Setting Up to Win

A key leadership moment – setting up change to win.

It’s no secret that many change programmes don’t achieve what they set out to. Getting complex change done – efficiently and effectively – is hard. There are multiple moving parts to coordinate, decisions to make, difficult trade-offs to consider. On top of this, there’s often pressure to deliver quickly.

Too often, organisations rush into delivery before they’ve built the right foundations — and that often creates the perfect conditions for expensive problems to emerge downstream.

Experience tells us that starting well is half the battle. Strong leadership in the early days of any programme, focussed on decisive actions on the components listed below, significantly improve your chances of success.

In our view, setting up to win covers four broad categories: strategy, foundations, cornerstones and enablers. Pursuing excellence and clarity for each of these components sets you on the path to delivering high impact, sustainable and efficient change.

1.Strategy: getting clear on the ‘why’

Without clarity of purpose, change will always struggle. What is the case for change? What vision are you trying to achieve? Why does this change matter for your organisation? Ensuring absolute clarity on each of these will have a galvanising effect on every downstream activity.

Start with a solid business case

It’s surprising how many programmes begin without a proper business case. And not just a financial one — but a broader, well-articulated narrative explaining why the organisation is committing to the path in question. The absence of such clarity is often a hallmark of failed change. We often see examples where a technology solution is hastily brought on board (without a rigorous business case) because it is “what everyone else is doing.”

For larger-scale transformations, especially in sectors such as Financial Services, the stakes are often even higher. A change programme delivering a core platform replacement, for instance, will inevitably disrupt business-as-usual.

Leaders must therefore build a case that reflects not just the cost of the programme but also the impact on business-as-usual, and prepare people for that reality. Crucially, this must include both the future state and the transitional period.

Build a compelling change narrative

Any large-scale business change has a clear financial and operational impact on the organisation. But beyond the cold logic of data, operating models and balance sheets, it invariably impacts the psyche of any number of employees, suppliers and other stakeholders. With this in mind it is important to build a narrative around why the change is necessary that will make sense at every level of the business.

2.Foundations of change: creating solid ground on which to build change.

With strategic clarity in place, and a business case that articulates not just cost but impact and benefit, understood by all affected, a series of foundation activities can then be pursued.

Put in place strong senior sponsorship. Successful change requires visible and accountable leadership, with total clarity on who owns the change and who will ensure it is sustained long into the future. Sponsoring change isn’t about an occasional coffee with the team; it requires time, focus and early interventions.

Design a governance and decision-making model. Put in place clear mechanisms for making timely, high-quality decisions, with escalation routes. We also strongly recommend this includes third-party assurance to take a neutral outside-in view.

Create an operating model for the change process, showing how the programme will be structured, how teams will work together, and what delivery approach will be used.

Align resourcing and capacity. Gather a realistic understanding of the skills, bandwidth, funding, and partner support required to make your change happen.

This set of four foundational steps allows a change programme to take shape, minimising the likelihood of it collapsing under its own weight downstream.

3.Cornerstones of change: building on our solid foundation

When talking about starting change well, we often use a house-building analogy: if the foundations are weak, cracks will show in the walls at some point in the future. With the solid foundations described above in place, six ‘cornstone’ steps are recommended.

Clear requirements and gap analysis. Whilst requirements evolve over the change journey as we build our understanding, it is important to be as clear as we can be about what the business needs and where there are gaps in how this is provided today.

Defined user journeys that show how the change will impact customers and colleagues.

A ‘sensible’ solution, tailored to your environment, to your customer and colleague wants and needs, and to your budgets. This latter point is especially important – we often see organisations chasing the “gold standard” blueprint that ignores organisational realities.

A roadmap that outlines the key building blocks and sequencing. This isn’t a detailed plan, but it helps set expectations and support communication forming the basis of future progress updates.

Clarity on leadership across the lifecycle. Who is sponsoring the change? Who is responsible for delivery? Who will ultimately “catch” the solution and embed it in the business? Role definition at this stage prevents confusion later.

Clarity on risk. Early action on identifying risk through each business lens — financial, operational and cultural –  helps leaders address blockers before they derail progress.

4.Enablers: creating the conditions for success

Even with strategy and foundations in place, success depends on enablers. These are the factors that make change possible.

Capacity and capability. An organisation may have big ambitions, but if it doesn’t have the skills, bandwidth, or experience to deliver as the programme unfolds, progress will stall. Leaders must be honest about this balance — and willing to adjust ambition or invest in capability where needed.

Flexible governance. Rigid, bureaucratic models don’t serve complex change well. Instead, governance should be flexible: clearly defined at the start, but adaptable as the programme evolves.

Communication and engagement. Organisations typically make two communications mistakes – even where a compelling narrative has been built. Programmes often talk only with the ‘end users’ of change and they can be inclined to see communication as a ‘big bang’ moment ahead of ground being broken. Many others across the business will have an interest, and clarity and repetition of messaging can build valuable momentum. Ongoing dialogue (as opposed to one-way broadcast) is what ultimately creates alignment.

Conclusion: Strong leadership is at the heart of a strong start

Complex change will always be demanding, but it doesn’t have to be chaotic. By investing resource in the components described above before diving into delivery, organisations can significantly increase their chances of success.

On many occasions when we have helped get change back on track many stakeholders assumed it was complexity that led to change failure. Time and again we have found that complexity wasn’t the problem, rather it was a lack of preparation meaning the foundations were insufficient from day one.

The list of activities above each require strong leadership to ensure clarity and ensure outputs are anchored in ‘the real world’.

Get these basics right, and the rest becomes far more achievable.