The Change Dude’s Blog

Making It Right…From the Start

Every week on HGTV Mike Holmes a burly, candid Canadian construction contractor brings to life the perils of hiring the wrong renovation contractors.  He’s a skilled craftsman that prides himself on “making it right” by inspecting renovated homes and providing the homeowner with fixes to shoddy prior work.  Every show ends with hugs and tears from the homeowners when the work is “done right.”

I love this show because it constantly reminds me of how important it is to give customers the best product/service available to meet their needs.  This isn’t always easy.  Customers look for value.  Value is primarily reflected in lowest price.  Lowest price may not be the “right” solution.  Mike never uses low grade products, he uses the best product for the job at hand, he ensures that all work exceeds published building codes.  Mike and his team of tradesmen take great pride in delivering a quality result. 

In the world of large scale business transformations that I’ll proxy as IT projects the “get it right” percentage varies depending on the source.  Standish Group’s most recently published Chaos Report found 32 percent of projects were considered a success. Criteria for success include: having been completed on time, on budget and with the required features and functions. Nearly one-in-four (24 percent) IT projects were considered failures, having been cancelled before they were completed, or having been delivered but never used. The rest (44 percent) were considered challenged: They were finished late, over budget, or with fewer than the required features and functions.

The July 2010 IT State of the Union survey reported traditional projects based on team size  are 47% successful, 36% challenged, and 17% fail.

So basically less that half of all major IT projects are considered successful.

Mike Holmes would be apoplectic.  C-Suites are disappointed. Users are frustrated and apathetic.

What seems to be the problem?  In my view the primary issue is value seeking.  In pursuit of getting more for less business leaders tend to go for the lowest, or near lowest logical cost for implementing major change.  “Doing it right” comes into the equation in early planning and in the “lessons learned” conversations following the project.  Yet during the course of the actual work of transformation the final objectives of the transformation get lost in the budget challenges.

The real cost of a failed or challenged transformation is the loss of trust in leadership.  Organizational enthusiasm for the vision presented early is tainted by shortcuts taken during the process and a mediocre result.

Successful organizational change whether technical, cultural or process focused demands the investment to “doing it right” the first time.  The cost and burden of  “making it right” eventually becomes the responsibility of employees in the trenches that view leadership as budget conscious bumblers eroding the commitment to the next change effort to support customers, business strategy and shareholder value.

Take it from Mike Holmes just “do it right”, take pride in the outcome, get hugs all around.

May 27, 2011 Posted by thechangedude | Thinking About Change | Leave a comment