⏱It will Take Time & You Can't do it Alone ⏱

In 2012, I was moved to a division of the process which has last met goal nineteen months ago. While on one hand we looked at it as, "well there is no other way but up from where we are", on the other we are confronted with the fact that the last 6 months trend showed absolutely no sign of progress.

I joined the division knowing only four things fully; 1. I have no idea what to do to turn things around, 2. Once with luck we figure out what to do, I wont be able to do it alone, 3. Turning things around is a requirement not an option, 4. Turning things around will not happen tomorrow, or next week, or next month... deal with it.

It is only in retrospect that I can directly attribute the relative success of the following six months, the sustained improvement of the next six months after that, so as the breakthrough in the consequent six months, to knowing those four things at the onset.

Business transformation is often used in the corporate world to refer to the process of driving fundamental changes to practices, processes, and governance to adapt to the changes in the market or the industry, or to battle against challenges driven by both internal and external factors.

The biggest mistake one can make in driving transformation is to think he or she have it all figured out, thus ready to take action. All needs to start with some form of acknowledgement that one failed, there would have otherwise been no need for transformation. This needs to be followed by steps to figure out where one failed, and how to correct those mistakes. This is not the first step, but may be the most important.

Transformation need not disrupt on-going operations.

The fundamental role of leadership is to help simplify complex tasks into dis-aggregated simpler tasks. This is the same reason why solutions to business problems are often found at the transaction level in the front-line, and least likely to be figured out by sitting in a conference room talking.

Gone are the days when everybody believes the manager knows the job better than one performing the tasks.

One needs to figure out what still works, what does not work and will never, and what is not working now but may potentially work when done right. The best way to get it done is directly from the staff performing the job, via focus group discussions, observing the transactions, and one-on-one meetings. This is going back to the point of not disrupting an on-going operation while driving transformation. We want to be able to keep a continue doing list, a start doing list, and most importantly a stop doing list.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. - Peter Drucker

As an example, we were struggling in a key performance measure in one of the businesses I lead. The easiest conclusion would have been any of these three; there is fundamentally something wrong with how transactions are being done, our mid-level managers are not able to drive performance, or least likely there's an issue driving the results inherent in the clients' systems or products. Any of these would have required significant changes to the way things are being done. With enough business intelligence, inputs directly from the ground, and comparative analysis between transactions facilitated by those who are doing well against those who are not, we were able to isolate this down to just a couple of things that requires very little effort.

Our new-starters' learning curve is so long addressed by the above project, and we have staffs who have continuously performed below acceptable levels addressed by the project to the right. Both projects needed some incubation period to drive the expected result, and they both required actions from multiple areas of the business.

Both projects together not only propelled our performance in the key measure we were previously struggling with, it also drove better retention of staff, and confidence from our clients that we understand what needs to be done to drive transformation when the situation calls for it.

The key lessons from my journey in the corporate world particularly in driving transformation may very well apply in ones Steemit journey.

• Many start here with very little understanding of how the platform works just like myself. Instead of getting frustrated, try and allocate time to study at least the fundamentals.

• Many great authors fail to get recognition by thinking they can be great on their own, even if they don't engage with the community.

• Many think they can come here, and conquer the platform quickly. That often results to disappointment, and in place of conquering - leaving the platform quickly.

Credits:

Cover Image Background - Pixabay