After my Startup Stage presentation at Unleash last week, in which I talked about the importance of addressing managerial and cultural assumptions as part of “digital transformation”, I was asked what to do if management don’t change. I said that senior management had to take responsibility and move, or remove, people.
In a previous comment thread on one of my posts someone said that in order to really bring about significant change you have to change key people. I think they are right. Many times I have seen situations, and whole departments, change radically when someone in an influential position has been moved and replaced by someone with a fundamentally different attitude.
This may seem brutal but nine times out of ten even the person being moved realises, deep down, that it is the right thing. I remember many moons ago having to preside over staff redundancies and most of those affected were ultimately relieved to go and turned it into an opportunity.
Keeping someone on when everyone, including them, know it’s not working is not a kindness.
The Obvious? 