Author Archives: David Trafford

Using Organisational Capabilities to Pull the Present into the Future

David Trafford and Peter Boggis argue that organisational capabilities have an important role to play when developing strategy or implementing change. They discuss how existing organisational capabilities can inhibit change by anchoring an organisation to its current trajectory – thereby

The Case for Continual Realignment of the IT Function

All IT organisations are expected to deliver sustained performance. The challenge for IT leaders is to do this in an ever-changing context. Changes in context can happen suddenly – for example following a fundamental shift in business strategy – or …

The Six Core Conditions for Change Success

David Trafford and Peter Boggis argue that one of the reasons for the poor success rate in delivering change is that leaders focus on the wrong future: the one they hope to get rather than the one they’re likely to

Beyond Default – Moving Your Organisation to an Improved Future

David Trafford explores why strategy implementation, transformational change and merger integration continues to be a challenge for many organisations, with a high proportion of these initiatives failing to deliver their intended outcomes. One explanation explored in this article is that

Making Informed Choices That Move Us Beyond Our Default Future

The choices we make today will determine our future, and the choices we made in the past have defined our present.

When it comes to delivering major change, research suggests that we haven’t always made the right choices. All too …

Operating Model Performance is Defined by its Design

David Trafford argues that the performance of an enterprise is dependent upon its operating model, and that the performance of the operating model is defined by its design. As operating models are multi-faceted the design choices include how work is

Understanding and Improving Your Organisation’s Default Future

David Trafford argues that individuals, families, organisations and countries all have default futures: the place they will end up if they continue on the same path and take no action. He discusses the forces that determine the default future of organisations

Establishing the Conditions for Change Success

David Trafford discusses the challenges faced by those responsible for delivering change and asks whether sufficient attention is given to putting the necessary conditions for change success in place.

It is widely acknowledged that only a very small proportion of …

Creating the Agile IT Organisation

IT organisations have changed, are changing and will continue to change. This is not in question. What is different today is the pace and significance of change, whether it is driven by a move to shared services, offshore development, cloud …

Experiential Learning in Executive Development

It’s widely accepted that the more senior and experienced the individual, the less they learn from formal training. Yet companies continue to spend considerable sums on this form of development. We also know that if you ask a person for …