Many organizations experience big changes that are intended to bring growth and transformation, yet only seem to add insult to injury. The result of these succession changes, potential disruptions, and technology advancements could lead to a loss of engagement of employees, customer confusion, and long-term value destruction.

As Harvard Business Review explains, the transformation treadmill, as they call it, is in part a response to fundamental misalignments within the organization, but it is not an effective way of dealing with them.

Rigby and First, authors of the HBR piece, outline that transformation for the sake of transformation is valid. They illustrate this by giving the example of BYD, which was a battery manufacturer but turned things around to achieve leadership in electric vehicles, among other areas.

However, they go further to say that in reality, it is not radical transformations but improving the basic system of the organization continually that will help an organization become sustainably successful. This is seen in Boston Scientific, which grew back its innovation leadership and increased market cap nearly 19x in over a decade, beginning with new CEO Mike Mahoney’s focus on strategic priorities, innovation, and employee engagement. 

To sidestep the trap of transformation, a systems mindset and the power to recognize potential dangers early and shift course before a crisis occurs are essential.

“Leaders replace painful change cycles with positive performance,” wrote   Rigby and First, “by building early-warning sensors to spot weak signals in increasing noise, quickly solving emerging problems to keep crises small, and grounding every choice in generating net value for all stakeholders.”