This is not a rare planning mistake. A software package is sold as transformation, and I see that way more than I would like to. A reorganisation is presented as simplification, but it is often just a masked cost cut without deeper thinking. A dashboard is commissioned because management wants better control and nicer looking reporting. A company-wide training programme is launched because performance is disappointing. Different projects, same weakness as the remedy is decided before the correct problem is defined.
The proposed remedy may be sensible, yet that is nowhere near enough. A sensible solution aimed at the wrong problem is still the wrong investment.
A solution creates its own gravity
Once money, status and people are attached to an idea, evidence is often expected to support it. The project team starts measuring what the solution can change. Dissent becomes delay and a simple question about the original need, “what problem are we really solving?”, sounds like resistance to progress. People like to have their pet projects.
The organisation can then implement the solution successfully and still fail to solve the real business problem. That new system may go live while the real loss sits firmly in the planning department. An agreed reorganisation may redraw reporting lines while decisions still wait between functions. And the training, yes that training, may be completed while the process has no need for such skills and it gives people no chance to use them.
The project can be delivered exactly as promised. The promise was simply based on wrong assumptions or missing data.
Diagnosis is not an attack on the solution
Proper diagnosis does not mean opposing every proposed remedy. It means giving the remedy something solid to answer, and testing whether it addresses the root cause rather than merely producing activity.
What changed? Who experiences the consequence? Where does the work or value disappear? Which explanations fit the evidence? What would improve if the proposed solution worked, and what would remain untouched?
Those questions may confirm the solution. They may narrow it, delay it or replace it. That is not wasted effort. It is problem definition doing its job, and it is cheaper than discovering after go-live that the original problem is still there.
The uncomfortable commercial question
Sometimes the best professional advice is that the attractive project is not yet ready to start. The business may need a short diagnostic, an evaluation, a smaller intervention or a decision to do nothing until a condition changes.
That answer is less exciting than a launch announcement of somebody’s pet project. It is usually also more useful.
If a solution already has a budget but the problem still has several competing explanations, send me a message. I can help separate the business need from the proposed remedy before the project gathers more weight.
My service: It always includes discovery and diagnostic as well as briefing of findings and actionable plan on how to deal with those. Best way to initialize this is to contact me here in LinkedIn and book the initial discussion. Or go straight to my work at www.baleteworks.com. No strings attached.