Thank you Glenn for your thoughtful response.

You are correct about placing talented people without industry expertise into companies just to trap them in groups not internal to the…

Thank you Glenn for your thoughtful response. You raise some excellent points that are worth exploring in future posts. For expediency sake however, let’s touch on your comments in brief.

You are correct about placing talented people without industry expertise into companies just to trap them in groups not internal to the business, like a “digital innovation” group. This blunts the impact a new leader can have on the rest of the organization.

The other issue is that often the expectations were unrealistic. Change cannot happen overnight, though that is the expectation of business leaders that view their prized hires as saviours who will magically lift the organization to new digital heights. When the expected change does not materialize, the organization turns on their saviour.

Innovation has to be believed deeply at every level of the organization. This is why the title of this post is called “Inception”. Ultimately, whatever you call it, LEAN, Agile, Business Agility, new-fangled-shiny-consulting-framework, if the system of beliefs has not changed, then change is just a talking point.