Ongoing transformation is a crucial process that cannot be avoided in a modern-day business. Constant technological and technical advancements are changing the way we work. We believe the key to a fruitful and effective approach comes down to understanding the three P’s of the transformation puzzle.
Purpose looks at the why’s. It provides an overall picture of the puzzle, with strategic goals and objectives at the forefront. People refers to the who: from managers who provide the edge pieces as the framework of change to the people who will flip over the pieces and bring the picture together. Performance is the how. This focuses on assembling the puzzle to maintain momentum towards achieving true transformation, managing scope creep, and uncovering both anticipated and unanticipated challenges.
Let us uncover each of these P’s with insights and strategies for putting together the quintessential transformation puzzle.
Purpose: Discovering the secret to achieving successful change
Most of us remember our first few puzzles from when we were young. Typically, this puzzle would have as few as four pieces, and each piece would be very distinct from its counterparts. As we grew older, starting from our early years in kindergarten, the challenges presented to us through puzzle-solving became slightly more complex. They now consisted of numerous pieces, possibly ranging in the tens, hundreds, or even thousands. Regardless of how many pieces we had to put together, we all know that those pieces started to appear less distinct from one another as the puzzles became more difficult.
A simplistic puzzle in our modern framework is the mathematical equation 2 + 2 = 4. We have two identical puzzle pieces in that equation, 2 and 2. Their combination, the completed puzzle that answers what we are trying to solve, is 4. To this, we can add a layer of complexity in the form of synergies, where 2 + 2 = 5, as the assembled puzzle has more value than the pieces on their own. When we scale this up to much more intricate puzzles such as “how to increase automation in the forecasting process” or “how to identify and implement IFRS16, which has a simplistic ease of use and provides greater data integrity”, then we begin to realise the sheer amount of puzzle pieces that could go into answering these questions.
That is why we must understand how transformation becomes a puzzle. Transformation is the picture on the box —the finished work. The challenge we must overcome is the puzzle. Sometimes the puzzle can be smaller. But it can also be the most significant problem we have ever had to solve.
