"It is not the strongest of species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one most adaptable to change." - attributed to Charles Darwin (for the quote investigators among us, no, there is no evidence Darwin actually said these words - but it will do for our purposes here).
"A process of change in a certain direction" - Definition 2a of Evolution - Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Sustained change is a long running process, progressing roughly in a single direction, with many side tracks and dead-ends to retract from. Sustained change, therefore, is rarely revolutionary - where many things are fundamentally changed at once - as too many of those will lead to inherent roadblocks in dependent processes, causing the whole system to collapse.
What truly baffles me is that we all know this, yet we still embark on large business transformation programs, hoping that our efforts to direct sustainable change in this revolutionary process will actually work (this time).
We learn in small increments
When in school, we do not start with complex calculus, trigonometry, or elemental particle physics as the objective of the whole course from the start. It starts simple, adding, subtracting, then multiplying, dividing, and so on. Not every pupil will go into the field of particle physics, or quantum mechanics; they will adjust their course along the learning pathway. Why is it that in business transformations, we expect the "Big Bang Miracle" of transformation, when in reality, these are very rare, and even more rarely conducive to a successful outcome?
When failure is such an important element of progress - why raise the stakes so high?
Growth Mindset - if you have not heard of this concept, you have been missing the most important two words in the last five years. Carol Dweck's excellent book Mindset has been on the recommended reading list of many successful CEO's. It advocates the mindset that growth comes from embracing failure as a nudge in the right direction, and success comes from taking heed of that nudge, and adjust the plans accordingly. Extrapolating this further, the case may be argued that without failure along the way, success is highly unlikely. Like the skateboarder in the picture: if you wish to master something, you have to be prepared to stumble and fall more than the others.
Risk management is the art of influencing the probability and the impact of a negative eventuality (failure). Since failure is all but inevitable, it seems we have less control over the probability, and more control over the impact. One would assume that the prudent action to take, is one where the impact of a failed "transformation" is limited in its consequence, and can therefore be used as a nudge to change course, instead of a sledgehammer that smashes the entire endeavour.
What good is speed, when you're heading the wrong way?
The fable of the tortoise and the hare is very applicable in the digital transformation world. Why did the hare lose the unlosable contest? Steady progress was the tortoises secret. If you are playing catch-up with digital transformation after years of neglect, the strategy of a short burst sprint rarely, if ever, yields a positive result. But, you are where you are - so what's the option?
It turns out, that incremental small changes started today, will provide significant transformational benefits over the medium term - and a lot sooner than you'd think. The key is to keep the progress steady. Speed is not a factor in the race, the constant progress, and the agility to change direction are winning ingredients. After all, the faster you go in the wrong direction, the more effort you have to put into backtracking your steps.
Revolutions do not bring in the Utopia - evolution does bring progress
Our history is riddled with revolutions, and never has one ushered in the promised utopia. Same for digital transformation - a revolutionary approach (change everything, change it fast) simply has too many moving components, it is impossible to rule out the unintended consequences... worse, it is all but a guarantee that this is exactly where you'll be mopping up the mess after the revolutionary approach.
In conclusion
Small changes allow the team to see rapid incremental progress, while keeping the steps small enough that they will adopt the changes more naturally.
Small changes also allow for mistakes to be made and corrected quickly - it is easier to adjust the direction when small increments are delivered and tested in practice, as opposed to a large transformation with a significant delivery at the end of the project.
Finally, small changes allow for smaller teams working on them - the larger the teams, the less productivity you get out of them (Price's law: the square root of all people in a domain, deliver 50% of the work).
Small and steady increments of good stuff is better than a giant leap into greatness.