When you’re making progress and smashing outcomes, managing change and transformation projects can be a dream job.
But when things don’t go as well as they should, it can quickly become a nightmare.
In the spirit of Halloween, Team Sharktower have been thinking about our favourite horror films, and how their plots reflect the unpredictable and spine-chilling world of complex change management.
Of course, we had to start with…
JAWS
Ah yes, that major transformation programme, which – on the surface – may seem manageable, but once you understand the scale of it you realise: You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat. Knowing you can’t possibly tackle it in one go, the only option is to break it down into smaller, bite-sized chunks.
If only you had a platform that let you break down complex programmes into linked outcomes, objectives, activities and tasks.
Night of the living dead
You’ve got a great team working on your projects, but try to get them motivated, excited and engaged about the end goal and all eyes glaze over. There’s no sense of autonomy or accountability, and everyone’s trudging along on their own path without any real sense of direction.
If only they had a way to collaborate and see business objectives in one place.
28 days later
Ever had that moment when you realise – at some point – something’s gone really, really wrong. Like, disastrously. But by the time you hear about it (that could be a few days, it could be a few weeks), the project’s already slipped behind. Senior stakeholders are coming for you, and there’s nowhere to hide.
If only you’d had a platform that could have alerted you to potential risks and issues.
IT
Sure, Stephen King’s clown is scary, but old-school technology is really no laughing matter. Trying to deliver innovative change using outdated legacy systems. Status updates that come back to you haunt you when the data’s wrong. Trying to interpret mind-boggling Gantt charts that nobody ever looks at anyway. Nightmarish!
Imagine if you had AI-driven software that looks as great as it functions.
Poltergeist
You could have sworn the project spreadsheet was stored in Folder X. And yet when you go looking for it, it’s nowhere to be seen. In fact, Folder X isn’t there either! Are dark forces at work? Or has someone deleted it all? Either way, until you find out, you’re in project limbo.
If only all your project plans were in the same format, and stored together in one platform.
Friday the 13th
In fact, any Friday that involves manual reporting can send shivers up the spine. Knowing the data you need is all over the place (and mostly not up to date). Cutting and pasting that’s so repetitive you end up feeling like an admin zombie. And worse of all, you know you’ll be doing it all again next week. And the week after. It’s enough to make anyone run screaming into the woods.
If only you had intelligent delivery software that could collate and generate reports for you.