Transformation: More Than Meets the Eye
Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine’s Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.
Introducing change to an organization in little doses isn’t all that difficult or risky—and is usually the stuff most process and continuous improvement projects are based on. This type of change is often referred to as transitional change.
However, making sweeping changes—the kind that make the organization (whether the entire enterprise, an operating unit or department) materially different from what it was—can be quite disruptive and chaotic. This type of change usually results in some sort of metamorphosis and is referred to as transformational change. Labeling each type of change merely provides a way to discuss them; but to be sure, there is not a hard line or a distinct point where transitional change becomes transformational change. Sometimes, an organization makes a conscious and deliberate decision to reinvent/transform itself, and other times it introduces changes that collectively result in a transformational outcome.
In 1990 when I became the CIO of a failing IT organization, many changes had to be made in order to make the organization functional. Trust me: The last thing on my mind was how to label and categorize the type of changes to be made in terms of transitional or transformative, and I doubt the CEO would have appreciated any effort on my part to do so.
In retrospect, it was definitely a transformational effort. By changing
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Published at Tue, 01 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000
