intent
The Intent Architect—Guardian of Outcomes
To avoid the symptoms of intent mismanagement (see my last post) and keep the intent’s line of sight in place (clarity, expression, and integrity), critically important initiatives must be supported by an intent architect.
The intent architect is responsible for helping the initiating sponsor maintain the integrity of the intent as the transformation is executed. He or she is the guardian of the desired end state. The role includes facilitating intent clarity with the leadership team, helping to communicate it to others, and interpreting it for the various individuals and groups involved in implementation, as well as for the leadership team itself. more
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Symptoms of the Need for Intent Management
Organizations often succeed in installing change, but find it’s more difficult to achieve realization—the true intent. Most of the time, the results of key initiatives are:
- Unrecognizable: They bear little resemblance to the original vision and goals.
- Underdelivered: They yield less than the intended result.
- Overdelivered: They achieve more than the intended result—usually with time and cost implications that limit sustainability. On the face of it, overdelivery doesn’t sound so bad, but it can actually be worse than underdelivery when the final solution proves to be too expensive to maintain. Overdelivery sets up high expectations, which can often lead to abandonment of the solution.
When any of these outcomes occurs, a gap exists between what was expected and what was produced. Senior management’s response is usually more
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The Path of Intent Management
(1) CommentIn my last post, I said that, as practitioners, we sometimes devote more time getting people to change than we spend on the change itself, and that having a complete, concise, understandable, and compelling statement of intent is critically important to achieving change success. I’d like to say more here about managing the intent process.
When important projects are not orchestrated effectively, they sometimes melt down or never get off the ground. More often, what happens is more
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Manage Intent to Deliver on Promises and Minimize Disappointment
(3) CommentsIf we want to be successful at executing major organizational change, it’s important to understand how to translate aspiration into reality. Aspiration is a vision of what must be—the intended outcome. Reality is the value that accrues from putting it in place and sustaining its impact. “Translation,” as used here, is not a metaphor—a conversion must literally take place that turns concepts and ideas into actions and results.
Moving from intentions to results is neither a hit-or-miss process nor a risk-free slam dunk. Regardless of the discipline, any time there is a transition from one state to another, there is a probability that something will be lost in the process. more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
