Turnaround, bright eyes – we need a total eclipse of the (company) heart

Turnarounds are hard, really hard. Regardless of whether for a project, portfolio or company they start with a stark realisation that intervention is the only obvious path to follow.

But this realisation often comes too late, it comes after relationships have failed, ambitions have been quashed and teams have demoralised to the point of self-destruct. Finally, often in desperation, a stakeholder plans an intervention… often very hush-hush, modern-day corporate cloak and dagger…

Carnage ensues – clearing a path strewn with the collateral damage of the previous endeavour. Then a reboot, a new budget, team, champion and timeline. Sometimes it works, sometimes it leads to another intervention. But either way there might be a better approach.

Modern thinking advocates “fail fast” as a welcome contributor to success in product development, why not have the same consideration for projects, portfolios and companies. Provide a framework which supports early intervention, doesn’t demonise but actually takes the best learnings, contributors, partners and relationships to do a soft and deliberate reboot.

Intervening early seems to indicate a hardening of the heart of the company but it is actually a reflection of a reality that a complex project or step change in a company will not go to plan first time round.

So include intervention in your thinking, plant the seed with your stakeholders and, if the need arises, then execute early, with clarity and purpose.

Maybe, just maybe, a step change in how we plan a turnaround can leave us, (paraphrasing Bonnie Tyler) bright eyed and not falling apart.