Avoid the Villain Narrative: Managing Organizational Sentiment in Transformation

Every story needs a villain.

If you've been following the #WorldCup games, you've probably seen the media (and social media sentiment) starting to turn against Argentina. Rightly or wrongly, and in part because of some things they had no control over (controversial calls in their favor), they have started to be centered as the villains of the World Cup this year.

I've also seen this starting to happen in organizational AI transformation efforts. When things are going well at the beginning, everyone is happy and excited. But when efforts stall, impact isn't shown, and unexpected issues and costs start cropping up, organizations start looking around for who is responsible. From what could be a heroic story of innovation and business transformation starts to emerge the "villain" stories, typically grounded in lack of strategy, unclear ownership, or poor execution.

The longer a transformation effort takes, the more likely it is that there will be a period in time when the sentiment turns against the folks who are driving that change.

How do you avoid the villain narrative in high stakes transformation efforts? Focus on these three things:

- Over communicate: One of the biggest pitfalls of transformation leaders is not being fully transparent in how and why you're approaching transformation in the manner you've chosen. Identify ALL of your stakeholders, craft messages that speak to their specific questions and concerns, and don't assume because you said it once that folks will see it or understand it. Market your efforts early and often.

- Be strategically collaborative: Don't leave key people in your organization out of the process, BUT... you need to have clear ownership. Time to dust off the old RACI model and determine who needs to be involved when, who owns which decisions, who owns which budget, and how will you coordinate across efforts for people, technology, and governance transformations.

- Data tells the story: Set your metrics for success early, and identify ALL of the metrics that matter. One of the biggest challenges for AI transformation is that there are a lot of potential metrics that can be impacted, and if you only focus on some of those metrics, you might get blindsided when the ones you've neglected suddenly become important. For example, if you're focused on AI adoption, then costs and employee engagement might suddenly shift and become an issue you didn't anticipate. Don't accidentally become the villain because you lost the forest for the trees.

It's a little more difficult for a sports team to control their public perception in a global sporting event than it is for transformation leaders to anticipate organizational perception, and lucky for leaders that's true.

Still, I'll be rooting for Argentina. Great performance is ultimately what wins every narrative.