Your transformation has a conversation-shaped hole in it

And I’m not alone. According to a 2023 McKinsey report, almost 3 out of 4 transformations fail. Not due to strategic failure or budget but because manager behaviour doesn't shift and people resist. What makes me mad is that we know this in our industry. This is old news! So why do we keep lying to ourselves?

Here's what I think no one wants to say out loud, and we need to be screaming this! Most transformation programmes are sophisticated ways of avoiding the actual problem. We design frameworks, run workshops, cascade communications, and call it change. The rocking chair moves. It just doesn't go anywhere.

And underneath almost every stalled transformation there's usually a conversation that isn't happening. One that's too politically charged, too personal, or just quietly agreed by everyone to leave alone. The leadership team performing alignment they don't quite have. Between what the organisation says it values and how it actually makes decisions under pressure. I've been in rooms where everyone knew what needed to be said and nobody said it, including me.

So when someone proposes a business transformation, the question I try to sit with now is: what conversation is this programme replacing? Because if there's an honest answer to that, it matters more than anything else on a shiny roadmap powerpoint.

At Tuff, we help HR and L&D leaders build the muscle to have exactly those conversations, and to create the conditions where others can too. Join one of our free webinars if you want to stop rocking back and forth and start changing. Join for free