflect on what’s working and what’s not, and adjust as needed will ensure you’re just as successful in October and November as you are in January and February.

The same is true in business and technology transformation initiatives. As the size and scale of these initiatives continues to grow, so too do the time horizons. Three-year projects are now far more common than three-month endeavors. But if one year is a long time in one’s personal life, three years is a lifetime (or two) in the business world. Customer needs will change, market conditions will evolve, team members will come and go, technology will modernize, etc. So, as you transition from planning to execution, build in periodic checkpoints along the way. Every month or every quarter, pause to reflect on what’s working and what’s not, evaluate how your internal and external value prop for the project might be changing, and determine how you need to adapt your approach. Reflecting and being willing to change will pay huge dividends for your project and your organization. As they say, “the only constant in life is change!”

Whether you’re embarking on a meaningful personal resolution or kicking off a major business transformation (or both), I wish you great success in 2022. If you want to chat more about tips and tricks for successfully delivering large transformation programs – or hear about some of my failed New Year’s Resolutions – reach out to me at [email protected]. I’d love to talk!

Check out more of my posts at https://flexpointconsulting.com/insights.