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In depth

Transformation and impact

Transformation is more than a project, a new system or a communication campaign. It is the change of understanding, decisions, structures, behaviour and impact. A change only becomes effective when it is applied and stabilised in everyday work.

That is why, for me, transformation follows a logic: understand, assess readiness for change, decide, structure, implement, introduce, enable, apply, stabilise and finally create and review impact.

Digitalisation follows structure

Technology is rarely the sensible starting point. First, goals, roles, processes, information, responsibilities and decision paths must be understood and sufficiently structured. Only then can digitalisation meaningfully support, automate or scale.

Not digitalise first and understand afterwards. Understand and structure first, then digitalise with purpose.

Introduction is not adoption

A system can be technically introduced without having arrived in the organisation. Introduction means provision and formal handover. Adoption only shows in real behaviour. The new way of working is only stable when it holds under pressure, when staff change or when things deviate from plan.

Start small, learn and scale

Where key assumptions are not yet reliable, a small, verifiable step can be more responsible than a comprehensive solution built in advance. Implementation then also serves learning, and the insights feed into the next decision. Scaling only happens once prerequisites and impact are sufficiently understood.

Is the organisation ready?

Transformation does not begin with a good goal alone. An organisation must be sufficiently ready and able to carry the intended change. I assess this along six dimensions:

  • Necessity: Is it sufficiently understood why the change is necessary or sensible?
  • Clarity of goals: Is it clear enough what should be better or different afterwards?
  • Responsibility: Are there people who carry the change and can make the necessary decisions?
  • Willingness: Do the relevant stakeholders want to examine and change existing assumptions, behaviours or structures?
  • Capability: Are the necessary competences in place or realistically attainable?
  • Resources and conditions: Are time, people, attention, information and funds available?

The result is not a spuriously precise score, but a classification: ready, conditionally ready or not yet ready. “Not yet ready” does not necessarily mean stopping. Creating the necessary prerequisites can itself become the first part of the mandate.

Readiness shows not primarily in enthusiasm, but in observable abilities: examining one's own standpoint, being open to facts and other perspectives, distinguishing knowledge, non-knowledge and assumptions, being honest about interests, risks, mistakes and limits, taking responsibility and looking at connections systemically. If readiness is permanently lacking, I adapt the approach, pause it or end it.

I do not begin transformation by assuming that readiness is there. I check it.

Impact before activity

Workshops, concepts, meetings and implemented features are services. They are not automatically impact. Impact shows when people make better decisions, structures work and the organisation achieves its goals more reliably.

How impact shows

Visible early

  • greater quality and openness in conversations
  • a more shared understanding of the starting point
  • clearer goals, roles and responsibilities
  • visible assumptions and risks
  • faster and more traceable decisions
  • growing willingness to take responsibility

Visible later

  • actual use of new systems and ways of working
  • functionality and stability in everyday work
  • acceptance and satisfaction of the relevant stakeholders
  • measurable improvement in organisational results
  • less dependence on individual people or external consulting
  • the ability to keep developing independently

Measuring impact

I do not use a universal impact index. The relevant impact follows from the specific assignment. At the start of a mandate, we agree the goal, the expected result and suitable measurement criteria; where it makes sense, goals are formulated according to the SMART principle. Early indicators show whether an initiative is developing in the desired direction. Late indicators show whether the agreed impact has actually occurred.

I measure what is relevant to the agreed impact, not just what is easy to measure. Measurement serves decisions and learning and is not an end in itself.

In less structured organisations, reliable data and clear responsibilities are often missing. Transformation may therefore first have to create the conditions under which impact becomes measurable at all. A lack of measurability at the start is not a free pass; it is named as part of the starting point and improved step by step.