Something absolutely critical that I’ve learned in over 25 years of transformation work: if you can figure out how to work effectively in your culture, you can turbocharge the way you get things done.

So can you answer the culture question below?

The question was asked by a member of our Turbocharge Your Transformation membership academy. To protect her identify, let’s call her Lucy. She is launching a new digital product.

Lucy’s digital product launch problem (hint: it’s all about culture)

No matter how hard Lucy and her team works, she can’t seem to get on top of things. Lucy is being held up by managers of other divisions who are concerned about the impact of her project on their business units. They each say their divisions are different and have unique requirements.

Lucy feels like she is going in circles as she keep needing to change her focus in order to keep each of the divisional managers happy. As a result, Lucy’s product release is 3 months behind schedule. She feels stuck and burnt out. She is really worried that she can’t deliver on her project.

What advice would you give Lucy?

Tanal Basma’s answer for Lucy – Global Employee Experience at LaunchGood, San Fransisco:

Tanal says: “Lucy needs to start to take time and understand their needs at the departmental level, then bring them together to align on priorities. Once that’s done, she can fine-tune her messaging with theirs and show them the cost of IN action. Sometimes, the long-term impact can be more detrimental than the short-term. Helping them zoom out will get her the buy-in she needs.”

Congratulations Tanal Basma! Thank you everyone else for your terrific answers.

Here is my advice to Lucy:

Remember I told you that if you can figure out how to work effectively in your culture, you can turbocharge the way you get things done?

I showed Lucy that she is working in a siloed culture. This means each divisional manager will be more focused on their own division than the overall organization. She needs to avoid a “one size fits all’ approach. To turbocharge her approach, she will need to work with each division to identify their priorities, needs and concerns. The decision making that counts most in this structure is the power of each Divisional Manager. She must get them on board through listening to them and their teams. They need to feel heard, and they must have a say in how this will work for their division.

The launch strategy also needs to be tailored with their input. Lucy should also invite them to participate in the overall project by asking the Divisional manager to nominate divisional representatives in a product working party. if Lucy leverages their time effectively, it will make her job easier. She and her team will be able to work less hours and have more cut-through.

The outcome so far for Lucy:

Lucy has begun a consultation exercise to identify each division’s needs. She has found the Division Managers resistance starting to reduce, and be replaced by curiosity. There seem to be some concerns in common between the divisions, and Lucy now wonders whether each division may actually be satisfied if the product focuses on the key common concerns, which will save her time. The Divisional Managers are pleased by the idea that they can nominate team members to be part of a working party to manage the rollout. Lucy thinks this will restore their sense of autonomy and control over their own destiny. Lucy is feeling more optimistic about getting her project back on track.

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About Lisa Carlin

As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).