Leadership
Transformation Starts When the Operating Model Changes
A technology program becomes transformation only when decision rights, measures, and operating routines change with it.
· Jason Wong · 2 min read
- Leadership and Transformation
- Strategic essay
Most transformation programs begin with a technology decision. A new platform, portal, workflow, or data capability promises a better way of working. The technology matters, but it is not the transformation. The real test is whether the organization changes how it makes decisions, measures progress, and holds people accountable. Without those shifts, a program can launch successfully while leaving the underlying work largely untouched.
Four questions to ask
What decision will change? A new system should alter a real choice: what is prioritized, who can approve an exception, or how teams resolve a cross-functional problem. Who owns the outcome? A working group is not the same as ownership. Someone needs the mandate to connect teams, make trade-offs, and escalate what cannot be resolved locally. What measure will matter? Adoption is useful, but it is not enough. Pair it with an outcome that shows whether the work became easier, faster, safer, or more valuable. What routine will sustain it? Launch creates momentum. A recurring review of evidence, decisions, and blocked work keeps the change alive. Technology can enable transformation. But transformation begins when the operating model changes with it.
The evidence behind the operating-model test
The difficulty is not anecdotal. McKinsey’s 2018 survey found that fewer than 30 percent of transformations succeed in improving performance and sustaining the gains; it reported an even lower success rate for digital transformations. The practices most associated with success extended well beyond technology into leadership, capability building, employee empowerment, tool adoption, and communication. (McKinsey, 2018) That evidence suggests a useful distinction. A delivery metric tells us whether the program shipped. An operating-model metric tells us whether the organization can now behave differently. Both matter, but only the second demonstrates durable transformation. A practical scorecard should therefore combine three layers:
- Delivery: Did the capability launch and reach its intended users?
- Behaviour: Are people making decisions or completing work differently?
- Performance: Did the change improve the business or service outcome without creating unacceptable trade-offs? If a program can report only the first layer, leaders should resist declaring the transformation complete.