Thank you Eddie!

What even is “Transformation Face”?

Is it good or bad and, if the latter, how do I avoid it?

Éilis Cronin wrote an intriguing article in Management Today asserting that “excessive periods of transformational change fuelled by leadership failures are contributing to a new type of burnout”.

Referencing an Emergn report, ‘Transformation fatigue’ happens when employees feel disenchanted by inadequate leadership, poor communication, and insufficient training during excessive periods of transformational change.

It does sound familiar 😉

It also sounds like the mid-point of the Dunning-Kruger curve!

This is worth thinking about.

When discussing change initiatives, it is common to use the term “transformation”.

While this can be an exciting time and very much “on trend” for leadership, there can be unintended consequences for those who have to bear the brunt of the work needed to enact those changes. Again Dunning-Kruger comes to mind . .

“Transformation face” is the look of dread, resignation and skepticism when another change or transformation programme is announced. It has been experienced by 58% of us, according to the research, while a quarter of all employees feel uninformed about the reasons and context behind transformation.

Come on, be honest. We have all made that face at times in our career, right?

We know that major change in a large organization is like trying to turn an oil tanker in full forward momentum.

New management come in with high energy and a great new “vision” but often fail to convince the broader community that they understand the underlying root cause issues and change challenges. Specifically;

• 50% of employees say that leadership failures contribute to transformation failures.
• 30% of employees have worked through five or more transformations within the last five years (gulp!).
• Nearly 60% report feeling burnt out from too many transformations (but only 47% in the US).

The research suggest five types of transformation fatigue:

1. The long wait for value – a desire for “instant gratification” in the face of transformations with long timeframes, resulting in waning interest  . . .
2. New change, same as the old change – the struggle to win emotional investment
3. Methodology dependency – the quasi-religious belief in specific methodologies, only to discover that the “human factor” trumps all
4. “Buzzword Bingo” losing impact – clichés have lost some of their lustre in agile, synergistic transformation 😉
5. Skills, talent, and retention – investment in upskilling is far less than that invested in new process and technology . . .

Despite the challenges, 70% of us recognise the importance of effective transformation to remain competitive.

So, the issue is execution!

Here are just four of the key strategies we can adopt and reinforce to help drive greater success and less “transformation face” . .

• WIIFM – “What’s In It For Me?” – we need to focus on the people who will make the change happen, operationally. How do we genuinely understand and address their conflicts between performance measures, expectations, reputations, emotions and ambitions?  
• “End to End Process” and ‘Value Stream’ focus – to help break down the silos of thinking that inhibit significant improvement.
• “Influence vs Control” – we need to get used to the fact that we don’t control people and events, we can only influence them. We need to understand the genuine WIIFM and this may involve refocusing resources towards execution & value delivery rather than on “coordination, reporting, and control”.
• Pareto Principle is Key – we need to find the 20% of effort, cost and cycle time that can deliver 80% of the value while maintaining urgency & momentum. Focus on a series of executable 100 Day Plans.

You can read Éilis’ article and the Emergn survey results here  . . .

It is food for thought and action . . . 

Thanks for reading . . .