Transformation that works

My career has given me experience in transforming organisations, teams and brands, both client and agency side. In each of my roles I held the dual role of functional business owner with the responsibility of transforming the function whilst leading the change. As a result I truly know what it is to ‘fly the plane whilst building it’, with the skills to visualise, set direction and create strategies that drive tangible business results.

Let’s start with what doesn’t work in transformation.

Having worked in transformation for the past 20 years I have seen and personally felt the impact of what does and doesn’t work. During that time, I have seen and continue to see a number of transformation programs fail time and time again and seen great companies, brands and their employees suffer as a result.

Siloed effort

Traditional models separate transformation efforts into organizational silos which fundamentally don’t work, leaving expensive investment in technology redundant and stick in multiple yea licenses with that investment being written off

Technology and process

The sheer pace of technology development means that organizations can’t keep up. Combined with the competition driven via matrixed business design, the three year licensees they are caught in, productization of platforms and associated processes that are design by the technology teams alone with no business ownership, the time it takes to design and roll out new processes using traditional methods, command and control cultures and a new workforce who have different expectations of work all make it almost impossible to succeed with traditional approaches to transformation

People and outdated organization models

The growth of matrix models over the past 20 years combined with traditional approaches to transformation are leaving employees with initiative fatigue – multiple asks with competing initiatives from leadership teams who are all trying to achieve the transformation of their respective departments, each trying to control and lead with efforts failing due to the inter-dependencies on other departments who face their own challenges. The resulting impact being stilted business growth, disjointed customer experience and complex disconnected or even cannibalizing product and service offerings.

The coupling of technology and data

Whilst the recognition and awareness of the value of a company’s data has grown dramatically, many still are unsure of just how to unlock that value. Whilst organisations now sit on a plethora of data the default ownership, responsibility in its management still sits with the technology team. Platform productisation, no business ownership or process design and the divide in IT teams between technology and infrastructure means data is disparate, inconsistent, accessed on a need-by-need basis only requiring expensive service layer investment just to make sense of it.

Shift in culture

Shift in culture including cost of living, access to education, employee expectations and the blending of work and home life all coupled with demands of a rapidly changing work environment that demand new skills and more of our time. Previously it was relatively easy to be multiple versions of ourselves but as our work and personal life blend demanding more of our time its impossible to separate the two. The implications on the role the organisations we work for is huge.

Transformation needs a different approach.

Leaning into challenges

An organisation will only realise progress in transformation if all the challenges described above are faced into and solved for.

The way traditional consultancies make money is only exacerbating this challenge. The latest wave of transformation buzz is around cultural transformation however unless these are all addressed head on and holistically, we will see the repetitive failure of transformation efforts continue for years to come and the human beings within them continue to suffer.

Over the past ten years as a full-time employee and an internal owner of transformation initiatives at Sage, Microsoft, Wescom Comstor & Group M, I have worked to develop a framework that considers and solves for each of these challenges.

The framework centres on a cultural change program that drives the required behavioural change, mobilised through empathetic understanding across multi-functional/discipline groups within organisations. Overall the framework instils a new operating rhythm that results in the collective rewiring of the business, leveraging new technology and providing a platform for continuous learning for employees.

Our approach

As a Change leader, I work holistically across the business designing new operating models and associated programs that consider all aspects of transformation (people, processes, technology and data) and that work chronologically to move the organisation on from transformation to sustainable business evolution.

Outside of my corporate work I am a fully qualified counsellor and registered member of the BACP with my own private practice, working with people from all walks of life. I am also a volunteer counsellor with Trusthouse Children and Young Peoples Services who serve clients who have experienced childhood trauma and work with the CPTA as a Group Tutor passing the skills I have learnt onto the next wave of counsellors.

Humanbutbetter is a culmination of my experience and passion, joining forces with like- minded folk that make up the HBB Collective, to really change the face of transformation and super-charge every human we work with to truly achieve the personal growth and change that enables them to love to their fullest potential.

Intelligently Human.

A mutually beneficial relationship where an individual gets their needs met to perform at their best and in return the relationships they form and the organisations they operate in evolve and adapt to change with ease.