When should your charity should end its transformation journey?
4 key pointers to the ‘red flags’ that show a transformation initiative is likely to be unsuccessful & steps you can take in response.
What are the key things that you need to look out for if you are involved in delivering transformation? In this blog, Eastside People strategy and transformation specialist Anthony Walters gives four key pointers to the ‘red flags’ that should tell you that a transformation initiative is likely to be unsuccessful. It also identify positive steps that can be taken in response.
The blog is written from the point of view of a transformation practitioner but should prove useful reading for anyone engaged in transformation, including senior leaders.
Transformation is a messy business. People that are good at it make it look unmessy, even neat and tidy. But it never is. It is hard work, full of stops and starts, even backwards and forwards. And sometimes round in circles!
In this context, it’s sometimes difficult to know when to give up. My advice to people managing transformation projects is that it’s a bit like driving— yes, you need to react to what’s happening right in front of you, but you also need to have an eye on the road ahead.
So, assuming we have an eye on the road ahead, what do we look out for that might make us think about ending the journey instead of carrying on?
Here are my top four pointers on areas that can raise the red flags on whether to continue with your transformation journey:
- Lack of leadership interest
Honestly, if nobody from the leadership team cares— and SHOWS that they care— it really is time to give up. Any transformation worth doing will be difficult for some people and require visible and strong leadership. If nobody’s bothered, it probably won’t happen, or if it does, it’ll be half-hearted at best. And how are you going to secure the right resources without leadership support?
What you really want to see is:
- Leaders being interested in how things are progressing, and challenging the project team on this
- Putting their name to messages— even if they don’t write them
- Actively and consistently fronting the change
I’ve worked on lots of programmes where leadership didn’t do these 3 things. In some cases, it ultimately led to the change being abandoned; in others, it took a very long time to achieve a watered-down version of the original intent. I’ve also worked on projects where leadership did lead from the front, and it made a huge difference to what could be achieved. I now always challenge whether programme delivery should continue when it’s clear that leadership support is lacking.
Whilst the ‘legwork’ of transformation can be outsourced, either to an internal Project Management Office (PMO)/transformation team or to external providers, the leadership must absolutely be kept in-house. Even with the most skilled transformation team, a lack of leadership will compromise what can be delivered and will sap the energy of those involved.
If you’re managing a project or programme, nurture and support leadership, and question where it does not exist. If the leadership team does not visibly own your change, it is very unlikely to be delivered successfully. If you’re a leader yourself, make sure you are actively putting your name to the transformation project and that you are visibly involved.
- You can’t tell the story about why we’re doing it
Bringing someone with you on a transformation journey requires you to be able to tell a compelling story about why you’re doing it. Ideally, people need to be excited by it, but at the very least, they need to understand it. And if you can’t tell the story, you have to ask yourself why? Obviously, this will be helped by a clear and compelling business case setting out why the benefits of making this change outweigh the costs and risks— that is coming from the project professional in me! But ultimately, it comes down to having a convincing story.
Ask yourself— ‘if I was being affected by this change, would I get it?’ Make sure your story is told in language that your audience can understand, and ideally, run it past people outside of your team to make sure. It is very easy to fall into transformation jargon without even realising it, which can very easily alienate people even if they understand the basis of your points.
3. You can’t convincingly show how ‘what’ you are doing will achieve the ‘why’
The ‘what you’re doing’ must absolutely and demonstrably achieve the ‘why’ you’re doing it. To bring people with you, they must not only understand why things need to change, but how the change is going to be made.
To give an example, if you’re looking at the way a service or team works and your stated aim is to improve efficiency, people need to be able to understand how what you are doing will deliver efficiency gains. Ideally, you would have some tangible measurements in place and a very clear way of demonstrating it. Something like ‘we are changing the way we do X so that there are Y fewer tasks to do’’ is a great example. And even better, find ways to show people, by demonstrating the change in ‘show and tell’ sessions throughout your change programme.
4. Finally— the story no longer holds true
Things change. Particularly over the lifespan of significant projects and programmes— this is why all the best practice guidance says ‘keep the business case under review.’ Sounds technical, but basically, it means making sure the story always holds true. That the reason why you’re doing something is still valid and that people are still going to be convinced by the story.
Ending the journey doesn’t necessarily mean failure.
I started this blog by pointing out that transformation is difficult and messy. There are many things that can affect its success. A change that seemed like a good idea at one point in time might no longer be a good idea at another point in time.
All of this requires absolute transparency in the way delivery is reported and monitored. This is where a learning culture is important. People need to feel able to surface things that aren’t working.
You must feel that you can learn from it and move on. And not devote energy into finger-pointing and blame. Change programmes by their nature will be doing something new and relatively untested; it’s normal to expect the unexpected and for things to go wrong. It can be very difficult to end a journey you’ve invested a lot in. Organisations that adopt a learning culture are less likely to be wasting time and money pursuing the wrong initiatives, and more likely to develop and grow.
External help from transformation experts can be very helpful in pointing out what can easily become lost to people who are in the weeds of delivery.
They can:
- Help structure narratives that will make sense to a wide range of people
- Provide impartial advice and guidance on delivery and ongoing viability of initiatives
- Provide support with delivery that may not be available in your organisation.
Whether or not external help is used, your organisation needs to make sure that the leadership and narrative are strong— by all means get help with this, but you need to own it for it to work.
If you’d like more information on any of the points above, or to find out more about Eastside People’s strategy, transformation and crisis management services, check out our stragey and transformation website page or talk to us.
