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Four Dimensions of Sustaining Change Leadership
One of the greatest risks to strategic change is that executive attention moves on after the program is chartered. It is not enough for sponsors to develop strategy and then turn the program over to the implementers. However, when the focus is on tactical delivery, it is easy for leadership to move on to the…
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For Successful Change Leadership, Emphasize a Culture of Engagement and Accountability
To execute programs that turn opportunity into real and sustained competitive advantage, organizations need more robust and nimble approaches to delivering change. High performing organizations shift their focus from methods and deliverables to guiding, motivating and aligning people. Successful change leaders develop cultures of accountability in which people feel responsible for doing everything they can…
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Realizing the Value Promise of Analytics
As markets and companies have emerged from the recent downturn, executives have looked to the future with concern. The slow and inconsistent recovery, combined with the disruptive effects of globalization, technological change, and regulation, has made it clear that what happened was not just another cyclical swing. It was reflective of a deeper economic and…
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Engaging Executive IT Leadership
Architecture provides a crucial link between business and technology capabilities, but it also helps bridge the gap between business and technology organizations. In my experience, everyone seems to agree that the two groups need to work more closely together; at least I don’t hear the suggestion that business owners should throw requirements over the wall…
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Technical Mechanics vs. Executive IT Leaders
Marianne Broadbent and Ellen Kitzis write about technical managers vs. trusted executive leaders of the enterprise. Technical managers are experts in the mechanics of IT. They “keep the lights on and do it cheap.” This role is essential, especially in today’s environment of cost-cutting and rationalization of services. However, this role can also minimize the…
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Business Engagement Is Lost when Architecture is Technology-Focused
The value of architecture is in providing structure across people, process, information, and technology so that they operate together to deliver business value. So much of the work being done in the field focuses on software, hardware, and infrastructure that architecture becomes little more high-level systems design. When this happens, business value gets lost. The…
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Getting Serious about Program Success
Every executive who has lived through even a moderately complex business capability implementation program is familiar with the challenges to successful delivery. Many, if not most, of them have scars to show for it. However, despite overwhelming evidence and past defeats, organizations and executives regularly move their programs toward failure. The is no secret formula…
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Non-Technical Factors are Key to Program Success
Although each program is unique, many transformation efforts share fundamental challenges. These are often the result of leadership and management issues rather than technical skill deficits. One of the insights from the study of program failure is that the most influential factors are centered on aligning executive and user stakeholders around objectives, support, and adoption…
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The Cost of Program Failure
The statistics on business transformation failure are overwhelming. For technology implementations in particular, and where the stakes may be highest, studies consistently report that over half (and up to three-quarters) of all programs will fail to meet stakeholder expectations. Caveats aside, though, one conclusion seems inescapable: something is fundamentally broken when program executive are unable…
