Identifying Root Causes. The Barriers to Transformation and Opportunity
When your business is struggling to scale or failing to transform, it can be difficult to put your finger on the root causes of stagnation. When times are tough, it’s easy to remain stuck. On the surface, it's often because you lack time to think things through and develop a new plan.
But more importantly, when you are in the middle of complexity, it’s impossible to be as objective as you need to be to make the right choices.
Whatever your thinking style, there’s always a comfort zone. Tough decisions can be framed incorrectly to suit a preferred outcome. Often making the chosen route the easy rather than the right (tougher) one.
In truth, fresh new opportunities exist outside our usual thinking. So, what do you do when your thinking has become tired or complacent?
To identify the root causes of the main barriers to transformation and opportunity, the outside eye is the only way to see the bigger picture and gain access to untapped opportunities.
Here are some ideas for breaking through stagnation when you have no idea what’s preventing you from implementing transformation.
ONE - Remove Blinkers and Blinders
When you’ve been in business for a while and achieved a certain growth level, it’s easy to continue doing what you’ve always done. It worked before! Why wouldn’t it keep working?
Continuing to do what you’ve always done will limit your options, compound stagnation, and reduce your chances of seeing new opportunities when they arise. As the saying goes, if you keep doing what you always did, you’ll keep getting what you always got.
Once you’ve decided to transform your business, taking the blinkers off means not throwing out what’s working well and starting again but also expanding your vision - allowing yourself to see a panoramic view of all available options.
It’s a change of mindset. And that takes a complete reframing of how you view the world. Once learned, it’s a life-changing experience applicable to every aspect of your life.
TWO - Identify Financial Causes
Many businesses falter because their leaders have failed to anticipate the cost of growth, transformation, and fielding new opportunities.
For example, sales, marketing and advertising will increase outgoings in ways you might not have anticipated in your planning. Market conditions and strategies designed for scale will underestimate the resources and costs of such scale.
Long-standing businesses will run into trouble if their leaders don’t have robust investment strategies and keep a close eye on cash flow.
Enlightened leaders recognise the value and are prepared to spend money on objectivity and experience regarding education, training, mentoring, consulting, and opportunities to innovate when they arise.
Without a clear strategy and plan, adequate budgeting, resource planning and successful change management will be highly challenging, if not entirely impossible.
THREE - Identify Operational And Administrative Root Causes
Poor communication kills strategic change and transformation.
Assumptions, subjective bias, ignorance of the strategy and plan, lazy definitions, and low or no attention to genuine collaboration, engagement and understanding - are all high-risk killers when left unchecked.
There is the root cause of gaps in delivery schedules, effectiveness and use of existing processes and systems, marketing conversion rates, ineffective sales liaison, low-performing workflows, and frustration and wastage caused by poor communication between individuals and teams.
The tiniest chink in your engagement and communications armour can wreak havoc with your peace of mind and trample your transformation and advancement ambitions.
FOUR - Identify Negative Employee Attitudes
Finding the right people can be challenging, expensive and exhausting, but once you’ve found great people for your teams, how do you keep them happy during change?
Many previously satisfied employees may become confused or disgruntled when faced with the prospect of a poorly articulated wholesale company transformation.
Work on transforming employee attitudes through inclusion and education - delivering genuine appreciation with effective, ongoing communication, consultation, respect and involvement.
FIVE - Identify Management Confusion and Resistance
If there is any confusion among your senior team, you need to identify this quickly and respond immediately. It will be impossible for members of your senior team to lead the business through a successful transformation if they lack understanding or commitment to the change or, even worse, fear its implications through ignorance. Once again, communication and clarity coupled with meaningful engagement are essential at all stages of transformation.
Want to know how to transform your business with ease and confidence? We’ll show you how transformation can be effortless and even fun. Book a call with Group Partners and discover how to bring your business transformation A-game.
