JUMPSTART LAUNCH
There’s a major bank in Europe that used to average 32 weeks to get their major transformations off the ground. 🤦♀️
And they’re not alone. In my time I’ve reviewed over 100 programs (and counting) that were stuck in the planning mud with the garden hose still running.
In my experience, you can’t deliver something complex if you’re not well organised and aligned from the start. The lack of discipline and cut-through causes a staggering number of programs to drag into months during the planning phase.
Think of baking a cake.
You might think, "Easy!" and jump straight into the implementation, but half way through you realise you hadn’t really agreed on the type of cake to make, or what ingredients you need, and who was going to do what.
What’s left is a messy kitchen and no cake.
Planning is key to a transformation, but way too often the politics, money, differing motivations and planning approaches collide, resulting in paralysis.
This experience led me to develop an accelerated planning technique that the Flux team has refined into a program we’re calling Jumpstart to get cut-through in a highly collaborative and creative way - with a relentless focus and supporting methodology on three questions:
1) What problem are you trying to solve
2) How are you trying to solve it? and
3) By when and to what outcome?
It might sound simplistic, but I’ve found working at Deloitte and Accenture over many years that getting absolute unanimity on this, at pace, can really get stagnated programs moving. Often in a matter of weeks or days with the right focus and Executive commitment.
We like to think of Jumpstart as a pop-up coaching service that teaches Executives and teams accelerated planning and helps develop that essential North-star alignment from the start. And the feedback we’ve received so far has literally included applause. 👏🏻
People say they intend to use these techniques not only for their transformations… but for everything including planning their next party. Hopefully, Flux gets invited!