Principles of Successful Transformations

We’re sure that, like us, you’ve seen many corporate transformation programmes utterly fail to leave any sort of mark. Often because they’re doing something dreamt up by a group of external consultants with no knowledge of the organisation, which is then forced onto people, making their lives more difficult and complex, without actually solving any of the organisation’s problems.

But we’re lucky enough to have been involved in several transformations now that have been more successful because they’ve taken a different approach. We’d like to explain some of the principles we believe are important for delivering a successful transformation…

Communicate ‘Why’

If the people in your organisation are going to accept change – which requires effort, upheaval, and discomfort on their part – they need a good reason to do so. This means they need to understand why the change is important and why they should embrace it (rather than resist it).

You can do this in two ways – either by creating a sense of urgency around an impending “big” challenge or problem that requires a change to the status quo lest bad things happen, or (which is often more motivational) painting a picture of how the future could be brighter for them through a strong strategic vision.

You don’t need to worry about explaining the ‘what’ – this will come later, and by explaining the ‘why’ you’ll be able to harness ideas from across the organisation on what the best solutions might be. You’ll need to explain this at least six times in six different ways, and once you’ve done that, continue to explain it until the change is fully embedded. This is something that has to come from “leadership” – it can’t be delegated.

For clarity, this doesn’t need to be done broadly on day one – although that will help if you’re looking to move quickly with volunteers and ideas from across the organisation. If you’re starting small (with a small team running experiments for example), then ensure they know, and that the communication ramps up as the transformation efforts ramp up.

Harness Volunteer Teams

You have two options when thinking about how to create capacity to drive transformation efforts. The first is that you bring in some external people who know nothing about your business, what you do, and how you work, and who have no vested interest in the change being successful – I think we all know how that goes.

The alternative is that you use your people (and more specifically volunteers) to drive the transformation – either sacrificing some business as usual to create the future or bringing in external people as backfill to keep the lights on. This brings a huge number of benefits: you will have people who are motivated to make it work, are passionate about what’s being done, have a deep understanding of the challenge/opportunity, who experience the pain every day, and have the knowledge and skills to address it.

For those that say that their people aren’t capable of doing this, then our response is twofold. Firstly, maybe you should employ, train, support, develop, trust and empower people that you believe can do great work. Secondly, you probably have these people already, and with some training and support, they will achieve astonishing things. We’d recommend training in some key skills (teamwork, decision-making, conflict management, innovation, entrepreneur-ship, etc.), then making sure they are empowered and supported, and that they have the resources they need (including access to senior leaders).

Take An Agile Approach

We’ve talked about this before, but for us agility has a very specific definition – focusing on outcomes over outputs, on customers and the delivery of value, and on efficiency, effectiveness and continuous improvement, organising around teams, with a respect for people, distributed authority and decision making, and openness and transparency. For more see?our definition of agility

But what does that mean in the context of a transformation programme?

Firstly, don’t come up with the answer up front and then focus on trying to deliver this. Organisations are hugely complex systems of people – it’s impossible to identify in advance what change is required to achieve a given outcome. Instead focus on the outcome (the why – see above), and let the solution emerge from the people that have the deepest understanding of what might or might not work.

Work iteratively and incrementally – experiment, try things out, build on stuff that works, and celebrate the learning when you find (and quickly abandon) something that doesn’t. Focus on the people that are affected, make sure they’re seeing the benefits of what you’re doing – seek continuous feedback and use this to create answers that make people’s lives better. Generate short term wins against your strategic vision and use this to build momentum and support.

Use cross-functional teams that can solve problems and break down silos, and give them autonomy, the ability to make their own decisions, and to be inquisitive and experimental to innovate and solve their problems.

And use Agile or Lean Portfolio Management techniques to manage a portfolio of different changes that come together to deliver your overall outcome. Focus on measures of success relating to impact and outcomes rather than delivery, continuously prioritise initiatives with a focus on value for money, experiment and innovate before committing to delivery, and continually adjust what you’re doing based on what you learn.

Don’t Push Change, Let People Pull It

You can’t force people to change – you can try, but they’ll resist, and as soon as you look elsewhere you’ll find old practices creeping back in as the rubber band snaps back. Instead, let the people and teams in your organisation choose when to adopt incoming changes.

It’s an immediate first test of the value of the change – if no one sees any value in adopting it then you’ve either not explained the why or you’ve come up with a solution that won’t work. It will naturally minimise the impact and cost of the change – teams can pull it at a time that works for them when they have the capacity, opportunity and time to adopt it. And it will make sure change is adapted for the local context – don’t force a one-size-fits-all everywhere, think about patterns, standards, and guardrails that local teams can adopt and adapt.

But don’t expect every team to adopt it straight away. Start with the early adopters – they’ll work hard to make it a success and sell it to the majority. Laggards will come along eventually and may require a little (peer) pressure and support, but by then it will be a done deal and you’ll have the weight of the rest of the organisation to support you.

Let the change become viral.

Lead Change, Don’t Manage It

Leadership is critical during transformational change, but this is leadership and not management – the role of the senior members of the organisation is to lead the change not to manage it. This means no top-down plans, no diktats, no bright ideas that must be implemented immediately, and no command and control. Organisations are complex systems of people (this is worth repeating), and the solutions to organisational challenges must be found rather than imposed.

So what is the role of leaders during change? We’ve already talked about their role in explaining the why (but not the what), and they will also need to ensure there is a shared understanding of (and alignment around) both this and what’s being done. We’ve also talked about the need to support, enable and empower volunteer teams, and this includes removing blockers, resolving risks, leading decision-making, and removing systemic impediments. They must create an environment in which these teams and the change they’re delivering can be successful, and then get out of their way.

But that doesn’t mean that leaders aren’t engaged and don’t have responsibilities to get stuff done. Organisational change is only effective if the leaders of the organisation are deeply involved in it – starting with explaining the why, but then leading and driving the change, talking to and supporting teams, getting decisions made, empowering and enthusing people, and maintaining momentum.

Change at an organisational scale is scary, and people will look to their leaders for reassurance, guidance, support and enthusiasm. It’s their job to provide it.

Radical Transparency

Everyone talks about the importance of communication with change – ensuring everyone understands what’s happening when, and how it impacts them. And whilst we don’t disagree with that, we think it’s only half the story – what’s required is radical transparency.

There’s often a view that people in organisations can’t be trusted to know what’s happening until there is a clear and consistent story to tell them that explains exactly what’s going to happen and when.

We believe this neglects some really important points. Firstly, you need everyone in your organisation to be in the details from the beginning if you have any hope of them being on board, identifying great solutions, providing valuable feedback, and feeling some ownership of it. Secondly, acceptance of change isn’t something that will happen overnight in a controlled and managed way – people need to hear all the different angles, hold it, wrap their heads around it, and understand why the solution being adopted is the right solution. And lastly, the vast majority of people are far more capable of handling complexity and uncertainty than you might think, and more importantly, an organisation whose people have built the skills, knowledge and experience of operating in complex uncertain environments is going to be far more likely to be successful in the long run.

So share everything, run show-and-tell events for anyone interested to come and learn, push information out, but let people pull whatever they need when they need it, don’t hold back, and let your people surprise you with their appetite for information and engagement.

Closing

We’ll post in the future about some practices that embody these principles, but we’d encourage you to think about how you might adopt even some of these within your existing context – just small changes can have huge impacts, and a bit of experimentation can yield huge benefits.

We’re fed up with seeing companies waste enormous amounts of time, money, and employee goodwill on initiatives that are doomed to failure. If you work in an organisation that’s struggled to land transformational change despite multiple attempts, then maybe it’s time to do something different.

If you’d like to learn more or to have a conversation, then please reach out to us.