Leadership intent when change gets tough
Explaining your thinking rather than just saying what to do
Transformations are not easy.
In the best examples, teams and individuals go through a J curve - initial drop in performance to be able to climb higher in the future. In other words, we have to slow down to go faster.
In less successful transformations, things can stall so much the recovery and improvement never comes.
This highlight from Rethinking Agile Transformations reminds me of my time in the US Army. Leaders would often publish a memo called Commander's Intent. This would go into detail about the why, the goals, and how the mission would be accomplished. This gives everyone something clear to anchor to when the unexpected happens.
We should start coaching our leaders to publish their Intent so everyone has a clear document to lean on when they want to fall on old habits or take shortcuts.
