How does insufficient communication impact a transformation initiative?

Portfolio, Program & Project Management Business Relationships Internal CXO Relationships

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Senior Executive Advisor in Software, 10,001+ employees

A business transformation is a complex and challenging endeavor with many moving parts. They require a lot of coordination and orchestration between multiple teams to ensure that the improved products or processes converge to value streams that drive identified business outcomes. That’s why it’s imperative to have a consistent, succinct and powerful purpose when communicating key milestones and achievements to the organization. It helps to communicate via several channels as the repetition will reduce distortion of the messaging.

Director of Technology and Library Services in Education, 201 - 500 employees

Communication and planning go hand in hand. One must plan TO communicate, and plan THE communication. Working backwards from the end goal helps to focus both the roadmap to project completion as well as the communication steps needed along the way. Insufficient communication can easily torpedo a great initiative because it can cause individuals to be confused and lose faith in the initiative and the leaders in charge. We have to lead from our lowest common denominator in such cases, ensuring that things are succinctly and fully communicated.

C-PIO in Software, 10,001+ employees

Communication is key to the success of any task. As a company grows its communication must meet the challenge. Nothing will happen if it is not communicated. Transformation cannot occur if those taking part do not understand what is needed. This is a two-way affair. A top-down idea has to be fully communicated to those involved and there needs to be a verification that what is expected is understood. Only with two-way communication will initiatives succeed.

CIO in Government, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

I am not a fan of the term, insufficient communication. I have seen it used so many times as an excuse for poor behaviour from leaders. Communication has become synonymous with a one-way activity, transformation initiative communicating to staff. I think a better term would be engagement. Engagement implies a two-way activity and an expectation for everyone to be active in the transformation.

The reason I say that is because often what is described as insufficient communication are actually pre-existing cultural issues, where communication is being used as an excuse. Its easy like that because it's hard to measure the effectiveness of communication, so how can you determine if it was insufficient or poor engagement.

To go back to the question. Transformation implies a cultural shift, requiring greater engagement from staff. Failure to gain that engagement undermines the transformation. Once that occurs the initiative becomes a technology project as funding and time tick on. The strategy shifts from delivering transformation to delivering a solution. The transformation phase then gets shifted to BAU, with no support or funding to accomplish it.

Director of IT in Manufacturing, 51 - 200 employees

Lack of communication in a transformation initiative creates a situation where individuals simply will not contribute to their potential and the results will be flawed accordingly. Lack of communication also contributes to wasted effort, extra work for some people, inferior results, and alienation of stakeholders.

Director, Information Technology in Services (non-Government), 10,001+ employees

Sufficient communication is critical to the success of any project and even more so for a transformation initiative. Lack of proper communication can lead to missed milestones and deadlines, team confusion, and potential lack of trust by key stakeholders. Having a good RACI matrix with a defined communication plan is very helpful in clarifying roles, responsibilities and reducing overall confusion.

VP of IT in Software, 51 - 200 employees

Insufficient communication will impact badly any initiative that depends on collective effort. Transformation is indeed a complex challenging process that needs synced and mutual actions and transitions. Insufficient communication will hinder and slow the process drastically. I remember the steps of transformation in our company and every single one of them involved a lot of communication - real-time, group-involved. With a lot of debates and brainstorming. Can't imagine us being that effective separated or with impaired communication means.

Director ERP Management in Travel and Hospitality, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

Lack of communication or insufficient communication would have adverse impact on a transformation project. Transformation projects are usually complex in nature and need thorough planning and schedules. I want to highlight the importance of task scheduling here as part of the project. Lack of communication impacts the scheduling piece, tasks will not get done in time causing a nightmare for the project manager. I think PM's #1 priority should be to co-ordinate an effective communication among project resources.

VP of IT in Real Estate, 201 - 500 employees

Insufficient communication can have a very negative impact on a transformation initiative. That said, it’s important to remember that communication means sending the message, receiving the message, and interpreting the message. Regardless of the message itself all of these things need to be accurate for the initiative to be successful.

Chief Technology Officer in Healthcare and Biotech, 5,001 - 10,000 employees

Someone here mentioned that "communication" is an overloaded term. It probably is. It has to be bi-directional. Often, in a transformational initiative, there is a sense of urgency, or perhaps a burning ship and the temptation is to use a playbook that may have worked somewhere else. In my view, the "insufficient" part is about engaging to get input and feedback, with the intent to take others along. Without it, it becomes a top-down thing and disappears as soon as the executive sponsor leaves, or loses focus