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• Building High-Performance Teams:
  Emphasis on creating environments where sustainable innovation and measurable impact are core priorities. High-performing teams arise from a culture tuned to continual improvement, experimentation and close collaboration.

• Importance of Alignment:
  Projects deliver greatest value when business and technology teams work closely, enabling responsiveness and shared ownership in delivery.

• Technology Alone Is Not Enough:
  Successful transformation requires genuine business process change, not just technology upgrades. Leaders should challenge teams to avoid the trap of customizing platforms simply to fit old habits.

• Embrace Agile Mindset Over Time:
  Agile methodologies may initially feel unfamiliar, especially to teams used to structured approaches. Persistence and openness enable teams to learn, adapt, and ultimately thrive using agile principles.

• Customer-Centric Innovation:
  Staying close to end users whether they are internal teams or retail customers, ensures continual relevance and unlocks opportunities for meaningful product innovation.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  Bringing together business stakeholders and engineering talent accelerates problem-solving and cultivates business responsiveness.

• Continuous Learning:
  Career progress and delivery success are both tied to ongoing learning, openness to new frameworks, and willingness to experiment in new environments.

• Transformation Is Difficult and Emotional:
  Business transformation initiatives are high-stakes and emotionally charged. A fundamental lesson is that transformation must be grounded in solid business strategy, without clearly articulated rationale (“the why”), it is hard to secure buy-in and sustain change.

• Change Curve and Habit Formation:
  Change follows a pattern similar to the grief curve: shock, denial, frustration, depression before acceptance and adoption are achieved. Creating new habits makes people uncomfortable, but measurable rationale and patience for developing new ways of working are necessary.

• Importance of Buy-In and Confidence:
  For successful change, those impacted must understand and believe in the “why”. Lack of buy-in leads to failed change even after painful effort. When organizations stall at the low point of change, morale drops and resistance builds; many don't persist long enough to reach the benefits on the other side.

• Macro vs Micro Themes:
  Unique challenges at the micro (organization) level exist, but there are common, recurring themes in transformational change across industries.

• Patience and Persistence Matter:
  Real change is not quick; enduring the discomfort and maintaining belief in the process are vital for reaching adoption and realizing transformation benefits.

• Repeated Failure Deepens Change Fatigue:
  Each unsuccessful transformation makes it harder for the organization to believe in, commit to, and progress through future change efforts. This deepens employee resistance and lengthens recovery time.

• Patience and Perseverance Required:
  Significant change takes time especially in large organizations. Patience, faith in the process, and a long-term perspective are essential for realizing benefits.

• Very Low Success Rate:
  Only 20–30% of business transformations achieve their objectives, supported by statistics showing that 70% (or more) fail to deliver as planned.

• Top Reasons for Failure (from Mike’s Experience):

  1. Insufficient Investment in Change Adoption:
     Success necessitates as much emphasis on business change and adoption (communication, buy-in, capability-building) as on technology or process itself.

  2. Lack of Buy-In Across the Organization:
     Transformations commonly falter if all impacted stakeholders are not aligned and bought-in. Siloed engagement leads to siloed outcomes and diminishes results.

  3. Ineffective Communication and Engagement:
     Regular, clear communication that allows people to voice questions or concerns fosters trust and accelerates adoption. One-sided or inconsistent messaging undermines progress.

  4. Poor Habit Formation and Reinforcement:
     Change must be reinforced over time. Ongoing training, coaching, and habit support are crucial. Adopting change isn’t a one-off event but a continual process.

• Frameworks for Supporting Change:
  Models like ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) help leaders plan comprehensive adoption strategies beyond just process rollouts.

• Avoiding Siloed Implementation:
  Change initiatives should avoid replicating old silos in new structures. Conway’s Law is relevant: organize teams and communication to match the desired future state, not the legacy one.

• Matrix Structures Can Create Communication Challenges:
  Aligning technology teams with platforms and business teams with channels can create matrix structures, often increasing silos and friction unless managed with intent.

• Team Topologies & Dependency Management:
  "Team Topologies" is recommended reading for leaders to visualize and structure organizations. It provides models for team types, interactions, and alignment, helping to minimize dependencies and maximize business value.

• Primacy of Strategy:
  Business strategy must be established first before launching transformations. Strategy defines desired outcomes, target domains, and value creation models (for customers, employees, partners), acting as the blueprint for change.

• Organizational Design for Scale:
  Structuring teams around business domains and value streams, not simply tech platforms or layers, reduces the complexity of coordination and communications. Horizontal scaling with multi-skilled, domain-focused teams simplifies governance, lowers dependencies, and speeds up delivery.

• Challenges with Scaling Frameworks:
  While frameworks exist for delivery at scale (e.g., SAFe, LeSS), most are agnostic of org structures. Leaders must adapt and contextualize frameworks based on their unique hierarchies and reporting models to support effective scaling.

• Data-Informed Delivery & Change Adoption:
  Early, meaningful measurement is critical. Tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, and various survey platforms (Forms, SurveyMonkey) enable teams to track workflow, delivery performance, and business change adoption.

  • Collect data from the start, tie metrics to business strategy and outcomes, and use insights for storytelling, ROI assessment, and informed decision-making.

  • Measure adoption rates, team throughput, and business impact to know when a change is successful or if further action is needed.

• Customize Frameworks:
  Adapt industry frameworks, but always tailor them to your unique organizational

• Active Sponsorship for successful transformation

  • Success depends on strong, visible backing from senior leaders.

  • The leader must “own” the initiative while delegating to a credible, empowered senior person who can execute daily and has the respect of peers.

  • This combination of top sponsorship and operational credibility ensures momentum and removes barriers.

• Storytelling and Communication

  • Change needs to be framed through compelling storytelling that connects people to the bigger picture.

  • Communication must be frequent, diverse (emails, face-to-face, digital, audio), and two-way to meet different preferences.

  • Over-communication is better than under-communication, as it builds trust and keeps engagement high.

  • People feel more included when they can contribute, even if not to every detail rather than just being told.

• Human over Technology Focus

  • The main barrier to successful change is not technology, but the human side including mindsets, emotions and behaviors.

  • Organizations often over-invest in tools or systems but under-emphasize people’s engagement, motivation, and adaptation.

• Relatability as a Key Skill

  • Being relatable is essential to build trust.

  • This includes being seen working alongside teams, being open about personal reactions to change, and sharing an emotional connection to the program.

  • When employees believe their leaders are truly invested, they are far more likely to buy in.

• Phases and Triggers of Change

  • Organizational change tends to come in waves.

  • A common trigger is new leadership, as leaders almost always initiate shifts to make their mark or respond to challenges that brought them to the roles in the first instance.

• Types and Frequency of Change

  • Change often occurs in waves triggered by new leadership or market conditions.

  • Organizations respond defensively to external shifts, but true leadership lies in being offensive/proactive anticipating the future market and positioning ahead of competitors.

  • Example: Nokia’s decline contrasted with Apple’s creation of a new market (the smartphone) shows the cost of not thinking ahead.

• Proactive vs. Defensive Change

  • Defensive change = reacting to external pressures (e.g., competition, regulation, disruption).

  • Proactive (offensive) change = shaping or even creating markets that don’t yet exist, which opens greater opportunities for leadership and growth.

  • The analogy of “not just skating to where the puck will be, but creating a new puck” captures visionary innovation.

• Advice for Entering Strategic Change Roles

  • Certifications help, but hands-on practice is critical. The real value comes from applying methods in complex, multi-stakeholder environments. These “battle scars” build capability.

  • Shift from tactical to strategic thinking. Move beyond executing individual tasks to seeing how all work streams connect to broader organizational outcomes.

  • Develop business acumen. Understand the industry, commercial drivers, business models, and how technology or projects feed into financial, operational, and customer outcomes.

  • See the bigger picture. Train yourself to identify how different parts of change interconnect across functions.

  • Stay emotionally engaged. Truly investing yourself in the purpose and outcome of change fosters credibility and inspires others.

• The Human Side of Change

  • Consistently emphasized as the most important success factor.

  • Change leaders must focus on how transformation affects people, not just systems or processes.

  • Relatability, empathy, and authentic communication are key to winning hearts and minds.