What's Your Transformation Paradox?

There is a paradox we see by some companies in long-standing industries, where they say "Why can we not ....." and then proceed to function in ways that answer that question and hold them back! Keep on keeping on the same way you always have and the question will eventually shift to a statement..."We can not...!"

"Why can we not grow the golf business?" and then some clubs focus all programs, marketing, and design to be structured around expert golfers, not growing new ones. The marketing efforts are weak, and they don't do the due diligence to know the difference between their existing clientele and the prospective clientele they hope to attract. They fail to collect and use their data.

"Why are we not getting more skiers/boarders every year?" and then some ski areas focus on increasing black diamond runs and park programs available for expert skiers and snowboarders with little focus on costing for young families and beginner programs or sacrificing beginner terrain for real estate (which is static).

"Why can we not get more women into technology?" Role models are few and far between. When you look at the online descriptions of the leadership team at a good portion of the tech companies, they have a staff of men in operations, but the functions given to women are HR and Marketing. Toy and good suppliers to children are still producing gender-specific toys marketed with the typical blue and pink. Old societal implications that girls are bad at science and math is still prevalent in some elementary through to high school education mindsets, and companies fail to promote smart women already in STEM into leadership positions.

"Why are our energy dollars not meeting shareholder value?" Energy companies fail to diversify into alternative energy with the understanding that the industry IS changing and we must support BOTH renewable and non-renewable resources. We need traditional energy supply such as oil, and we need other forms of renewable energy in the ecosystem in which we live.

Those are only a few...

Answering the question "Why can we not..." is directly tied to the actions your company takes in relation to the problem. It is about transforming what your business does and how it does it to achieve a different result. Transformation takes commitment and a change of focus, it takes a solid people strategy. If you continue to do the same old things hoping for a different result and fail to develop a people strategy from the Executive Suite through to the front lines, then you are headed toward irrelevance. Pay attention to the trends, pay attention to the businesses that ARE growing.

Transformation also costs money. You can pay for it now, or lose money in the long term - your choice.

Understand your paradox. Sometimes bringing someone in from the outside to help you recognize the disconnect between what you want and what you are actually doing can make a difference. You will never answer your challenge question by doing the same things over and over again and believing that simply shuffling your leadership to different chairs at the table is your answer. Change takes action, the action is driven by people, you need a strategy.

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Patti Blackstaffe is the CEO and a Managing Director of Strategic Sense Inc. A people-strategy company that empowers their clients with the strategies and tools for building Enterprise Transformation Agility (ETA). Being agile and able to manage and adopt changes powerfully transforms cultures, leads to the higher adoption of digital transformation and improves organizational change maturity. Strategic Sense Inc. does people strategy and helps leaders build trust and transparency.