Bringing teams, products, and systems together at Informa TechTarget created opportunities to simplify ways of working. It also created pressure to move quickly.

Karen Winter, Chief Transformation Officer, reflects on the realities of leading transformation through complexity, the role of process in shaping better decisions, and the risks of starting with the solution before fully understanding the problem.

"We should have spent more time understanding the process problems first."

In this episode:

00:00 Introduction
01:03 Preparing Informa TechTarget for a major merger
03:39 Bringing sales teams, systems and products together
06:11 Building trust through clear governance and decision-making
09:47 Why process mapping became a catalyst for change
11:42 Measuring performance through the customer's eyes
13:49 Taking a practical approach to AI adoption
15:52 Solving business problems before choosing the technology
17:14 Lessons from moving too quickly on transformation
19:15 Managing expectations when change takes longer than planned
21:24 The impact of culture on successful change
23:05 Why continuous learning matters for leaders
25:57 Outro

Understanding Before Change
The success of a transformation depends on understanding the work before redesigning it. Create clarity around priorities and ensure solutions are grounded in real operational challenges, with the help of our performance improvement consultancy services.

Explore Consultancy: https://pmi.co.uk/consultancy/

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The results of improvement work at Comrod were significant, with sites doubling turnover while reducing team stress and increasing operational productivity.

Yet Lean Manager, Frode Steinsland, reveals that 90% of the effort went into helping people see what was really happening and recognise that change was needed, because when teams are already working hard, simply being told things need to change isn't always enough.

“People were working hard. A lot of effort was not creating value.”

In this episode:

00:00 Introduction and why performance problems are often visibility problems
02:46 When the numbers don't reflect what's happening in reality
05:44 Why seeing the data still wasn't enough
06:40 Getting leaders out of the office and onto the Gemba
08:30 Uncovering capacity that was always there
10:00 Why 90% of the effort went into helping people want to change
13:25 A different site, a different challenge, and the same underlying problem
15:37 Making time for leadership, problem solving, and support
17:05 Why people have to see the problem for themselves
18:20 Working harder without creating more value
20:29 Applying the same thinking to AI, risk, and governance
24:15 Creating the conditions that allow change to stick
25:29 Outro

When Hard Work Isn't the Problem
Most organisations don't suffer from a lack of effort. The challenge is understanding where effort is being lost. Our performance improvement consultancy helps organisations create the visibility, leadership focus and operating rhythms needed to turn effort into value.

Explore Consultancy: https://pmi.co.uk/consultancy/

Visit us at pmi.co.uk for more:

• Dive into our Knowledge Hub for more tools, videos, and infographics
• Join us for a PMI LIVE Webinar
• Explore Lean Six Sigma Certifications
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What happens when the ability to build solutions starts to outpace understanding of the problem?

That tension is very real at BCN. Fraser Dear, experienced improvement practitioner and Head of AI and Data Innovation, reflects on the highs and lows of introducing AI into environments already built on structured, trusted ways of working, and the growing gap between doing more and doing what adds value.

“Stop thinking ‘I have this tool - how can I ram the tool into the problem?’”

In this episode:

00:00 Introduction and the shift from structured improvement work
01:15 Plenty of data, but still no clear answers
03:29 Trying to introduce something new into systems people already trust
05:47 Three very different reactions, and no obvious way forward
06:43 Moving the conversation away from decisions, and back to understanding
09:09 When people don’t trust the tool because they don’t understand it
10:52 The pressure to move faster, even when things aren’t fully clear
14:14 Building something impressive but not useful
16:08 Going back to the work before building anything else
18:53 When language creates confusion instead of clarity
20:55 Moving too fast and leaving stakeholders behind
22:56 Outro

Make new capability work in practice

Having the capability to build quickly is only part of the challenge. Our performance improvement consultancy helps organisations build the clarity and confidence to make sure new approaches deliver value where it’s needed.

Explore Consultancy: https://pmi.co.uk/consultancy/

Visit us at pmi.co.uk for more:

• Dive into our Knowledge Hub for more tools, videos, and infographics
• Join us for a PMI LIVE Webinar
• Explore Lean Six Sigma Certifications
• Follow us on LinkedIn