GoalWrangler was formed because we noticed two things wrong with our clients; all of our clients, and we wanted to fix that at source.
The Industry of Change is broken
We found that our clients were suffering due to the way that many larger consultancies were engaging with them. We saw the land-and-expand play in action, where consultancies start with a small engagement and then bring in more and more of their colleagues. When consultants are bonused on consultant-led sales, what behaviour do you expect?
We saw part-finished initiatives that had delivery constructs which were too convoluted.
We saw completed initiatives that held to the letter of the contract, but that didn’t help the client move forward towards their goals.
Basic, but difficult, questions are not being addressed
We saw clients that were putting significant effort into some projects but not others. And that some of those projects were not moving the client forwards. Instead, those projects consumed resources and attention, distracting from more important projects.
We saw change programmes focussing on detail at too early a stage. Focussing early is a dangerous mistake. It makes you think you’re doing the right thing, but in reality, it confuses the conversations, it muddies the design and greatly decreases the chance of a success delivery.
In short, we noticed that all of our clients were managing motion, not progress. Their PMO functions, project management reports, etc showed activity. None of them focussed on the end goal and whether they were closer to it or not.
Watch Alan’s address on 10 divided by 3 to understand more about progressing too early to detail.