August 10, 2007

“You should know we’re only at the ‘tip of the spear’ in our transformation efforts.”

“And you should know that at the tip was a poison dart.”

Transition and transformation is tricky business.  Change is essential to any company’s survival.  Whether the change is technological or procedural or attitudinal, the process for implementing the change must be effective.  Flawed implementation of change is oftentimes worse than no change at all.  Nothing is worse than change started and then stopped mid-stream.

At a transformation status briefing I attended some time ago, the meeting started with the project manager’s remarks to the general manager in the room, “You should know we’re only at the ‘tip of the spear’ in our transformation efforts.”  The retort was priceless, “And you should know that at the tip was a poison dart.”

The meeting had started poorly and continued downhill from there.  Communication plans were not in place.  Infrastructure to support the change was not tested.  Staffing to implement the change was inadequate.  The report on the transformation was following the same pattern as the transformation.  Ultimately, the initiative was canceled.  While the ‘poison dart’ comment was very funny, the impact of the figurative ‘dart’ was not.

Almost everyone is talking about transforming their business or changing the way they do things.  Few people are taking the time to implement change in a positive and far-reaching way.  Many are not aware that some transformation initiatives are hurting productivity.  Still others don’t realize that failure to properly execute (no pun intended) change can be a poison dart to the organization.  Some are so ill-prepared to implement change that they twist the spear a few times after the poison has been released, further crippling the organization.

Transformation is critical to our business success.  Let’s make sure we target our spears of change in the right areas…and arm them with something other than poison darts.