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Anna Engstromer shares a post that identifies what goes wrong with strategy implementation and what needs to be applied to ensure successful adoption.

The Everyday Value of the Right Design in Services

Just because it happens all the time, all over, strategy implementation isn’t easy. It may appear so judging from corporate communication, but it is a special type of team effort that needs energy and effort. The trick is to both carry forth with planned changes and pay attention and adapt.

Change as Part of Life

Change is part of every organization’s life. It is frequent to experience or bear witness of it in any department or work group. It tends to happen through projects and initiatives, and only rarely is the perspective that of the individual working group. Teams and people cope with change, sometimes managing to reflect on their work and craft it into the way they like it, but other times addressing it with less purpose. How people react to change depends a lot on how they are doing. Someone who feels safe, manages their calm, and cares about their work will naturally be more proactive and effective. For many others, change is “dealt with”. The result is a patchwork of intentional and adapted changes, often with great discrepancy between formal and informal roles and structures. This is not necessarily bad. After all, we are creative beings that like to solve problems. But it leaves groups sort of hanging, and I’ve seen it many times that groups either thrive or implode when change is either too fast or not well enough supported. Sadly, the practice to dedicate or engage professional change managers has gone a little bit out of fashion. Fortunately, people with other roles often emerge and act in such roles. I did it many times.

Key points include:

• Why change seems incoherent
• The design process
• How norms play a role

Read the full article, The Value of Continuous Care in Service Design, on engstromer.com