Gilding the lily - how to fail at business change

Whilst on my travels last week I stumbled upon this building in the heart of Reading (town in the South of England). It suggests that Reading is the place to be and encourages us to come and base our businesses there.


However, it struck me that the building on which the banner was posted would need a lot more than a few encouraging words to make it attractive.

This is a great metaphor for what I often see in the workplace. Organisations seem to think that by doing things such as re branding and or installing a new IT platform that they will create the new perfect operation. My friends over at Advance Performance taught me a long time ago that:

If you paint the leaves you kill the tree. If you condition the soil the tree will flourish

The fact is that if you wish to change the nature of your business you critically need to change the behaviours of your people to support this. To achive this you must consider how to inspire your workforce. This can be achived by thinking about their beliefs and attitudes (and by taking specific actions) before you buy that fancy new IT system.