In September Argon & Co launched Connect, our strategy and transformation community. The Connect community has been created to support networks of business builders and transformation professionals, where meaningful connections are made, and members are inspired by thought-provoking stories and insight. To mark the occasion, we hosted a launch event at Berry Brothers in London where 40 business leaders from a broad range of industries and functions joined together to celebrate the Connect community and share experiences of managing a transformation.
The event centred around three provocative topics:
- How important are people in transformation?
Guests debated whether ‘one of the biggest mistakes an organisation makes is to focus on people’. At first glance, this might seem open and shut, but Connect members appreciated the need to balance the human side with overall business outcomes. Mental resilience was also discussed at length, stressing the importance of enabling organisations to handle what is now an unstoppable pace of change. After a lively discussion, the room concluded that without focusing on people transformations will inevitably be unsuccessful.
- Does culture really matter?
Conversation focused on the importance of overall business culture on a transformation, most of the room agreed we need to be cognisant of culture, but in different ways. One view was that the microcultures within an organisation are not inherently a problem provided each subculture is aligned towards meeting the overall business objective. Others emphasized the importance of culture in terms of the DNA of a business, arguing that without a common culture, language, and rituals, it is very difficult to truly transform an organisation. The room was split in terms of the importance of culture in a transformation, a topic which, given the level of discussion, is likely to be revisited at another Connect event!
- Why do transformations really fail?
Connect members discussed and questioned the real reasons transformations fail… Is it due to unrealistic business cases or disengaged leaders? Neither? Both? Over a hearty dinner, the members debated, with perhaps the most interesting conclusion being ‘if we don’t know what good looks like at the end of the transformation, how can we say it has failed?’.
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