Why business transformations fail, and how co-design can help

Picture this: after struggling with systems, processes and technology that no longer support employees to do their best work, your organisation chooses to invest in business transformation.

That might look like uplifting existing technology capabilities, rolling out a new tool across the business, shifting business models or undergoing a restructure. There’s money to spend, a plan, and – in the best-case scenario – an optimistic feeling about the changes ahead.  

Fast-forward six months and it’s often a different story. The technology that promised the world isn’t being used (or worse, can’t be used) by key business areas. Maybe the gap between the organisation’s strategic objectives and its internal capabilities still hasn’t shifted.

The CIO is disappointed that another business transformation has failed – and, once again, can’t figure out why.  

Does this scenario sound familiar? If you’ve ever worked for government or in a large organisation, the answer is likely yes. Business transformation projects fail more often than they succeed.  

So why is it so hard, and what can organisations do differently to get it right?  

Business transformation needs context 

It makes sense that organisations often start business transformations with a focus on IT. Technology investments are easy to quantify. When you implement a new tool, you know exactly what you’re getting, when it’s expected to be delivered, and how much it will cost.  

The problem is that you can’t fix organisation-wide problems with technology alone. That’s like trying to design a functional hammer without talking to the carpenter to find out how it will be used and what it needs to be able to do.  

Transformation projects fail when they’re designed without context from the rest of the business – from the people who will use the technology to related data, policies, regulations and processes.

They overwhelmingly fail due to: 

• A lack of buy in – people don’t understand why the organisation is being transformed, what it will involve, and how the transformation will support their day-to-day work. How will it affect them? Why should they care?  

• The end point isn’t clear – when teams, tools and systems aren’t aligned in service of a common goal or vision, change is stifled by organisational siloes and competing internal priorities.  

• Transformation doesn’t meet the needs of its users – a focus on technology rather than users often leads to solutions that fail to deliver real business value, simply because they don’t reflect the way that people and teams work.  

A top-down, technology-first approach to business transformation makes meaningful change difficult.  But the good news is that it isn’t the only way to approach business transformation...   

How co-design sets you up for business transformation success  

We’ve written about how co-design brings people together to design policies, processes, services and products that meet the needs of their community. In my experience, co-design is a vital part of any successful business transformation.  

Here’s why:   

1. Alignment to future state  

Co-design's democratic design process brings everyone in an organisation – from the C-level to frontline staff and sometimes your customers – along on the journey. They work together to define the future state of the business. People buy into the process because they feel included and valued, and they want it to succeed. They design it, they want to use it.  

2. Co-design reveals the true problems an organisation is trying to solve 

By involving people from every part of the organisation, co-design reveals the real challenges to be overcome, so you can design a solution that actually works. Your investment is more targeted and meets the needs of users, which often means spending less money in the long-run. 

3. A holistic approach to business transformation  

Co-design considers the capabilities that underpin technology, such as people, processes, data and technology. It asks questions like: how do we uplift these to target the future state? This reduces the risk of important oversights – such as designing a tool that lacks functionality or can’t be used by certain teams.   

4. What gets measured gets managed 

When you use co-design, you test and measure the success of your business transformation investments over time. There’s no such thing as set and forget!

We see the transformation as a living organism that is fed and checked regularly. With regular review cycles, there are opportunities to make changes along the way to ensure that the transformation continues to add value for all stakeholders.  

Where to from here?  

At Arteri, we know that two things are true: Business transformation is notoriously difficult to get right, and it is possible to invest in a business transformation project that meets or exceeds the needs of everyone in your organisation.

To maximise your odds of success, consider a co-design approach that involves people at all levels of your organisation, all the way through the journey – from planning and implementation to right through to maintenance.  

Not sure how to get started? Let’s talk.