Sound familiar?
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"We have great people and great partners, but we can't get decisions made. Meetings are happening, but nothing is resolved."
— Project Sponsor, Global Hiring Solutions Company
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“We're in month 15 of a 9-month project, and the team is asking for 100% more budget. Are we throwing good money after bad?”
—Board Member, Global Materials Sciences Company
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“My software vendor didn't tell me I would have to "tweak" my product in order to put in a new quote system."
— Chief Revenue Officer, SaaS Software Provider
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“I'm playing chicken with my systems integrator. What they've built isn't what we were expecting, but we don't want to go to time-and-materials.”
— Chief Financial Officer, Leading Sports Apparel Manufacturer
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"We can't get out of the testing phase. Every fix causes other problems. Nobody is signing off and and more stakeholders are showing up."
— Chief Information Officer, Online Fitness and Exercise Equipment Manufacturer
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"It's like we don't speak the same language. When I think we've agreed on delivering apples, they give me oranges."
— Chief Operating Officer, Medical Equipment Manufacturer
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"My client is learning as they go (slowly). My consultants are out of things to do, but I can't roll my guys off because I won't be able to get them back when they're needed for the next phase."
— Integration Partner, Global ERP Implementation Firm
We’ve heard a lot of stories during 25+ years of transformation consulting. Let our experience work for you.
“Meetings are happening, but nothing is resolved.”
This is a multi-level problem with no single source of friction: else, your people would have found it and slayed it by now. Transformations are NOT the same as day-to-day management. Siven Group works with your team of top performers to demonstrate what "good" looks like in transformations so they can discern the gaps that exist today and plan the way forward. Siven Group has packaged 25+ years of experience into a curriculum of frameworks, diagnostic tools, and examples that build the internal team's ability to manage a transformation. Siven Group believes that top performers will resolve their blockers when they have the right tools and a common vision of the path ahead.
“Are we throwing good money after bad?”
How did your team miss the business case so badly? And will it keep happening? That's what's really bothering you. You want to trust that your team has developed the knowledge and foresight to build a solid case. Siven Group has extensive experience building board packages that are based upon comprehensive drivers of cost, and explainable returns. Everyone needs to understand, and have trust in, the short and long term returns of the project from both financial and competitive perspectives. You probably haven’t made mistakes in the choice of software or what it would cost to acquire it… it’s all of the activity around transforming people, processes, and data that are often misunderstood. Siven Group will work with your team to build their skills in defining scope, estimating the requisite investment to deliver, and explaining the return on investment. Whether the next step is to break the big vision into smaller packages, or you need to spend more to get more, your team will be able to present the case confidently.
“‘Tweak’ my product???”
Software vendors can't appreciate the impact of changes to your organization's product. Conversely, you aren't an expert in the vendor's software. Furthermore, even the best internal teams fail to see all the interdependencies that lurk under the surface. This lack of clarity leads to faulty assumptions of what needs to change where. When a transformation program adopts a business process framework as its skeletal core, many realities become visible. With visibility, and accountability, made clear, process owners will make architectural decisions that are best for the organization for the long game. Should the royal jewels be altered to improve an adjacent process, or should investment be made elsewhere to leave the product untouched? Siven Group works with your team to build their understanding of how to address the realities of inter-dependencies stage by stage. With their fresh, eyes-wide-open view, you won't need to rely upon outside perspectives and assumptions.
“Playing chicken”
First off - there are no bad guys here. Systems Integrators want you to cross the finish line. Your internal team of rock-stars wants to cross the finish line. In many cases, everybody has done the job they thought they were supposed to do! You need an empirical measuring stick to define completion, so you can decide what should be done internally and where you want outside expertise to carry the load. Then you will be able to return to partnering with your systems integrator to arrive at an equitable path forward. Siven Group builds an understanding, and confidence, within your people to define the measuring stick that fits your transformation. No transformation is the same as another, but the framework and required outcomes stage by stage are explainable. With confidence in the measures of "done", you and your internal team will have the tools to partner wisely and get the most from the external, and internal, professionals that are rowing together across the finish line.
“Why can’t we get out of testing?”
Typically this situation requires honoring the interdependencies of business processes and clarifying accountability among business owners. Your software build is probably in great shape, but your people don't like the changes to their workflow, and your data may be choking it. This is a result of not foreseeing and addressing the business process interdependencies that are unavoidably touched. Starting over is not an option. Siven Group works with all levels, C-Suite to Core Team, to examine the needs of people, process, automation, information, and your organization's value cycle to identify the gaps to be remediated. Failure to exit testing is almost never a fault of testing, it is a weakness in precedent steps. After working with Siven Group, you and your team will have clarity on which underpinnings need strengthening, and how to remediate gaps while the transformation is in flight.
Apples and oranges
Similar to the parable of the blind men and the elephant, each person on the team sees a part of the picture. Even with a common vision, mission, and goals, individual team members are experts only in specific areas. What they see and understand in their area of expertise may not be understood or accepted by others. Siven Group provides common definitions and frameworks that establish bridges between experts. It's what you say and how you say it that determines if you get what you expect. Not everyone can be an expert in everything, but everyone needs to communicate in a way that moves the team forward. Siven Group teaches teams to communicate what is needed, what is possible, and what is going to be delivered.
Everyone doing their part… together
Often, clients get into transformations not having first-hand experience in managing a transformation program. They didn't understand what capabilities they needed to have in order to deliver their parts of the program. Are you prepared to invest in teaching your client how to do the parts clients need to do? That’s what Siven Group is for - we have been in those shoes. Siven Group catalyzes client team productivity by educating the team on the context of their responsibilities, the qualities expected of their work product, and "how" successful programs deliver in coordination with partners. Siven Group believes every transformation requires effective partnership and we provide educational programs to build the skillsets you want to see from your counterparts.