I laughed out loud when I first saw this. Its so true, how the journey to a goal really happens.

It’s the same for any change as well: the move from current state to future state in never a straight line, never easy, never without doubts, without friction.

But every change methodology course you go to on makes it look like a linear set of activities, one after the other. 

However, experience tells us it’s not: project scope change, change in sponsor, diverted project resources, business SME unavailability, competing changes within the business and unexpected external challenges all impact the journey.

So, its about how you lean into the curves and work together to get to the end, to go-live.

And for change people, the go-live is not the end, merely the beginning of the future state and the start of the journey to realising benefits.

The journey is not the Change Managers, it’s the organisations. The Change Manager is merely the coach on the sideline, ensuring the team has the skills to play the game, under the new rules. And every team, every organisation is made up of people, different people, with different experiences about change and different thoughts on what the change should look like, or will look like for them.

That’s why its useful to have a change ‘coach’ with you in the pre-season, and on the sideline during the game.

That’s why I love what I do.