You have your new gym clothes and sneakers on, your phone is in one of those funky arm bands playing your 1980s playlist and you’re pumped!
The Rocky montage is playing in your head. You visualise that future ‘2.0’ version of yourself that will surely arrive within 3 months or so.
That’s what the fitness app says anyway.
90 days and you’re there.
With gusto, you go for it. Yes!!!
In the content transformation world, we have a similar start to things.
We build the business case (remember the exciting ‘memo’ in Gerry Maguire?), deliver a stunning presentation on what’s possible and how we’ll get there. We get board approval, and we get going. Yes!!!
Turning initial excitement into ongoing motivation
Initially, we get minimal resistance to content transformation. Humans want stability, sure, but we also want novelty and variety. New stuff is fun!
Alas, just like day 20 at the gym, certain elements in the organisation start to realise there’s going to be a grind involved.
That ‘no pain, no gain’ thing sounds fun at the start. However, when you actually feel the muscle fibres shredded and sore, it’s not quite the buzz you imagined.
At this point, you need to find ways to keep your team and client (or boss) motivated. Hopefully that means with the support of the kind of experienced consultants that make up our Llibertat team.
Lead with confidence, encouragement and kindness
Just like a good coach, you talk straight when you need to, inspire when you need to, and gather the data that shows the progress that’s being made, even if you can’t see it yet.
We’ve been there – supporting an organisation in these initial stages of transformation – many times before.
We also know how to get the results our client is looking for.
However, this is where that 70% fail rate of all transformation projects starts to get real.
I’ve been amazed to hear how many times a client team has run out of steam at this early stage on past attempts before Llibertat came on board. The project just kind of dissolves into nothing and people get one more experience to convince them that change is impossible.
Convincing the doubters and worriers is key
It’s not enough just to know how to do something.
It’s not even enough to do it.
You have to bring the doubters and the worriers along with you if you’re going to be working with a group of people.
At the very least, you need to convince the people you bring along on your transformation project to suspend their disbelief. Not forever. Just long enough for you to be able to show undeniable results.
Here’s where it gets weird(er)
The weird thing is, even showing undeniable results is not enough!
You can deliver everything you said you’d deliver, you can come in within budget and timescale, you can show all the usability testing videos of delighted users you like. Your project (or rather, its legacy) is still in peril.
Why is your project in peril? You’re not the only game changer in town. Change happens to you as well.
The two changes that pose the biggest threat to a content transformation project are usually:
1. A change in senior leadership
Because digital transformation takes time, new blood often arrives before your change programme is complete. And new senior leaders have usually not been hired to ‘keep things ticking along’.
They need to show there’s a new sheriff in town. You’d better hope that sheriff doesn’t decide to make their mark by smashing up your project, or your team, or your budget.
2. The Return of the Walking Dead
You know that quietly dissenting, unassuming middle tier of an organisation that sits between those on the front line and those ‘leading’ the organisation?
They usually have massive power to kill projects.
Their sheer number, and the willingness of this middle tier to wait it out, even over years, is a real threat to making your transformation stick.
Their cunning ability to steal the narrative of ‘reasonableness’ and ‘measured action’ and ‘gradual, continuous improvement’ can make any change project – no matter how objectively successful – look like a reckless binge-fest engineered by rogue, fly-by-night chancers.
Over time, the slow, relentless zombie march of the Walking Dead middle tier of the organisation can overpower you.
What’s left is your project (and your dreams) trampled beyond recognition.
