Introduction
As a transformation leader it is tempting
seek value from a programme straight away.
The phrase ‘quick wins’ is common in transformation parlance, reflecting a desire to both deliver value early and build up credibility with stakeholders.
However, there is a risk that the pursuit of quick wins is counterproductive – the mere act of chasing them can undermine, delay or damage your ability to unlock strategic, transformational benefits.
Having evaluated a wide range of transformation programmes we have witnessed several where the pursuit of quick wins has distracted both the leadership and delivery teams from their mission, i.e. delivering the transformation strategy and executing the big picture roadmap – the result often being increased pressure on the implementation team and the overall timescales; in extreme cases we have seen this create overall delays and significant additional costs from very early stages in the programme.
If the path to quick wins follows a natural progression, i.e. you deliver them as a result of simply executing your plan, then that’s ideal. If, however, the start becomes about quick wins then it may require you to deflect some or all of the team away from core activities to achieve them. In this situation, many leaders find it hard to bring the team back on track whilst maintaining the original delivery objectives and timescales.
Key challenges presented by starting before you are ready
It may feel the right thing to start achieving tasks that you know will appear on the plan. However, transformation programmes are complex and require certain things to be done in a certain order to avoid rework and confusion. Related to this, here are a few challenges you might recognise:
Doing before thinking: it’s great to ask the team to start running at 100mph on Day 1; they are galvanised after a kick-off event, feeling enthusiastic and emboldened with a can-do attitude. However, be careful what they start doing. Many projects kick off activities before they have been thought through, leading to waste, mistakes, confusion and fast but inappropriate results. Tip: It sounds obvious but major transformations need a well thought-through plan. Give people the time and space to produce it, before they start delivering.
Planning is a waste of time: activity is no substitute for achievement but, to many people, planning feels like neither. A professional planning exercise provides a solid foundation for rapid, reliable, consistent achievement over the long-term. This is particularly true of complex, strategic initiatives which span multiple years, geographies, customers and functions. You won’t realise it until it’s too late, but an absence of a solid, end-to-end plan will create discord, misaligned expectations and disappointed stakeholders down the line. Alternatively, a comprehensive plan will lead to the thorough identification of tasks, issues and risks, as well as allowing the team to build working relationships that will stand everyone in good stead should the programme become challenging. Tip: ensure your transformation team and stakeholders have time to plan together to harness everyone’s input and ensure they have skin in the game.
Over-optimism: there is a high degree of correlation between transformations that start too quickly and over-optimistic budgeting and scheduling. CxOs like results, and they like them fast – everyone gets it. Sponsors and stakeholders who are undertaking their first major transformation have a tendency to set top-down goals (notably regarding budgets and dates) before planning has concluded. This can manifest itself as commitments or promises which unravel when the detailed plan is eventually produced. Rather than admit at an early stage that top-down goals need to be reset, many times we see the detailed plan being ignored in preference to mandating the top-down view in the hope that it can be forced through. Tip: use a strategic transformation road map to convey timescales – illustrate that those time scales are desirable top-down but can only be confirmed when the detail substantiates them. The same is true of budgets – transformation programme failure rates are high, so make sure you really do have money down the back of the sofa for a rainy day.
Surprises of the unfortunate kind: transformations that start before they are ready often deliver more surprises than they do results. Some examples of this are:
contracts with third parties that do not protect you as the client, and often do not encompass all the required deliverables – leading to increasing levels of change, cost and complexity
issues emerging with little or no notice, requiring a highly reactive response or leading to unforeseen / unbudgeted activities. As a transformation leader this will make you feel like the programme is out of control, particularly if issues remain hidden from you, or only come out when it is too late for you to remedy them
dependencies between initiatives within the transformation programme remaining unidentified until they become a problem, leading to delays and confusion between teams
dependencies with other business areas or functions within your organisation, where you are reliant upon them for activities or information that they were unaware they had to provide
good people get lost along the way when there is a lack of a robust plan to follow. If people are just ‘doing’ without a clear end game in sight they can quickly become disillusioned. And it’s always the best, most career-mobile people that leave when you least want them to
Tip: the more the transformation leadership ask, ‘what can go wrong?’ and ‘what will stop that from happening?’ the more likely you are to uncover surprises before they occur. This is particularly valuable during the planning phase to prevent people making false assumptions and it is key to keeping your best people on board for the long haul.
If you want to be fully ready to transform
The consequences of starting too fast are unexpected change, cost increases, unforeseen surprises, unanticipated complexity, people issues and stakeholder disappointment to name just a few. We often say that ‘transformations fail in the beginning, not the end’, so to avoid making the typical mistakes we encounter when recovering struggling initiatives, what should you do?
Bite the bullet and plan comprehensively: great planning can take weeks or even months, especially when contracts must be negotiated and agreed. Embrace the planning cycle and allow space for the programme team to develop innovative approaches and solutions, think through all the implications, rigorously challenge the resulting plans and assumptions, and ensure risks, dependencies and issues are identified and placed under active management. Tip: a professional planning exercise should make it difficult for the programme team to fail. They will feel in control of the situation and have confidence that only outside influences can deflect them from their course of action.
Engage everyone in the planning process: everyone involved will feel valued, have the chance to contribute, generating buy-in to the transformation strategy, objectives and approach. Allow people to understand what the scope is and why some of the elements they might have expected are not included. Furthermore, this allows everyone to understand their role, giving them a sense of ownership … which can be very useful later. Tip: hold multiple scoping, planning and solutioning workshops as possible and engage as many stakeholders as you can to participate. Spread the sessions out to allow time for write-up, research and refinement before subsequent planning events take place.
Stay strategic: keep the end game in mind whilst resisting the temptation to go for quick wins unless they are on your natural path, and make sure that stakeholders buy into that approach. Spell out the consequences if they insist on diversion.
Plan and contract in parallel: this will ensure that there is alignment between the two and minimise the risk of contractual confusion with suppliers later. Tip: sign off your plans and contracts at the same time. Operate during the early phases using a Letter of Intent with key suppliers, so that they can help initiate your programme, whilst learning what they need to put together an effective contractual framework.
Set expectations properly: initially communicate your Transformation Road Map as ‘indicative’ and take time to explain to people why and how dates and costs might change. Tip: operate a two-stage funding process if required (i.e. fund the planning and contracting phase and then resubmit for final budget approval to complete the programme).
Get issues and risks on the table early: the more time available to analyse a risk or issue, the less pain it will be to solve it. We often say that the goal of risk management is “to stop risks becoming issues, and to prevent issues becoming showstoppers.” Programmes that do this effectively tend to be amongst the most successful. Tip: from the outset, start capturing and managing the risks and issues that emerge. Never stop pushing for mitigation and resolution.
Make sure assumptions and dependencies are understood: take care to explain the key assumptions made and the dependencies that are in play. A mistake commonly made by transformation leaders is that by the time the transformation strategy and plan reaches the Exec level, any mention of assumptions and dependencies have all but disappeared, therefore the implications of them are rarely fully understood. Tip: both assumptions and dependencies are forms of risk, and should be managed accordingly.
Conclusion
Rushing through the planning cycle runs the risk of leaving people behind. They may fail to fully understand what is required of them and each other, leaving them without a sense of ownership for transformation outcomes, casting them adrift emotionally. This can quickly create entropy, leading to chaos, challenging circumstances and difficult conversations.
Complex transformations require everyone to contribute to the shape of the journey and to come along for the ride – involving all of your stakeholders in a professional planning and contracting phase will minimise surprises, start you off on the right foot and maximise the chances of delivering a truly value added transformation experience.
Contact Claverton
Email us at info@clavertonconsulting.co.uk
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