To respond to complex and changing ecosystems, many companies have been transforming their ways of working. They’re fighting to stay relevant by cutting costs, increasing operational efficiency, launching new products and technologies, and aiming to put innovation at the heart of what they do.
It’s a challenging adventure with the promise of great returns but less than 15% of companies meet or exceed their expected transformation goals.1
I’ve been part of large and small transformations for some 15 years. I’ve experimented with different approaches, made some mistakes, and learned valuable lessons. In this article, I share some of my key learnings, with tips that may help you on your own transformation journey.
For any successful transformation, leaders need to be willing to change first. There’s a saying that “leaders bring the weather”. They set the mood, tone, and behaviours – their teams will often mirror what they see.
If certain actions are rewarded, people are more likely to repeat them. For example, if a manager gets promoted for making their team work late, raising their voice, or adding undue pressure, others might start doing the same.
I worked for one organisation where the leader kept asking people to work weekends to “get the project back on track”. This did more harm than good. People made more mistakes, burned out, and many eventually left the company.
According to the Business Agility Report, leadership remains the most common and impactful challenge to true business agility.2
TIP: My recommendation is to find leaders who are willing to model change and to lead from the front. They need to let go of a ‘command-and-control’ mindset and shift to enabling the team to succeed. This means building trust, empowering people, removing blockers, and leading by example. They need to be willing to model personal growth and support the people around them.
When transforming an organisation, it's crucial to clearly explain the reasons behind the change. This helps create better alignment across teams and makes it easier for people to understand the vision. I learned that without alignment, different business functions pursue their own goals and priorities, many of which often conflict with one another.
The goal should never be to ‘become agile’. The real goal is to improve business and customer outcomes. Some examples of transformation goals could be to increase customer and employee satisfaction, reduce time to market, or deliver better quality products that meet customers’ needs.
This is what many organisations still misunderstand. They treat transformation as a destination rather than a journey of continuous improvement.
TIP: I always recommend over-communicating why the company must transform, how it is doing so and emphasising the need for continuous improvement. This helps build clarity, alignment, and improves collaboration.
I noticed that many leaders and managers mistakenly believe that being busy equals being productive and that the more items being worked on the better. They become obsessed with capacity and detailed planning, ensuring everyone is ‘busy’ and fully utilised. However, the opposite can be true. Being busy continuously doesn’t necessarily mean that the team is delivering more value.
It’s worth remembering that the more items that are worked on at any one time, the longer they will take to complete on average (as explained by Little’s law).3 Items can be passed between teams, and this can also cause delays where items are queued at each step of the process.
TIP: Experiment with limiting work in progress (WIP) and gradually reduce it to fit your context. Completing initiatives before starting new ones also helps boost team morale. Allow some buffer time. This can be used for unplanned work, upskilling, helping teammates improve, or tackling technical debt.
Actionable metrics can help us make better decisions and build better products that people love. This can also engage and motivate team members.
Choosing the right metrics can be a challenge. I’ve seen many organisations tracking metrics that may be easy to measure but that don’t necessarily provide useful insights or help to answer the key question: “Are we getting better?”
Sometimes businesses can measure vanity metrics. Vanity metrics might include the number of mobile app downloads, the number of story points delivered by a team or the number of certifications held. These might make us feel good, but they may not actually be meaningful in the wider context.
TIP: To help focus on value and drive better outcomes, question whether you are measuring the right things. Consider metrics such as:
I made a mistake in the past by focusing too much on people and teams who were reluctant to try new ways of working. I often heard: “We tried this agile before and it didn’t work for us”. As much as I wanted to convince them, certain individuals would try to prove me wrong or even sabotage transformation initiatives.
My recommendation is to find ‘champions’ for the change and work closely with them. These are the people who want to be first to try new ways of working, new collaboration methods, and tools – and to be part of shaping the change.
Keep the door open – when more reluctant people see results and feel ready, they will join.
TIP: Always look for your champions. Every company has people who want to be first, to try new things, and to help shape the path forward.
To stay competitive in today’s world, organisations need to continually innovate and improve how they work. To be successful, leaders need to lead by demonstrating a willingness to change. The company must have a clear understanding of why it’s changing and communicate this widely and effectively.
People need to be a part of the change and have a hand in shaping it. There also needs to be meaningful metrics which help to truly answer the question “are we getting better?”. If we only aim for quick successes without addressing the underlying problems we risk failure.
Transformation isn’t a one-off project. It’s a continuous effort to improve. If the challenge of transformation resonates with you, and you’re looking for a trusted partner to support you on this journey, please get in touch.
References:
1 https://hbr.org/2024/05/transformations-that-work
2 https://businessagility.institute/learn/2024-business-agility-report/754
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little%27s_law
