Concept

Transformation Discovery Compass

An instrument with six perspectives on the same situation. Helps find the mechanism behind a blockage and the decision that changes it.

The Transformation Discovery Compass looks at an organization from six perspectives: the WHY in the centre and five other fields. Each perspective on its own is familiar. What is new is what happens between them.

Compass, not map

A map assumes that the terrain is known. In transformation it rarely is. The Compass therefore does not end in a roadmap but in a decision question: the question whose answer moves the most right now.

No maturity model, no test

The Compass does not ask where an organization performs worst, but which mechanism keeps the blockage in place and which decision changes it. It is an instrument for conversation in the leadership team, not an objective test. The A3 template is on the Compass page.

Go Deeper

Related Concepts

The working surface of the Compass: the WHY in the centre, the five other fields around it. Available as an A3 template.

One of the six perspectives of the Compass, as it appears as an area on the canvas.

What keeps a blockage in place, for example: new business is measured against the core business. The one decision changes it.

Blocking Pattern

A recurring interplay of symptom, tension axis and mechanism that blocks a decision. The book describes twelve of them.

The problem that decides whether the transformation succeeds, visible with customers or in the business. Not the purpose of the company.

Insights

12 Muster, die Transformation blockieren, und wie man sie erkennt

Transformationen scheitern selten an fehlender Strategie. Sie scheitern an wiederkehrenden organisationalen Mustern, die unsichtbar wirken.

Warum 70% aller Transformationsprogramme scheitern

Transformation wird wie ein Projekt gesteuert — feste Pläne, Meilensteine, Prozentfortschritte. In komplexen Systemen funktioniert das nicht.

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