4Knowledge's Sake, 9/28/2023

Analysis paralysis. The 80/20 Rule. Perfection is the enemy of done. Raise your hand if you’ve recently heard any of these aphorisms or their close kin.

As someone who thrives on digging deep into the organizational and data elements of an issue, these corporate truisms have never sat that well with me, although I understand their rationale. Executives are measured on results and time spent examining foundational details detracts from the effort of delivering a business outcome. Or so we’ve all been told.

I maintain it’s a question of timing. A typical business transformation follows a predictable path from problem statement to high-level solution design, then from business case development to conceptual approval. Once funded and resourced, the pressure is on to execute and deliver the change so that its benefits can begin to be realized. It is during this execution stage that attempts to further explore fundamentals are typically met with reticence, if not outright refusal. And with good reason: the clock is ticking. Uncovering unforeseen requirements or obstacles at this stage is costly and could jeopardize the success of the entire project.

The optimal timing for a thorough analysis of the transformation landscape is before execution of the project begins. This is seldom done, in my experience, for a variety of reasons: internal resources are strapped for time or do not have the necessary experience, funding for the transformation project has not yet been fully secured, or there is an expectation that the requirements gathering phase of execution will encompass both the transformation initiative itself as well as the underlying business conditions onto which the transformation will be implemented.

Given that seventy percent (70%) of business transformations fail,(1) it’s evident that the current approach to them needs to change. Call it project due diligence. Call it pre-consulting. Call it flying in the face of the Pareto principle. Just don’t call it needless effort.

What do you think? On a scale of 1 to 4, where 1 represents strong disagreement and 4 means “Michelle, get out of my head”, let me know in the comments.

(1) McKinsey & Company, Perspectives on Transformation, July 2019. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/why-do-most-transformations-fail-a-conversation-with-harry-robinson#/