The truth is, when it comes to change, almost nobody greets it with unbounded enthusiasm. When it comes to a new IT application everybody has to learn within a business, what we usually hear are groans, complaints, and the obvious question: "why are we fixing something that isn't broken?" Not only does this mindset headwind exist, but another key question needs to be asked: "How can capability can be developed and what knowledge, skills and abilities are essential for success?"
Most organizations are good at creating strong technical designs, but often neglect the surrounding elements necessary for business ownership and sustainability, which in turn will create a safe, encouraging, learning environment for all users to adopt new processes and tools and integrate them within their work routine. The figure above is an effective operating model for any technical installation, which in our experience is only 10% of the challenge, with the rest being change management concerns. Culture-driven mindsets and behaviors need the most attention to ensure any particular technical design is sustained. As such, it is always a best practice to baseline your organization's culture prior to launching significant change and to have an adoption plan ready to go in concert with the technical work.
The adoption plan should account for all aspects contained with the standard business operating model shown above, which is composed of multiple elements, and all of which must be worked on collectively to achieve the desired result: a successful and effective technical implementation. You can't pick and choose! Each operating model element acts cohesively with the other elements to form a protective support for the technical design to be fully effective and sustainable over future years.
Throughout human history, the Octagon has represented the fundamental principles of reality, which is perceived as a range of eight interrelated concepts.
So it is with business strategy execution, which depends on eight, interrelated, fundamental competencies that must be fully accounted for in order to successfully achieve any desired business result.