Have you been faced with a situation where your transformation wasn’t failing loudly?
But rather, it just disappeared quietly.
After 50+ strategy implementations, I’ve seen this silent erosion destroy more value than missed deadlines or broken systems, and I will cover this today.
Build your Culture Intelligence
I’m pleased to advise that I’m running an upcoming one-hour live session “Culture as a Change Catalyst” – I’ll be sharing a Culture Cheat Sheet to help you build your Culture Intelligence and set up your strategy execution approach to match your exact culture. You can’t get this info anywhere else. Register here.
Perfect on paper, strategy project drifting in reality
In theory, everything looked perfect. All milestones were green on the final dashboard. Systems went live. Leadership celebrated.
But six months later, nothing had changed.
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Work practices were the same.
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Culture was the same.
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Benefits realization = zero.
The transformation hadn’t failed. It had fizzled.
Most of my readers are working on strategy and change execution. You’ve probably seen it before. So I asked you on LinkedIn for suggestions. The ideas were excellent and one of the best is below. It’s not too late to add your view here.
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Celebrating delivery is not the same as celebrating real change
Three tips to fix quiet collapse of strategic projects
1. Review your strategy at project milestones
You’ve launched this project because it was a key part of the strategy. But the world of strategy doesn’t stay unchanged. And sometimes this is why interest in strategic projects fizzle out. So at key milestones throughout the project, ask: “Is this still solving the strategic problem we set out to solve?” or “Is this project still a key priority or does our focus need to change?”. If the project is still a key strategic priority, and reinforced by leaders then we are more likely to see actual change.
2. Plan and measure behavior
Behaviour is one of the most important leading indicators you can find for project success and benefits realization. Activities such as ticking tasks off a task list and delivering to a project budget are not particularly suitable metrics for strategic projects. Much more is at stake. I’ll be showing you how to use “Culture as a Change Catalyst”, and measure behaviour change on Sept 16th – register here for this one-off Culture session.
3. Debrief with stakeholders
Ask questions raised by Lisa Ainsworth who says “….rather than assume I hold all the answers…(ask) “describe what success would look like from this project?” and “probe training, culture and work process areas to understand what was expected to change and if/how the project supported this. I’d use the outcomes to work with the people impacted by the change to pilot some new/different initiatives based on what was learned from the interviews.”
Have you seen a wasted effort of projects that drift off into no-where? Reply and let me know, it can be such an expensive waste of resources and very frustrating for those involved.
PS More Ways to Accelerate your Strategy
Looking to move your strategy forward? Lisa Carlin works with selected clients directly to go from strategy to plan to result. Email Lisa.
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About Lisa Carlin
Lisa Carlin is a Strategy Execution Specialist. She works with business leaders to go from strategy to plan to result, in tough environments. Her clients love having her expertise and guidance to navigate their workplace culture and use AI to achieve success.
Lisa is author of the globally acclaimed newsletter, Turbocharge Weekly, read by 8,000 business leaders.
Lisa’s career includes roles at McKinsey and Accenture, then running her own business since 1999. Over this time she has delivered over 50 implementations with a 96% success rate.