Rishi Sunak promises that all children will be taught maths until they are 18.  Easy to say, sounds quite sensible, could be transformative, but it is very hard to deliver. In fact, this is a transformation that is bound to fail because nobody has thought it through or looked at what needs to be done, and the roadblocks are already in the way. There is already a significant shortage of maths teachers, training them takes several years and needs further investment.
You could say this is cynical political positioning, but I think it is an example of a much more basic leadership problem – that of “The Leader speaks, and it is Done”. 

We spend a lot of our time as a company working with businesses that need and want to transform themselves. Leaders create visions of what can be and they make transformation sound so exciting and so easy.  This is a real illusion and means there is no understanding of the transformation process.  The process takes time and effort and needs to be combined with hitting all those business-as-usual targets that no shareholder is going to want to see dropped. Like mergers and acquisitions most transformations fail to deliver on their promises because they are not properly thought through.  

So how do you make sure your transformation works?  The first thing you do is to re-educate the Leader in the difference between vision and reality and the time it takes to realise a dream.  We run a programme called “The Transformational Journey – Turning Vision into Reality”.  It does what it says, it takes you from your start point to your end point.  It’s tough, it takes time, it demands hard work but at the end you are where you want to be.  It’s a journey, for all our technological expertise time travel has not been invented yet. Get to where you want to be, realise your vision, take your people with you, hit your objectives along the way, (and make sure your luggage ends up there with you). 

The final point about transformation is that it is not a one-off.  You get to your destination, and it can be a comfortable place for a while, but sooner or later the nature of your business will force you to pack up and journey again.

Good luck with your travelling.  If you would like to know more about The Transformational Journey then drop me a message.

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