Are we really open to transformational change and do we acknowledge the depth of its impacts?

The big buzz word, TRANSFORMATION, what's the hype and fuss all about and why now? Super (normal) trends so it seems and at this point most organisations have caught onto it quick and fast! Yes, it’s sure to have amazing effects….! But perhaps too quick and fast, that it’s failing? Why is it failing?

Let’s take a deeper look at the definition of Transformation for a moment.“In an organisational context, a process of profound and radical change that orients an organisation in a new direction and takes it to an entirely different level of effectiveness. Unlike ‘turnaround’ (which implies incremental progress on the same pane) transformation implies a basic change of character and little or no resemblance with the past configuration or structure.” Source: businessdictionary.com 

If any transformation is going to work, we need to be ready for change with an accepting and agile culture.

Human nature is such that most don’t deal with change very well – being accustomed to “the way things have always been done”; willingness to change, fear for various reasons (redundancy, failure, etc.), not knowing how to deal with it, or not being equipped for it. The reasons could be endless.

Let’s look at a few tranformation examples: 

·      Moving from a standard business, bottom line driven organisation to a customer centric driven or human centred organisation

·      Moving from manual, archaic ways of doing things to one of a digital nature, known as Digital Transformation 

Fundamental ways of work will ultimately change.

Let’s ask ourselves:

·      Are we truly ready with clear roadmaps of transformational change?

·      Are we prepared?

·      Do we know what the process and impacts look like at an organisational and business level?

·      Are we open to hard truths, change, time and effort?

·      Is the entire organisation ready for this?

Transformation is often dealt with in siloed approaches, but this has an impact on the broader organisation and its associations alike. Being prepared and preparing the organisation with a new vision and the associated change management is crucial to it's success.

Would love to hear your views and comments on reasons for transformation failure?