In a new world of instant viral can that really drive the change Saints fans want?

You may or may not have watched last Sunday's two games. Both went to overtime, both were filled with excitement and one in particular has a controversial moment that has sparked a digital aggregation of anger that resulted in this petition. Will it change the result of the game? Probably not. Might it change the nature of future games? Maybe. There certainly were not 700,000 Saints fans in the stadium for that game. There are only 393,000+ people who live in the city and just over 4.6M in the state of Louisiana. Did this call or lack of call really outrage .25% of the national population enough to sign a petition? Maybe it did

It is however a perfect lesson in three things corporations should think hard about when looking at a digital first world and how they should react to these types of moments:

Just because digital makes the esoteric possible does not mean you should do it? Everything is so easy to do with digital technologies that we think because we can spark the fire it will keep it going. In the research in June 2018 with major corporations with Forbes Insights we found that only 18% of companies that get started and sustain their digital transformation journeys are thriving. It takes more than an idea (or a petition) to get sustainable change to happen. In fact of 135 variables the performance against each of just 21 and maybe in an elevator 5 make all the difference. One thing is not enough

It is very easy to get caught up in the ease of getting huge numbers with something viral but that does not guarantee long term success. We all remember viral videos and Your Tube Creators hunger for one every week. They are not uncommon in nature (maybe one of 40+ tries). CEO's leading their organization's digital transformations have to recognize the power and long term impact of small connected wins. For example the idea of everybody working together out of their silos sound epic, but getting to happen is often one win at a time. Our research showed that the act of breaking down each of these (often small silos) was more important than one big program or viral success. If you broke them down your chances of success rose a whopping 485%.

What's next should always be the leading question. A petition of the size mentioned above is quite remarkable but the world will not change unless there is a constant focus on how the organization needs to respond to new digital drivers, new organizing principles and facing and solving challenges. See this graphic of how big companies leaders struggle to get all these three functioning like a hot offensive unit (which is what the Saints were in the first half).

Imagine if these petitioners took the next step and asked each signee to send a physical letter to the NFL, each day for a week. Even in a digital world where force in numbers is easy the physical world still really matters.