A transformation needs demand. Demand is created through something as simple as the questions we ask. Illustration by midjourney.

The key to a successful transformation is something anyone can do

A transformation needs to win in the marketplace of ideas for people to commit and want the change. A transformation therefore needs to focus on creating demand and demand is created through the simplest of things: the questions we ask. Let me explain:

The most critical element in any transformation is demand: Both a change in customer demand that leads the organization to want to change its purpose, practices or outcomes (1). And a change in internal demand coming from colleagues asking new questions, needing new insights, wanting to create new experiences for new customers to deliver new outcomes.

The most critical element in any transformation is demand

Without demand nobody is going to buy our products externally and nobody is going to use our digital or technology transformation internally.

Why would they? If employees are asked to do the same thing incentivized and measured by the same results, why would they need a transformation?

We greatly underestimate demand-creation in transformation projects. Both understanding the external demand and building the internal demand. But without it the transformation is going to be nothing more than pain and suffering for the people in it while underperforming for the people who asked for it (2).

According to Bain & Company 88% of transformations fail to delive ron their original ambition

Sharing from my own experience a transformation process needs to focus on the people (customers and colleagues), the importance of demand and how they become successful.

I’ve learned that the most important key to unlock all of this is something as simple as asking the right / better / new / different questions.

All the power of our transformations reside in something as simple as the questions we ask.

If people ask new questions it means they are looking for and will find new answers. This puts a demand on how you help them find those answers (through new data, insights and sense-making), and how they need to deliver on those answers (new capabilities, experiences and outcomes).

A transformation needs demand. Demand is created through something as simple as the questions we ask. Illustration by midjourney presentation by the author.

Any successful massive transformations starts with something as small and simple as the right question.

Sources:

(1). Shoshana Zuboff, Creating value in the age of distributed capitalism, https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/creating-value-in-the-age-of-distributed-capitalism

(2). Peter Slagt, Melissa Burke, and Anna Cochemé, The Three Common Transformation Talent Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, https://www.bain.com/insights/the-three-common-transformation-talent-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/