AMAIZE #2

At a recent consultancy summit, we asked the audience who bought some new clothes in the last months. Almost all raised their hand. And who tried out that new restaurant around the corner? Yep, nearly everyone. Bought a new gadget? Sure, the majority. And why? “Because doing new things is fun!”, people commented. So true.

But when we move from private life to work life, change – transformation – suddenly becomes a warzone. Resistance to change. People dragging their feet. Employees answering surveys anonymously. Why is that? Because in transformation, in my humble - but academically researched – opinion, we’re missing the three F’s: Facts, Focus and Fun. In our June 2019 AMAIZE, we showed how changing question formats upgrades transformations from being based on opinions to being based on facts. Our own academic research shows that the vast majority of teams (independent of strategic topic, industry or country) have no focus when presented with a set of strategic options to choose from. And then: where does fun get into it?

Well, hello to “Nudging”.

Nudging is about giving a subtle push in the right direction, without restricting liberties or imposing obligations. And that subtle push is all around us. When we walk the street. When we’re using an ATM. When we drive. It’s a concept that has been rewarded with a Noble prize. And when applied correctly it’s an enormous step forward in truly managing transformations. In fact, our Feature Article summarizes this revolutionary approach as “traction control for transformations”. Ronald Meijers (Deloitte’s transformation expert) explains how the carrot – and not the stick – is key to a successful transformation. Read how you can get group commitment by nudging in the right direction.

This brand new AMAIZE covers everything you need to know about this new gem hidden in the toolkit of everyone charged with managing - or advising on - transformation projects. Can we please make transformations fun again?