Down to the Roots . . .
“Mushrooms growing on a rotting trunk” 🎵
Sung to the seasonal tune of “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”.
A pleasant composition, although today’s discussion is more about “decomposition” 😉.
Deborah Kops hit it out of the park again this week with her latest missive, entitled “GBS Is Growing Mushrooms”.
She argues that organizations aren’t building an AI ecosystem, despite Agentic use cases sprouting everywhere.
“They’re growing mushrooms disguised as use cases.”
“Feeding on dead wood”.
“Because most of our processes are like rotting logs: fragmented, inconsistent, never redesigned for flow or outcome”.
Mouldy and unpleasant, but camouflaged with some paint and perfume, with a slight sheen and faint aroma of AI or even good old-fashioned RPA . . .
AI (in all its forms) and digital transformation are the talk of the town but is it mostly mushrooms on a rotting trunk?
Our rotting processes are causing massive, and somewhat hidden, inefficiencies in rework, duplication, data confusion, queries, approvals, escalations . . . all examples of “Failure Demand”.
“The mushrooms look impressive. They pop up overnight, they get attention, and they make great PowerPoint slide content at a conference.”
But they grow in the dark, thrive on decay, and die off just as fast.
Why do we do this?
Because we think it’s easier . . .
Because every stakeholder wants their own “patch of fungi” instead of a larger, more valuable, shared forest.
Our processes accumulate inefficiencies, “wear and tear”, like any machine that hasn’t had been properly looked after.
At the risk of “metaphor overload”, I think of the limescale in an electric kettle.
It is no-one’s fault. It is the natural order of things. But if we don’t take preventive or remedial action, the kettle takes longer to fulfil its purpose and uses more electricity. Eventually, it fuses and goes “bang”.
Our processes evolve to embrace redundant steps, pointless approvals, practices that “once made sense”, workarounds for systems that no longer exists, and even tasks to ensure the achievement of an ultimately pointless silo KPI.
Changing our mindsets towards true end-to-end business processes and developing the organizational capability to drive true business transformation was the inspiration behind the “Accelerating Business Performance through End-to-End Processes” Playbook. Many years of experience in leadership, transformation, process, technology, and data from our team and from leaders at our customers, partners and community.
If you want a reason, a catalyst or sense of urgency, to embrace the “roots”, the essential “end to end” processes of your business, or if you are “comfortable” with progress on transformation, think about the comments of two people leading two world renowned, successful businesses where transformation is in the DNA.
- “The inevitable temptation – ever more appealing as organisations get bigger – is to play safe but, “If you’re not nervous, you’re not in uncharted territory.” – Tufan Erginbilgic, CEO at Rolls Royce.
- “Fear beats ambition! I have a greater drive from not wanting to fail than wanting to succeed.” – Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO, at NVIDIA.
The person running a $3.5 trillion company wakes up every day convinced it’s about to collapse . . . .
“Mushrooms are clever, but short lived. Forests are enduring.”
This year, don’t ask for shiny mushrooms under your Christmas tree, ask for strong roots and your tree may thrive for many years . . . 🎄
Thank you, Deborah.
Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, or just Holidays . . . whatever you choose to celebrate.
Enoy your time to “recharge your batteries” and I will see you in 2026!
You can read Deborah’s article, “GBS Is Growing Mushrooms” here . . . .
You can read a perspective on “End to End” or “Start to Finish” processes here . . .
It turns out that the humble, classic Christmas tree, the Norwegian Spruce, has a particularly impressive root system, illustrated below, spreading far beyond the shade of the tree, often 100-150 feet for a 50-foot tree . . .
Although hidden from sight, the roots matter . . .
Thanks for reading . . .
Down to the Roots . . .