Top 5 Characteristics of Successful Transformations

Note: this article was originally published in 2019.

While we all accept change as a more or less universal constant and perhaps a ubiquitous reflection of the world around us, it is sometimes worthwhile to remember that not all change is successful (and sometimes change that initially appears successful many not be in the long run). This isn't a question of the relative value or merits of any given change but rather one related to whether the attempt to achieve a change actually works or not. In other words, we're so used to things changing that we forget just how hard those successes are to achieve (and how many failures often accompany them).

The process of achieving successful change can be thought of generally as "Transformation." There are quite a few definitions associated with the term (for Math, Biology etc.), but in the context of this article we're looking specifically at Capability Transformation from a business or mission perspective. More specifically though, we're looking at the process of transformation that an organization must master and the related technological aspects of such efforts. This is the type of transformation that leads to a new product or service or perhaps takes and unprofitable or ineffective organization and makes it successful; it is the largely hidden mechanism behind the ubiquitous change we've all come to take for granted.

Our definition for a Transformation can be defined thus:

The ability to identify, organize and execute complex change within an organization that leads to new or improved products, services or internal functions. The Transformation in this context represents both the anticipated end goal/s as well as any necessary initiative chartered to achieved them. Typically, Transformations are a combination of targeted capability enhancements and organizational adjustments.

So how does the process of Transformation actually occur? And perhaps more importantly, what can we do to make that process more successful? First, we will want to explore the elements common to any transformation initiative - these are captured in the diagram below:

1. Organizational Transformation - This can occur before or after the rest of the other transformation elements or may not occur at all (depending on the scope of the transformation). However it's addressed, it should be linked to the other aspects (2-4). Note - this is often referred to as Organizational Change Management.

2. Business Process Transformation - This occurs primarily in the design phase of any transformation except in cases where the main solution is a BPM-based application (e.g. Appian, Pega, etc.).

3. Data Transformation - This spans both process and solution elements and must necessarily continue beyond the transformation through Data Governance.

4. Solution Transformation - This is manifested through the overall Solution Architecture and then the actual implementation portion of the transformation.

In this first article in a series exploring Transformation, we're going to begin answering that question by capturing several of the most common characteristics of successful transformations. Some of this will likely seem obvious but other parts are bit more nuanced.

1. The vast majority of successful transformations are deliberate. While on occasion transformation occur in an hoc fashion, this is relatively uncommon and tends to involve scenarios where an already existing technology is applied to new or unanticipated scenarios and any organizational adjustments occur in a reactionary manner. The problem is that this tends to occur across all organizations more or less at the same time as opposing to changing an individual organization (and perhaps giving it a competitive advantage). In reality, every organization is fact experiencing several such 'reactionary' transformations at any given time. These ad hoc efforts are important in their own right but tend to have less impact than deliberate transformations.

2. Most successful transformations tend to have a strong advocate who provides the vision and mobilizes support for the effort. This seems to imply that successful transformations are perhaps mostly top-down in nature, but that's not really the case. The role being described here is more of a facilitator than a program director who dictates centrally. The transformation team will have both top down as well as a bottom up focus - however someone needs to 'integrate' that team. 

3. Most Transformations tend to be realistic in nature. This at first may appear somewhat counter-intuitive - we tend to think that having a vision means being truly visionary. The majority of transformations aren't visionary in the sense that they attempt to transform all of society, rather they tend to focus on how the given institution itself will evolve. Within this context, organizations that are realistic about what they're attempting tend to be more successful on average. Realistic in this context applies both to scope and timing. Realism here also implies that the organization understands exactly what they're getting rather than being driven by hype.

4. Most successful Transformations are integrative in nature. Traditional wisdom holds that it is generally better not to "boil the ocean" and try to accomplish too much in any given transformation initiative. This is good advice in theory, however in practice the reality is always less straightforward. Transformation scope can and should be managed but that scope must also include all necessary supporting or contextual processes and technologies (at least to the degree to understand how they will interact). A transformation that is artificially constrained is just as likely to fail as one that is simply too ambitious to get done. More specifically, successful transformations tend to be those that have given some advance thought about how they'll fit into the existing and future ecosystems of the organization (including external ones in which they must participate).

5. Every Transformation solves a problem. Sometimes, we're not aware that a solution is necessary or that a problem even exists (for example, anti-virus software was certainly not foreseen until the first computer viruses appeared). The nature of what problem and problems might be solved by any given transformation is also integrative in nature. In other words, most transformations are in fact solving multiple problems simultaneously (and those include both business and technology-focused challenges).

There are of course other characteristics of successful transformations, however I think these 5 tend to be the most important ones. The other thing that these 5 observations have in common is that they can all be acted upon in order to help answer the question we asked earlier - "how can we improve our odds of success." Each of these characteristics has both strategic and tactical elements that can we work with to build transformation programs / solutions.

The best starting place for building an initiative like the ones being described here is by developing a "Transformation Architecture." While the architecture approach will be somewhat different in various organizations, how the architecture will be used will remain the same. We're going to look at that consideration in greater depth in the following article in this series - "The Architecture of Transformation."

 Copyright 2019, Stephen Lahanas