Tragic Tale No.009

This is the ninth in a series of tragic transformation tales, shared by a diverse group of business leaders, in conjunction with the launch of Angie’s book, TransformAble: How to Perform Death-Defying Feats of Business Transformation.

Today I’m talking to Tamar Nelson, Operational Resilience Specialist and current CEO of Jamaica Productivity Centre, as she revisits a tragic attempt at transformation from her past.

Angie: Tamar, your story is one of being the expert outsider, brought in to help drive an operational transformation, only to be thwarted by powers beyond your control. Tell me all about it.

Tamar: I was working with a mid-sized company in Jamaica in the Chemicals Manufacturing industry. They wanted to reduce cost, save time, and get the right product—in the right quantities—to customers faster and more accurately. Also, the owner wanted to retire, to pass on the baton and have someone else take the helm.

Angie: So we have an owner who wants to get the organization to a good place in operating efficiency, so they can retire with confidence. Something I see often, and is not as easy as it seems. And this didn’t work out as envisioned…

Tamar: In the end, the organization was unable to transform and failed to effectively deliver on any of these goals. Productivity did not improve, order fulfillment time did not improve, leadership wasn’t able to change.

Angie: A lot of potential. None of it realized. A transformation tragedy for sure. Let’s dig into that.

Tamar: They started as a small company, and over many years they would add a piece here, add a piece there, add another piece—

Angie: Organic growth. A common challenge we’ve both seen many times. Did they ever create a growth plan?

Tamar: There was nothing in the beginning that said "this is where we’re going and this is how we’re going to scale…" And nothing later either. It was unstructured growth. They had the markets, a great product, but operationally nothing was flowing.

Angie: Nothing was flowing?

Tamar: The inefficiencies were costing the company money and time, and much customer dissatisfaction as incorrect products—or incorrect quantities—of products were shipped.

Angie: And that’s where you were brought in? As an operational improvement expert, that problem sounds right up your alley.

Tamar: Yes. My team was hired to look at the operations, identify all the improvements and changes to improve productivity and enable growth, and help implement those.

Angie: The fact that they hired you suggests that they understood, generally, what needed to be done, and that they wanted to improve.

Tamar: And it was clear right away what was wrong. When I posed as a customer and went through the purchase process, I could immediately identify a lot of the process opportunities. But here’s where the tragedy begins…

Angie: Cue the ominous music… “we find our hero faced with a deadly, insurmountable challenge…”

Tamar: *laugh* Right! We discovered that even though they asked us to look at the processes, we couldn’t help fix them. We couldn’t implement changes—not in a way that would sustain over time. And that is crucial. In order to get real sustainable change, we needed core changes to organizational structure and the behavior of the leadership at the top.

Angie: Tell me more. I love digging into the underlying people system.

Tamar: The structure was pretty ad-hoc. Roles and responsibilities were not clearly defined, there were redundant roles… it was an entanglement of systems, all affecting communication flow, trust, efficiency and more. This could all be a result of knee-jerk reactions to growth over the years. Rather than designing for scalability—this is something we don’t think about during start-up of a business, Angie.

Angie: So true. So what you were hired to help with—some process change—was not precisely what was needed. There was much more at play here.

Tamar: It was as though you went to the doctor, and said “I have a problem here,” pointing to your arm, but then you come to find out that it is actually up here, in your head.

Angie: But the patient is not willing or ready to face that, and the implications.

Tamar: Yes. It became clear that the real problem was at the top. There were structural issues and leadership issues that had to be solved for the transformation to have any chance of success. So we tried to address those.

Angie: And how did that go?

Tamar: It didn’t. Leadership was saying he wanted to step back and let other leaders take over, but he did not empower them to make decisions. He continued to get involved in everything, and make everyone come to him. Thereby undermining the ‘future’ leaders.

Angie: So, it has to be asked, did you truly have commitment to transform?

Tamar: In your book, you talk about the need for both transformation know-how and commitment. Even though my team was brought in to supply the know-how, and were given the appearance of commitment, it became painfully clear that top leadership wasn’t really committed to making this transformation. We even tried leadership coaching…that didn’t work.

Angie: So a lot of potential, sadly wasted, because top leadership was unwilling to commit to the real changes they personally would need to make for the transformation to succeed. This is a common pattern, found in all sizes of company, and an experience I’m sure you learned from.

Tamar: The big “Aha” for me was that I realized I could give them a great plan, but if leadership from the top does not empower, and the structural inefficiencies are not addressed, then any improvement initiative will come to naught.

Angie: A great lesson for many to learn from. I firmly believe that if an organization isn’t really ready, as in this situation, it is not worth the long uphill battle. There are other places to expend energy and plenty of people out there who are serious about transformation. Thanks so much for sharing, Tamar.

Tamar: Absolutely.

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Order Angie’s book TransformAble: How to Perform Death-Defying Feats of Business Transformation from your favorite bookseller. 

Angie Tuglus is a transformation expert and executive advisor. She has led numerous business transformations as a former Fortune 500 executive, and has worked in companies ranging from startup to Fortune 10. 

Tamar Nelson is a leading operational resilience specialist, living in Jamaica, with 20+ years’ experience assisting COOs, business owners, and managers to inform the robust processes required to solve bottlenecks in the shortest time possible and keep pace with the evolving landscape at a time of great economic frailty. Learn more at www.tamarnelson.com 
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© 2021 Angie Tuglus