Taking small steps to make big change

The first three months are finally behind us and resolutions made at New Year have all but faded away. Maybe we will try again next year….

In brighter news, spring is round the corner and we are making the ambitions set out in Strategy decks a reality! When embarking on change, the sheer scale of the ask, can feel overwhelming – like a mountain to climb.

At Simplify, we believe that breaking change into manageable and proven steps can yield great results. Shortcutting steps can be counterproductive resulting in wasted effort and reduced benefits. This applies to all types of change from optimising a single process to delivery of material transformation.

Not a problem exclusive to Financial Services, large programmes are notoriously prone to benefit erosion, overspend and delays. At the outset, there is a compelling reason to target the change and a well-resourced project launch full of ambition. Maintaining management and sponsor focus required to land and embed the change alongside is often underestimated. Other factors compound the battle for prioritisation including shift in market conditions, changing senior stakeholders, new regulation, or distraction of the latest “shiny toy”.

Set up and governance can avoid falling into the large unwieldy programme trap. Smaller or phased changes in support of Strategic objectives allows a greater focus on deliverables and approval points.

This is not about Waterfall v Agile or other methodology. This is about being agile (deliberately small ‘a’) to make change manageable, focus on release benefit early, react to customer or stakeholder feedback and regular reassessment of the business case for investing time and resources. Governance needs to be active. It takes courage to pull the plug on a programme but soldiering on when change is not delivering the value intended can be costly. Regular reviews on progress against expectation supports decision making – are the benefits still valid? Is progress being made at the expected rate? Is there a better value to be achieved from my resources?

Simplify DNA underpins the work we undertake, drawing on experience of previous projects and providing framework and material to support our consultants and their clients. As you reflect on Q1 performance and plans for the rest of the year, if Simplify can support you with structure and delivery of Change, please contact us info@simplifyconsulting.co.uk.

..