The Culture of Enterprise Transformation: The Inconvenient Pragmatic Truth

The biggest enemy (or ally – but mostly enemy in todays world) of Enterprise Transformation is Culture.

Do not underestimate the power of culture.

Do not underestimate the power of culture.

Do not underestimate the power of culture.

Culture trumps Everything™ is much much more than just a saying. It is a very cold hard fact, which if ignored, literally has the capacity to destroy civilisations.

For any human based system, you can change as many Methods as you like, define as many Artefacts as you like and change the Environment used (including IT) until the cows come home, but like a cork bobbing in the sea, they are utterly insignificant compared to the churning seas of Culture. Even when the sea appears calm there can be dangerous undercurrents and hidden dangers that can sink the unsinkable. All Enterprises have to navigate the icebergs of culture, but many of them do not realise that they can only see 10% of the iceberg.

From personal experience:

5% of the time, that equates to Culture Enables Everything™

95% of the time, that equates to Culture Screws Up Everything™