Transformation
What is it - what isn't it.
'Transformation' is a word that tends to get thrown around a lot in business circles these days.
'Digital transformation' immediately springs to mind as one of the hot types of transformative interventions that is all the rage right now.
Expensive new technology systems are bought and implemented and people go on training and all sorts of wonderful things happen, but the same way of thinking persists and the same problems pop up again a few months down the line.
A transformation, or a transformative event, implies that a change has occurred that is so significant, the original form and structure of the thing that experienced this change, is in fundamental ways, completely different to what it was before.
The entity, community or person post-transformation is unrecognisable from what it was before the transformative event.
Transformation is not about tweaking the parts and hoping for a better outcome; it's not about incremental changes that are intended to solve a problem.
Transformation is a complete, holistic rethinking of the very purpose and existence of something,
It is radical act of reinvention and renewal that opens up new thinking, new opportunities, new models, new growth, new value and a new future.
For many it might seem like too radical an act to undertake, but by choosing not to fully commit to an organisational transformation the chance to strategically renew passes, and the forces of change inevitably erode the relevance of the resistant.
Transformation then is really the only course of action to take to be sustainable in the long-term; it ought to be the #1 priority of all to take the process seriously.
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Jonathan Cherry