Transformation rarely fails for technical reasons. It fails because the operating model never actually changes. Here is what separates the programmes that stick.
Most transformation programmes are announced with a new org chart, a new tooling decision and a town hall. Eighteen months later, the same work flows through the same approvals, the same teams optimise for the same outputs, and the same projects are funded the same way. The logos on the slides changed; the operating model did not.
Transformation fails when it is treated as a project rather than a change to how the organisation makes decisions. Replatforming, reorganising and re-skilling are necessary, but they are downstream of the real question: how does work get prioritised, funded and held accountable? If that does not change, everything else reverts to the mean within a year.
The programmes that stick share three traits. They change funding from projects to durable product teams, so that value can compound. They make outcomes — not delivery milestones — the unit of accountability. And they protect a small number of senior people whose only job is to drive the new model until it becomes the default, not the exception.
If you are about to start a transformation, the most useful thing you can do is write down, precisely, what will be different about a funding decision twelve months from now. If you cannot answer that, you are buying tools, not transforming.
Gerard Short
Enterprise Transformation Executive