Top 5 Transformation Considerations for 2021

We are all guilty of setting aspirational goals and New Year's resolutions every January, only to have them fall short. This can happen in business too when the annual goals for transformation, process improvements, and strategic goals are set. Stretch goals can be motivational, but here are a few tips for not crossing the line between aspirational and unattainable.

1.     Consider your organization's history of change and use that to temper your goals. Are you agile and able to change, or have previous changes been met with resistance? This historical perspective will inform the amount and velocity of change that you can hope to accomplish.

2.     Combine changes under a broader transformational roadmap. The overarching theme will provide a more concrete set of goals and objectives.

3.     Consider the "juice for the squeeze." While cost/benefit analysis is always a component of any business investment, rarely is the effort and emotional cost considered in the equation. Certainly, driving profitability, reducing costs, and improving processes are key business drivers, but the impact to the employee experience and corporate culture are just as important.

4.     Gain insights from employees to find opportunities that will have the most impact. People on the front line are those that live with the inefficiencies of tools and process that could benefit from improvement. Not only will it fix those issues, but it will also vastly improve the employee experience.

5.     Leave room in the plan for course correction. Filling 2021 with lofty goals and concurrent projects will only lead to collisions of timelines and change fatigue within the organization. Pacing changes to allow for adoption and the closure of learning curves will allow for relief from the change fatigue that comes when changes are too rapid and vast for people.

The most important lesson we learned from 2020 is the importance of agility and the potential re-setting of goals. If you follow these 5 considerations and remain agile, your organization will achieve the goals needed to achieve success.

About the Author

Mark Deans is the Vice President of Professional Services at Change 4 Growth. As VP, Mark oversees the delivery of C4G’s client engagements, including Organizational Change Management, Learning/eLearning, Leadership Development, Culture and Employee Engagement, and Project Delivery. Mark is also the Product Owner of C4G’s digital OCM platform, ATLAS™ by C4G.