So here’s the thing - change can never be successful without transformation, and no, it is not the same thing. If change is the destination, then transformation is the journey and they absolutely, without any doubt, go hand in hand. When one overshadows the other, the entire process becomes difficult, taxing and resource-intensive.
The Change Journey
Some bold statements I know but let me take a couple of minutes to explain. Organisations of all sizes often get caught up in the excitement of the destination. Leadership teams focus so much on what “success looks like”, the “to be”, the “end goal”, that they do not spend enough time studying potential pitfalls in the journey, resourcing accordingly, and planning for these eventualities. By the time they get to the end destination exhaustion and burnout are rife, the budget has been exceeded and time lost. They may have lost valuable people and potentially will have to go through more pain, expense, and third-party engagements to mop up areas that did not pan out as expected.
Looking back at the most recent significant change in my life, I have discovered that this line of thinking applies to any change, no matter if it is at a multinational corporate, government, education, NFP, SME or your own personal life.
The More Things Change
I recently relocated with my husband and our two teenage boys from Melbourne to Brisbane. We had the opportunity through our respective employers and were all quite excited at the prospect. We were looking forward to the warm weather, had loads of friends and family here and had lined up a great school for the boys. In short, the end goal looked like rainbows and butterflies. And the journey looked easy…find a home, pack up, move, celebrate. Hell, we have done an international move before, what could be harder?
Three months since arriving, we are almost there, but still finding our feet in some respects. We are mopping up some unexpected pitfalls in our journey that could have been handled better through a bit more research, partnering with people that had done this before and consulting for advice. We have come to terms with things like much higher utility bills from 24/7 air conditioning at home, higher fuel costs due to distance from school, learning challenges for the boys due to different syllabus, ways of teaching and educational tools and some other bits and pieces that have detracted from our initial enjoyment of our change.
In a nutshell, I guess this is a note to self to “practice what you preach”. To all those taking the time to read this - if you do not have the in-house capability to analyse the impact of your proposed change and manage your transformation, expect to discover challenges along the way to detract from full enjoyment of your final destination.
If you want to go in with your eyes wide open, enjoy your goal as you had hoped, and even more, just reach out to Allegra and we can guide you along the way.
About the authors
Seath Fraser
Seath is an experienced and highly successful Senior Recruitment Specialist with a passion for matching clients with… View profile
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