True business change doesn’t happen in the dark

By Jan Joubert

At Rainmaker we are determined to build an organisational structure and culture that meet the needs of both current and future generations. We believe that the Future Of Work is about transparency, choice and collaboration, where the focus is on the quality of deliverables – not hours or location.

Collaboration platforms such as Slack give our people the freedom as well as responsibility to work from anywhere. They can Work Out Loud with anyone from myself to any other Rainmaker, in any location, anywhere in the world. Combine this with Google and specifically G-Suite, and not only are we communicating highly effectively as a team but also collaborating in real-time on client deliverables, presentations, research and analysis.

And Working Out Loud gets really powerful when we apply this to our clients’ transformation journeys, driving and enabling long-lasting change for their organisations.

‘Work Out Loud’ or your business transformation will fail

Unfortunately, fewer than 30% of all business transformations are successful. Every year billions of pounds are wasted on failed transformation projects in both the public and private sectors. Think Marks & Spencer, the BBC, the NHS, General Electric and the Co-operative Bank.

A lack of transparency, collaboration and cross organisational buy-in is often a key reason for these programmes dying a slow and painful death.

“If you’re going to deliver on whatever transformation goals you’ve been working on, you need your teams to be aligned, your culture to be aligned, and the bigger the company, the bigger the challenge.” Stuart Templeton, Head of Slack UK

Utilising collaboration platforms to Work Out Loud with client teams on key business transformation programmes enables Rainmaker to share workflows and be as responsive and agile as possible. Working closely together with the client we develop strategies, deliver outcomes, share research and debate findings. Slack and similar tools can be important catalysts for meaningful change and also help support the ongoing embedding of our transformation methodology in our clients’ organisations.

“The engagement with Rainmaker introduced the in house programme team to Working Out Loud and Multi-Disciplinary Team working. This was a change of culture for us and initially presented a challenge as we adjusted from our established practices. We persevered and came to rely on this new way of working collaboratively throughout the programme and successfully delivered a disaggregated supplier portfolio, new structures and processes.” Gerard Gough, Croydon Council

And it is about a lot more than just collaboration! Working Out Loud is about ‘narrating your work as you do it’. Being unprecedentedly open about what you are doing: making everything you are doing and how you are doing it visible constantly to anyone who wants to contribute from idea through to completion.

This level of transparency helps avoid costly polishing of flawed ideas before sharing and makes an organisation much more adaptive and responsive to the changing world around us. Because truly successful business transformation is dependent on pace and the ability to react to new challenges and opportunities- faster than competitors.

‘Work Out Loud’ or miss out on the next generation of talent

Generation Z is growing up in a transparent, digital world where knowledge and information flow freely. They are even more comfortable with technology than Millennials and will expect a flexible, collaborative and equal workplace. Tools like Slack, Google and Teams enable outcomes based working that is not dependent on location, time or traditional working practices. They embrace the gig economy our children will thrive in.

These tools enable change. They help kill the ludicrous repetitive cycles of transformation that deliver little to no value other than increased cost and complexity. We use them to implement true lasting advantage in our business and our clients by creating a state of perpetual change highly linked to the needs of users, clients, citizens and the market. And what better way to experiment, iterate and constantly feedback rapid progress to an engaged workforce and client base than through open and collaborative tools.

So well done Slack. You killed my inbox.

But even better you are enabling us and our clients to be great. Just make sure you keep up!

To find out more about Rainmaker’s business transformation programmes, please contact: hello@rainmaker.solutions.