I thought it was a simple, straightforward job. But then the unravelling began. Hours later, our sink lie on kitchen floor, tools were everywhere, and the tap was still unchanged.

Our kitchen tap was leaking and needed replacing. However, because we had a butler’s sink, you need to be a contortionist to access where the tap met the counter. And it was rusted to the counter. Inspector Gadget would have struggled even with his extra arms. So the sink came out. And because the sink came out, the dishwasher pipes needed to be disconnected. Hours in, we began addressing the tap. The simple job was no longer simple.

This story can be repeated in many areas of life. And is true about organisational change and digital transformation too. Sometimes a ‘simple’ change becomes an unravelling. We need to remove, dismantle and disconnect business processes, teams, parts of the culture for a period of time to address the problem or make a change. Often the ‘pieces’ can be put back together again once the change has been made. However, the biggest difference is that with organisations we are dealing with people rather than plumbing. Therefore, while we are dismantling, we also need to be communicating constantly and consistently.

Oh and sometimes it’s the opposite, we put something off because we fear it is complicated. But we find the courage to tackle it, we find it was uncomplicated and rather straightforward in the end.

Photo by Clo Art