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Skills and Experience
Justin: Attracting the right talent and skills for a transformation program means articulating the ambition in a compelling way. This ambition should align with the values you want to promote within the organization, and you should be really clear on how you're going to deliver it. You need to truly understand the culture, skills and experience required from both your transformation team and your business sponsors. Successful transformation is owned and driven by the sponsors who carry the confidence of the organization and can act as role models to embed change.
Tony: Most businesses don't necessarily have the right people in-house. You need to assess the skills you build versus those you buy in. And if you do choose to bring in external support, you still need to retain that right degree of in-house control so that you maintain business knowledge and culture. Your skilled people have day jobs and early on, you might need to think about creative ways to carve out their capacity. It's also worth investing in talent upfront and in the right areas, which includes specialist skills or teams. This investment, whether it's time, effort, costs, or a combination of all three, will pay dividends later.
Justin: This is equally true for the partner organizations you use. You need to ensure that your contracts and commercial arrangements have the right incentives and are balanced. Operating at speed is dependent on expertise and sound judgement. You may have to iterate as your program progresses, so make sure you're building in flexibility and the right mix of skills.
Tony: So, in conclusion then, successful transformation requires building and sourcing the right skills, investing wisely in talent, creating the right capacity and ensuring you've got active business sponsorship.
Transformation bites: answers to questions clients often ask
How do you free up knowledgable and experienced individuals?
Dave: Unfortunately, there's no easy answer to this one. The difficulty of making the right people available to lead and deliver transformational change is probably only matched by just how critical it is. You often need to free up the people who are least available while keeping the business running at the same time. Now that might involve using temporary contract cover for someone's day job, or it might involve restructuring operational responsibilities for a period of time. You have to apply the same creativity that you would if someone was out long-term sick, for example, or went on maternity leave.
How do I ensure my leaders have the right skills to drive transformation?
Abi: Your leadership team are experts in running your business, but not necessarily in transforming it. Large-scale transformation is not part of business as usual, so it's important to recognize that business leaders could need support and training to help them effectively champion the transformation and lead long-term when it's complete. Business leaders should not only understand the end goal of transformation, but also what each step along the journey will look and feel like. For example, some people might be worried about finding defects during a testing phase, even though the point of testing is to find faults. Manage expectations by explaining the purpose and process of each step. Bring it to life through the experiences of others and the team. Leaders should talk about the business outcomes which will be delivered instead of just IT benefits or initiatives which often mean nothing to business.
Our transformation consultants
All of our people are experienced transformation specialists. Meet some of the team.
Ensure your contracts and commercial arrangements have the right incentives and are balanced.”
Justin Smith
Consultant, UK
Being able to roll up your sleeves and work through big, complex problems, side-by-side with a client, is a whole lot of fun.
Most businesses don’t necessarily have the right people in-house. You need to assess the skills you build versus those you buy in, while retaining the right degree of in-house control.”
Tony Reeve
Consultant, UK
I enjoy helping clients solve problems and deliver value. The engagements that excite me the most are those where I’m able to learn the most and require thinking on my feet.
Large-scale transformation is not business as usual. Recognize that business leaders may need support and training to help them be more effective champions for the change.”
Abi Thiruchelvam
Consultant, UK
I was attracted to Berkeley for its ethos of not only putting the client first but being part of the client team, rather than just imposing change on them.
You often need to free up the people who are least available while keeping the business running at the same time. You have to apply creativity.”
Dave Machin
Partner, UK
It’s a real privilege to join clients' management teams, and live alongside them during our assignments – seeing their challenges and triumphs first hand.
