75 Questionable Thoughts About Organizational Transformation

Strategies
- People
  - Only executives can transform organizations
  - Internal expertise have no/minimum value
  - Everyone will be eager to contribute
- Processes
  - Internal business processes and Information Technology (IT) processes don’t matter
  - Interfacing processes with partners and vendors don’t matter
  - All processes and standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been documented and followed without deviation
- Products
  - Our products can’t serve beyond current client industries
  - We don’t need to look for best-of-breed products
  - We don’t need product evaluation feedbacks from customers, employees, partners and vendors
- Services
  - Employee experiences are not important
  - Customer experiences are not important
  - Partners and vendors’ experiences are not important
- Technologies
  - IT doesn’t need to get involved
  - Shadow-IT doesn’t exist
  - IT is just an enabler

Politics
- People
  - All title-holders have the same power
  - Only leaders can be the go-to people
  - There are no biases at play
- Processes
  - We always have fair ways of making decisions
  - We always methodically assess power and its affects
  - Power-grabs don’t happen
- Products
  - Personal experiences don’t affect product selection
  - Personal experiences don’t affect product selling
  - Personal experiences don’t affect product development
- Services
  - There is no correlation between employee services and customer services
  - Customer services don’t affect partners and vendors
  - Unconscious favoritism doesn’t happen during decision-making
- Technologies
  - Technologies keep us unbiased
  - The ecosystem of technologies ends within organizational boundaries
  - IT can’t help

Innovation
- People
  - There is no correlation between organizational innovation and individuals being innovative
  - The innovation and experimentation of partners and vendors don’t affect us
  - People need to explore being innovative in their own time
- Processes
  - Incremental and disruptive innovations follow same processes
  - Can’t learn from others failures
  - Innovation doesn’t require a methodical process
- Products
  - A particular department/individual is responsible for innovation
  - Innovation of others doesn’t affect us
  - There is no need to have feedback loops from employees, customers, partners and vendors
- Services
  - Only customer services can improve customer services
  - There is no need to test and improve customer service journeys
  - Wise to follow industry status quo standards
- Technologies
  - There is no innovation left in technologies
  - Adapting technologies is the easiest thing to do
  - IT is a cost center and doesn’t require an innovation budget

Culture
- People
  - Only executives can set the cultural norms
  - External environments don’t affect culture
  - Culture is only about people
- Processes
  - Business processes and IT processes don’t create culture
  - Culture is unquantifiable
  - Culture isn’t a learned behavior
- Products
  - Culture doesn’t impact the products we buy
  - Culture doesn’t impact the products we sell
  - Culture has no implications on product development
- Services
  - Culture doesn’t impact the services we buy
  - Culture doesn’t impact the services we sell
  - Culture has no implications on employee and customer journeys
- Technologies
  - Technologies can’t augment culture
  - Technologies can’t destroy culture
  - Culture-clashes need to be normalized

Execution
- People
  - Preparing sponsors, champions and leaders isn’t necessary
  - Only a handful need to know about the overall strategy
  - Layoffs are on the table
- Processes
  - No business processes and IT processes need to be adopted for transformation
  - No business processes and IT processes need to be adapted for transformation
  - No business processes and IT processes need to be abandoned for transformation
- Products
  - Don’t need to learn and quantify how products succeeded
  - Don’t need to learn and quantify how products failed
  - Customer, employee, partner and vendor product usage has no relevance
- Services
  - Customer experiences isn’t a priority to execute strategy
  - Employee experiences isn’t a priority to execute strategy
  - Don’t need to map the gaps of experiences
- Technologies
  - Technologies can’t be used to execute strategy
  - Technologies can’t be misused to execute strategy
  - Technologies aren’t and can’t be ingrained into every aspect of executing strategy