‘Well,' I said. ‘Eventually, the blob will get you. It’s important to run as fast as you can in the early days of your transformation, because organisations have an in-built protection mechanism; the ability to morph into a blob of slime that will eventually catch up with you, surround you in slime and kill you off’.
A FTSE 250 company we worked with, was passionate about developing a culture of continuous improvement. People from every level of the organization had ideas on how to improve their Customer’s experience and understood the issues which made processes ineffective and inefficient. Equally, there was a common belief that previous attempts at driving improvement have been very “hit and miss”. Review of the data confirmed that they were right – most of the improvements attempted had either not been successful or had not been sustained.
As change facilitators and leaders, most of us have seen that it’s helpful to have a change plan, and to follow some kind of framework or change model that reminds us of the essentials that will help us to guide the organisation through the change we’re helping to deliver.
And I know from my own experience, and from discussions with my colleagues, that the framework, no matter which one or how diligently followed, is not a guarantee of successful change.