I Told You So...
TL;DR
When the transformation lead in your program is telling you the problem is bigger than the one you hired them for, you have two choices. Hear it and act. Or hold them to the original brief. The sponsors who succeed are the ones who can hear the reframe and act on it. The instinct is to defend the original brief. The harder move is recognising that your transformation lead is closer to the truth.
I cover this in the following sections:
The pattern from this quarter
The mechanism
Three short wins from sponsors who heard the reframe
One question, and a reply
This edition is also for you, the change and transformation lead who knows they have something to say but is not sure if they want to make it clear or just stick to the scope.
Hello,
This Connect issue is for sponsors and accountable leaders. It is about a pattern I have been watching across multiple engagements over the last few months, and about one question that determines which side of the pattern your program lands on.
🎧 If you prefer to listen to this edition instead, check out the link below to an audio podcast as a deep dive which is AI-generated based on this edition and Jess' intellectual property:
The pattern I'm seeing
The status reports say the program is on track. Your gut says otherwise.
Senior transformation programs I am close to this year have a recurring shape. The program is officially proceeding. The reports show green. The milestones are landing on the timeline. And inside the program, the senior transformation lead is increasingly quiet.
What they are not saying out loud is that the brief they were given is wrong or simply incomplete. The problem the program was set up to solve is a symptom of a deeper problem that nobody has named. The deeper problem is structural, sponsor-level, and outside the program's mandate to fix.
So the program proceeds. The deeper problem keeps shaping outcomes. The senior lead carries the gap in private.
The mechanism
The instinct is to defend the original brief.
When a senior transformation lead surfaces a reframe, the sponsor's first instinct is to defend the original scope. This is rational. The brief was costed, signed, and committed. The reframe sounds like scope creep. The reframe sounds like an excuse for missed milestones. The reframe sounds like the lead asking for permission to widen the contract.
It is none of those things.
A senior transformation lead reframing the brief is the most reliable signal that the program is in trouble. They are doing the work you hired them to do.The harder move is recognising that your transformation lead is closer to the program's truth than you are, and acting on it.
3 short wins from sponsors who heard the reframe
Three different functions. Same shape underneath.
In the last quarter, I watched 3 transformation leaders run this play. None of them was comfortable. All of them were right.
The first was a transformation director whose role was quietly diminishing. From inside, nothing looked wrong. From outside, the pattern was clear. The sponsor brought in the outside read, heard the reframe, and now leads a workforce uplifting program (AI skills and operating model) that would have gone to an external consultant.
The second was a VP of strategy and transformation whose AI pilots were stuck. The reports are in progress. The lead was working privately to untangle what was actually happening. The sponsor moved early. The pilots went from struggling to 92% production-ready.
The third was a CX transformation program. The senior practitioner brought in for delivery support reframed the engagement by the end of week one. The brief was wrong. The actual problem was an absence of leadership at the governance level. The sponsor heard the reframe. The reset is now underway.
One question, and a reply
The question is not "is my program on track?" It is "is my best transformation lead telling me what they see, or what I want to hear?"
This week's question is not about your program's status. It is about the relationship you have with the senior transformation lead inside it.
The question is:"Is my transformation lead telling me what they actually see, or what I want to hear?"
If you cannot answer that with confidence, the gap is your next move.
Reality Check for Transformation Leaders
It is not all happy times, and muster the confidence to talk to your sponsor.
I personally was working with an organisation, and the sponsor of my work was the CEO. Who simply did NOT want to hear the reframe; he simply wanted to hear what he wanted to hear. That's when I knew I was in the wrong place. Not just me, but the entire transformation and change team, who I know care a lot, but I can tell they will all be dismissed in a few months (which, unfortunately, happened). Well, it says a lot about this organisation, right
I also worked with another CEO who had scheduled regular 1:1s with me and specifically asked, " What am I doing wrong? Tell me what you see? That is also a reflection of the organisation, which is highly respected and does honest, impactful work globally.
So, even if it doesn't land, you know where you stand. Just don’t doubt yourself. Doubting drains your energy more than anything.
If you have a portfolio program where you suspect the brief might be wrong and your lead hasn't said so out loud, I'd like to hear it.
Reply to this email with your reflections and thoughts.I read every reply.
And as a transformation or change lead, if you want to know which of these 5 areas (Career Progression, Practice -Skills & Techniques, Influence & Presence, Leading Change Capability, Growth Factor) are the ones working for you and which might need work to ensure that you are relevant and future fit, take the Future Fit change & transformation lead scorecard. In 10 minutes, you will have a personalised report in your inbox.
https://www.futurefitleader.com/relevance-quiz
