How to Avoid Getting Lost in Transformation
Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash
In our recent webinar, Firetail's Ben Randall spoke with transformation experts Ethan Kline and Kate Barlow about what it really takes to deliver lasting organisational change, with practical advice on how to avoid the pitfalls that many transformation programmes fall into.
Here are our key takeaways from the session.
Do the hard work before you start.
Many organisations launch transformations without first creating the conditions for them to succeed.
Ethan opened the session by making a case for the unglamorous but essential preparation work that should happen before any change programme begins.
This means tackling the big, uncomfortable questions that everyone knows exist, but that no one has wanted to address. It means stopping work that no longer serves the organisation's mission. And it means agreeing priorities before the pressure of a live transformation forces difficult trade-offs in real time.
“If you don’t create space and think about prioritisation before you begin a transformation, these things will come up during a transformation and slow it down.”
Make explicit decisions about what will be stopped.
Organisations are good at starting projects but are considerably less good at stopping them.
In one of Ethan’s projects, they discovered 300 active projects running across 14 countries. They cut that to 80 before the transformation began. At another mission-led organisation, 140 projects only came to light mid-programme — creating significant disruption under time pressure.
It is a positive, strategic decision to stop or pause activities, not a sign of failure. Projects that are no longer a priority or not a priority for right now, all consume capacity that transformation depends on. In mission-led organisations this is particularly hard, because every priority can feel equally important, but establishing and communicating clear decision principles and criteria in advance can help.
Where is the 'failure demand' — the rework, duplication, and escalations that tell you where the real friction lives?
“Workarounds are really where the gold dust is, because they tell you what isn’t working right now.”
Different parts of an organisation can be living in completely different realities. A shared fact base, even if this imperfect, gives everyone a common and agreed starting point.
Be honest about whether you can actually deliver it.
Once there's a shared picture of the present, the next discipline is brutal honesty about capacity and capability.
Do people genuinely have the time, skills, and permissions to deliver what's being proposed? Is the data and technology infrastructure stable enough to build on? Is the governance in place to make decisions at pace, especially in multi-organisation programmes?
Mapping capability against delivery requirements before you start, rather than assuming people will figure it out as they go, is one of the most effective things an organisation can do.
Kate also flagged funding realism as a common blind spot. Piecemeal annual budgets make it very hard for teams to hold the longer-term vision in mind and to build the sustainable and scalable capabilities required to make change stick. 'Champagne dreams and lemonade budgets' is a pattern that quietly derails many programmes.
Actively understand change readiness — it doesn't show up on risk registers.
Even the best-designed transformation will struggle if the organisation simply can’t receive it.
Kate described this as the emotional and organisational climate. This involves understanding whether people are people energised or exhausted, especially if they been through repeated restructures and resets of priorities. Change fatigue is real, but it's rarely monitored.
Change readiness should also identify where adoption risk exists. The question should never be 'can we launch this?' but rather 'will people actually use it?'
A common challenge with change is that individuals feel that the change is 'done to', rather than ‘done with’, them. Kate's advice: build a clear communication narrative early, be explicit about who is being consulted versus who is genuinely co-designing the change and name the ownership question clearly so it’s clear who is accountable when the enthusiasm fades.
And don't silence the critics. Bringing vocal sceptics into the process—rather than hoping they will just go away or be quiet—tends to improve the outcomes.
Treat strategy as a living process, not a finished product.
Both Ethan and Kate returned to the importance of strategy not as a document that gets approved and shelved, but as a framework that evolves alongside the transformation.
Check and recheck assumptions regularly: have circumstances changed? Is yesterday's plan being shipped into today's context? This is often what distinguishes programmes that adapt and succeed from those that don't.
A strategy that clearly defines what an organisation won't do is just as valuable as one that sets out ambitions. It's what enables hard prioritisation decisions to be made consistently, rather than case by case under pressure.
This all points to a move away from strategic planning toward strategic thinking, which is further outlined in this previous Firetail article.
Assess your own change readiness
Firetail has worked with Ethan and Kate to develop a change readiness self-assessment for organisations considering transformation. If you're thinking about change — or about to embark on a programme — get in touch with ben@firetail.co.uk and we'll be happy to share it with you.