Every organization wants transformation to move faster.
There is pressure to deliver results, modernize technology, improve operations, and demonstrate value as quickly as possible. I’ve seen that urgency in projects of every size, from targeted process improvements to large-scale ERP implementations.
There is nothing wrong with moving quickly.
The challenge is making sure everyone is moving in the same direction.
Over the years, I’ve noticed a pattern. The projects that deliver the best long-term outcomes are rarely the ones that rush into solution design. Successful projects spend more time upfront creating a shared understanding of the business problem, the future state, and what success actually looks like.
At first, that can feel slower, but it is what allows those projects to move faster later on. Teams spend less time revisiting decisions, redesigning solutions, and rebuilding stakeholder confidence. It’s what I call the work before the work.
Agreement Is the Starting Point, Not the Finish Line
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that agreement and alignment are not the same thing.
Most organizations genuinely believe they are aligned before a project begins. Executive teams agree on the investment, leaders support the strategy, and everyone understands why change is necessary. That is an important first step, but the deeper alignment often hasn’t happened yet.
The people closest to the work may have different perspectives on how the process actually operates. Business units may interpret the same data differently. Managers may define success differently from the teams performing the work each day.
None of this means the organization has done anything wrong. It simply reflects the reality that every department experiences the business from a different perspective.
The work before the work brings those perspectives together before design begins.
Three Lessons That Point to the Same Problem
In my previous blog posts, I’ve identified three common challenges organizations face during transformation efforts:
- Technology-Driven Conversations: Organizations often dive straight into conversations about screens, reports, workflows, and system requirements without aligning on the future business model. This typically results in a new system that replicates outdated processes rather than facilitating future business.
- Data Without Process Understanding: Addressing data issues without first grasping the relevant processes leads to trouble. I’ve witnessed organizations invest considerable resources into enhancing reports or dashboards, only to find that the core issue was never the data itself. Often, different teams interpret the same information differently because the underlying processes were not fully understood.
- Stakeholder Involvement: Moving forward without engaging the right stakeholders early in the process is another mistake many organizations make. I’ve seen some of the most well-thought-out solutions struggle to gain acceptance, not because they lacked value, but because key individuals who would ultimately rely on them were not part of the initial discussions that shaped them.
At first glance, these appear to be different problems. In my experience, they all stem from the same place: The organization believed it had sufficient alignment to move forward but hadn’t yet built a shared understanding among the people who would ultimately design, use, and benefit from the solution.
Why the Work Before the Work Matters
The work before the work is not about creating more meetings or slowing down progress. It is about asking better questions before significant time and money are invested in the solution.
What problem are we really trying to solve?
How does the process actually work today?
Where are the pain points?
Which activities create value, and which exist only because the legacy system required them?
How should the business operate in three or five years?
Who needs to be part of these conversations before design begins?
These discussions often uncover assumptions that would have been expensive to discover later.
I’ve been part of projects where a process everyone thought was understood turned out to be interpreted differently across business units. Those discoveries didn’t slow the project down; they prevented months of unnecessary rework.
Alignment Makes Speed Sustainable
Projects that invest the time to build alignment early make decisions with greater confidence. Technology teams have clearer direction. Stakeholders understand why changes are being made. Process owners see themselves in the future state rather than feeling it was designed for them rather than with them.
Perhaps most importantly, fewer surprises emerge once the project moves into delivery.
That doesn’t mean every challenge disappears. Transformation is complex, and new information will always emerge. But when the organization has invested in the work before the work, it has a much stronger foundation for making good decisions together.
Moving Forward Together
Successful transformation is measured by how confidently an organization moves from strategy to execution. The strongest transformations I’ve been part of took the time to create a shared understanding before building the solution. They aligned the business before designing the technology. They understood the process before changing it. They involved the right stakeholders before asking them to adopt the outcome.
That investment prevents rework that slows projects down.
At evolv Consulting, we help organizations do the work before the work. By bringing together business leaders, process owners, stakeholders, and delivery teams early in the transformation journey, we help create the shared understanding needed to make better decisions, reduce risk, and deliver solutions that create lasting business value.
Because speed is important, but speed without alignment is just faster rework.
Susan Toppert is a seasoned product owner and senior consultant at evolv Consulting, bringing over 28 years of experience in delivering technology and business solutions. She has a proven track record of leading complex, cross-functional projects that span global teams and multiple business and IT domains. Susan specializes in translating business objectives into actionable solutions, ensuring clear communication of scope, dependencies, and challenges across all stakeholders. Her expertise in agile methodologies and solution ownership enables her to drive alignment, foster collaboration, and deliver measurable value. Based in the Dallas area, Susan is known for her strategic mindset, ability to navigate complexity, and commitment to guiding teams toward meaningful, high-impact outcomes.
