Transformation and Saviors
Saviors are relied on too frequently in personal, professional, and company transformations. The reasons can be nuanced and complex, but they all involve hitting the easy button.
Saviors rarely work to turn anything around and to usher in a successful transformation. The most successful and long-lasting transformations are inside jobs augmented by outside coaching and expertise. Hiring a particular person or consultant isn’t likely to produce the desired transformational outcome without the requisite intention and execution from within. Respected coaches, consultants, and team members will never position themselves as a savior and “the answer” because they know it isn’t true. Anyone who positions as a savior is likely the opposite.
Sports teams are not immune to the savior approach. They bring in a coach, quarterback, and other vital positions, sometimes with little regard to fit and alignment, hoping beyond hope that they strike lightning. The Cleveland Browns brought in DeShaun Watson to be the savior at quarterback. So did the NY Jets with Aaron Rodgers. Not surprisingly, neither the player nor the team is on track to be successful. It may improve, but not without substantial awareness and effort in other ways that the savior approach wasn’t good.
Well-known, big-time consulting firms (you know, the ones) rely on being perceived as saviors to charge exorbitant fees to clients who are acquiescing responsibility to them to come up with “the answer.” Coming up with “the answer” comes at a steep cost when an organization punts on its ability to come up with “the answer.” The best coaches, consultants, and firms do a better job of asking questions than having answers. They leverage their expertise and experience to augment someone’s situation without promising or pretending to engage with them, which will be a quick fix.
At Transform Labs, we neither position nor want to be seen by our technology advising services clients as a savior. Do we help clients transform their organizations to do more faster and better with technology? Absolutely, but we do so in a manner that is a partnership rather than as a savior. We get asked to be a savior in some circumstances, and we work to reset expectations to a reasonable level given the circumstances of each situation so as not to create a savior dynamic with a client.
Sometimes, a savior approach works. Still, in most of these cases, it was more about the savior than the person or organization doing the work to be prepared and capable of leveraging the value of the additional know-how and capabilities. So-called saviors can’t succeed even when it happens without a willing and able partner. Experts can only apply expertise when the expertise can be consumed and leveraged appropriately.
Perceived saviors aren’t saviors in the commonly used reference of superficial acts and representatives. Saviors are methodical executors with a belief and operational approach that has proven to win more often than it loses. This is true personally and in business. People and firms who might be looked at as saviors are actually far from that and would repel the notion they are.
Should you seek guidance during a transformation? Yes, absolutely. However, transformations need to be owned by the person or organization transforming, not an outside party providing guidance. Help yourself first, and then others can augment your intention and work. Transformations are hard, and they are made nearly impossible when responsibility is assigned to someone else to achieve.
