Why are transformations so difficult?

People, that’s the answer. Just think about it. An organization, a culture, a website, a product, a service, none of them will change on their own (at least until AI takes over). It takes people with the ambition who say, ‘there has to be a better way’. 

Transformation is ‘change on steroids’. It is the toughest type of change. The reason for this is clear, a transformation is, ‘a marked change in form, nature, or appearance’. It is not incremental. It is a meaningful departure from the old to the new.

I have observed, first hand, many reasons why it is tough to execute transformations. I have listed them below. These are split between reasons which we can trace back to our biology and those which derive from our place in the wider environment.

Our biology

• Keeping hold of what we have got – life is hard, so once we have achieved some form of stability, status, material belongings and predictability, most people generally want to keep hold of it. Even though the promise of something better is enticing, it involves risk, sometimes sacrificing the ‘cash cow’ and fear of the unknown. Many people run a personal mental pattern that values what they already have more than what they could have.

• Habit – we all get ourselves into rhythms and habits quite easily. This helps to conserve our brain energy by putting certain parts of our brains on autopilot. Breaking these habits requires energy, and we are hardwired to manage our energy very carefully. 

• Implications on staff doing the transformation – it can be tough for staff to be motivated to engage in a transformation which affects their own jobs, maybe even removing their existing roles.

• It takes imagination – some folks are not natural at seeing what the future could look like, and the idea of going adventuring for something they cannot conceptualize is not motivating. Incremental changes are normally quite easy to imagine, real transformations are harder.

• They are hard work, intense and demand a lot of energy – imagining something new may not be easy, creating it is usually even tougher.  It is hard, intense work…life is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Some people see this as energising, others do not.

• Stress – fundamental changes bring stress, to those doing the transformation and those on the receiving end. People handle stress very differently.

• Change overload – as humans, we seek stability, and a world of constant change is tough. Yes, the world has always changed throughout history, however, it changes now at an ever increasing speed and certainly many times during a single human working lifetime.

• It is easier to criticise than create – we all have the potential to be creative, some people are able to turn that into action whilst others prefer to criticise or be sceptical.

• A lot of transformations involve technology – let’s face it, how many people today really understand the increasingly sophisticated technology that powers our world?  It is easy to be intimidated by the complexity of it all and as the saying goes, ‘a confused mind says no’.

• Some transformations do not work out – creating something new is a bit like research and development. It does not always work out and often the failures receive more headline news. Why would you want to invest your time, money, reputation and maybe career into something that does not work?

• Effort but no progress – sometimes it can seem that there is a lot of change activity but no real progress, especially if the transformation is long term in nature. This saps at motivation.

• Career implications – traditional pyramid hierarchy based organisations have traditional career advancement paths. Transformations often require a transversal approach disregarding the traditional model. From a career perspective, this can look quite risky.

• Lack of interest/motivation/desire – not everyone has an interest in transforming their situation and are comfortable with the status quo. Even if they know they should transform, maybe they simply cannot be bothered especially if there is no short term consequence.

• Lack of confidence – most people lack confidence in certain situations in life. Embracing new ways of operating can be just one of those moments, especially if they are radically different.

• Lack of crisis – without a crisis, we know humans struggle to find the motivation to change.

Wider environment

• It is not always better – whilst most transformations deliver improvements, that is not always the case.

• It costs money – it requires an investment in the hope of a return. Sometimes people do not have the money or do not want to spend it.

• Execution does not always follow decision – deciding to pursue a transformation is one thing, actually sticking to that commitment, in the face of self-doubt or external resistance is something else.

• Unknown unknowns – people do not always realise what they have unleashed when they approve a transformation and are ill prepared to execute it.

• Technological breakthrough – some transformations are enabled by a form of technological breakthrough which unleashes a wave of advancement. Such breakthrough can be hard to commercialise, at least in the early days.

• Lack of a common vision – even if folks are ready to move, if they have significantly different views of the where they are going, the journey is likely to be fractious.

• Lack of a convincing vision – to mobilise people’s energy requires painting a picture of something that they think is worthwhile, to themselves and/or to wider society. This requires that not only is the vision convincing but that there are the right people who can sell the vision.

• Lack of common incentives – humans are driven by fear or greed. If folks on the same team have different incentives, either driven by themselves or given to them by their stakeholders, it is hard to get everyone pulling in the same direction.
• Involvement of supply chain partners – all businesses have some form of supply chain and it requires everyone along the chain to make the transformation a reality

• Lack of skills and methodology – how skilled are we, as a collective, to deliver transformations? Everyone has transformation potential however, who has the “playbook” and are we taught it through our careers? Rather than a Master of Business Administration (MBA), how about a Master of Business Transformation (MBT)?

• Tissue rejection – organisations, often better thought of as organisms, can have a natural and well-practiced reaction to reject change. Any transformation can experience a type of tissue rejection whereby organisational equivalents of white blood cells, dressed up in various guises, try to shut down the ‘transformational virus’. 

• It takes patience –in a world which is increasingly dominated by instant gratification, our individual and organisational willingness to be patient becomes diminished.

• Priority of short term results – leaders can be incentivised to deliver short term results over long term growth. Transformations disrupt these short term results.

Phew, this is quite a list, right? Is it any surprise that there is a huge gap between the potential of what transformations can deliver to individuals and society and where we stand today? Do not despair, though. The above challenges can be overcome. How? That is the subject of future posts.