Ivory Towers: Unlocking the Gap of Theory to Practice in Business Transformation
Issue 186, November 14, 2024
How often have you encountered a compelling transformation or change strategy that failed in execution?
In today’s rapidly evolving, dynamically changing business landscape, organizations face constant pressure to change and adapt. A theory provides an idealized roadmap for transformation, attempting to predict and explain how change should work under perfect conditions. However, reliance on theory alone comes with consequences. Interpretation of theory can be subjective in understanding how it’s infused by an environment, situation or challenge.
When Theory Creates a Gap
Consider a theory we often write about — technological determinism. Although the theory may appear simple, it is actually complex. The concept is that technology is fundamentally driving change in the human species and our society, yet it is designed and activated by humans who have the inherent capacities and capabilities to mirror the technology they are creating. Depending on your opinion, the theory can be made to “fit” and therefore is inconclusive either way. Like technological determinism, many business theories are like the proverbial chicken and egg argument; which came first and how do we choose the most productive path forward?
The practice and practical application of theory reveal the messy reality of implementing organizational change and transformation. It’s unpredictable and complex, and often defies theories and theoretical frameworks. (Mind the Graph) Even where we seek to align theory to practice using data (often perceived to be a saving grace to mitigate human subjectivity), we fail to recognize that the data may be biased, inconclusive or simply wrong.
To get to the point: The most significant influence on, and challenge to success in bridging theory to practical application remains humans themselves.
Leadership Style Matters
We have encountered executives who speak in inspirational rhetoric about optimism and hope. Others speak of promise and possibility. They are inspiring to hear and prompt some soul-searching about how positive thinking can infuse a vision of a path forward, can change the conversation and elevate intentions and motivations. Unfortunately, more often than not, these passionate leaders have misread their stakeholder audiences: both customers and employees. Motivational leaders inspire us and remind us to be our better selves. But here’s the catch, if you can’t bridge an inspirational theory to its day-to-day practical application, it doesn’t matter. The connection between the two will remain elusive, ignored or a vast chasm.
Ivory towers play a role in aspiration and can result in hope. But our society, including an organization’s customers and employees, has become ever more pragmatic, demanding clarity and direction to their daily work and personal lives. That demand is for a practical connection delivering nearly immediate benefits to solve a current challenge or near-term improvement in a situation.
If you boil it down, stakeholders really only want one thing from their leaders: They want their lives to be better than they have been or currently are. That applies to products, services and the workplace in the business world as well as what we want personally.
If you are lucky enough to have two choices but neither of them promises to make your life better, choosing the less bad option doesn’t solve the problem. Making a choice by default is a compromise when a theory infused with hope and optimism does not transcend to a practical outcome.
Theory Breakdown: Top 10 Reasons
When transformation and change initiatives fail to bridge theory and practice, we typically observe these critical factors:
1. Change Hubris: Assuming all or a majority of stakeholders share your vision for change and transformation and have connected that vision to their own needs and wants.
2. Understanding: Words matter, but more importantly, so does shared experience. Change and transformation need to be represented in terms that stakeholders understand and can connect with.
3. Implementation Bias: Believing your change and transformation approach is the only viable path.
4. Transformation Arrogance: Failing to involve key stakeholders in the change and transformation design, path and plans.
5. Timeline Pressure: Rushing change and transformation without a proper foundation; or side-stepping and overlooking elements of a current situation under the guise of “urgency.”
6. Change Dissonance: A gap between transformation rhetoric and organizational reality, particularly focused on realistic capacity and capability.
7. Strategic Blinders: Focusing on theoretical change and transformation models while missing practical barriers.
8. Execution Ineptness: Having a compelling change and transformation vision but no implementation plan.
9. Change Desperation: Forcing transformation without building consensus.
10. Disconnected Response: Stakeholders’ needs are unmet as the wrong solutions are suggested.
Framework Disconnects
Most significantly, failed transformations often stem from insufficient critical thinking about how theoretical change models apply to specific organizational contexts. While change management theory simplifies complex organizational dynamics, successful transformation requires a detailed understanding of culture, capabilities, and constraints.
From our work and observations of all types of organizational dysfunction, the most important reason theory doesn’t deliver to practice is the lack of critical thinking and the inability to use evidence to understand key concepts to justify decision-making. In an organizational setting, theory tends to simplify complicated ideas. But when it comes to practice, you need details and facts to solve real-world problems.
Here’s a great example. Mission statements are great theoretical intentions. They stand for noble goals and behaviors. But too many times there is no playbook on how to achieve those aspirational goals collectively. Similarly, optimistic strategic plans set forth inspirational strategies honed by an organization’s leadership but can be disconnected from an organization’s abilities.
Or here’s another case when change or transformation is the opposite of the organization’s culture, past and present. Consider Amazon’s success as a pureplay digital retailer that prompted many traditional retail businesses to make the aspirational decision to enter ecommerce. Walmart is a solid example of playing ecommerce catch-up to Amazon to be competitive. Walmart’s situation is a Catch-22; it has poured millions into its digital operations to match its physical locations (a powerful advantage over Amazon) which are on average 11 minutes from any American home. As for the rest of the legacy retail world, taking digital commerce theory and making it a profitable sales channel is lightyears from Amazon’s dominance.
You can also look to JCPenney board’s decision to try to emulate Apple’s retail success by hiring the former head of Apple’s stores. The change and transformation initiatives Ron Johnson put in place resulted in disastrous consequences for JCPenney, across its customers as well as its operating infrastructure. He never paved the way for the transformation and had no support from stakeholders. His theory was a classic example of having no sustainable practice. To this day, JCP remains a company chasing its former glory.
Minding the Gap
If you dig more deeply into the gap between theory and practice, you can think of theory as a set of rules, ideas, or principles that experts have developed over time. Theory gives you the knowledge you need about why things work the way they do. Practice is when you take this knowledge and apply it practically. (Mind the Graph) Theory is what it means, and practice and practical application are why it matters. An organization needs both to succeed.
Understanding this gap can help you appreciate the challenges of applying what you learn in real situations. It also highlights why continuous learning, reverse learning and embracing both positive and negative thinking remain important to ensure practical outcomes. Recognizing that there is a gap between theory and practice is the first step towards bridging it effectively.
“In business, strategies that look perfect on paper might fail in the actual market. This could be due to a variety of unanticipated factors like consumer behavior changes, economic shifts, or competitor innovations. For instance, a marketing theory suggesting that a certain type of campaign will attract a large audience might fail if it doesn’t resonate with the actual interests and values of the target demographic.” (Mind the Graph)
The Generational Twist
Bridging the theory/practice gap can be a challenge when it comes to managing younger employees. What they have learned from textbooks, the classroom or writing papers may not have real-world applications. Given their limited practical knowledge and experience, it is difficult for these employees to truly understand the operationalization of business theory, including their roles, responsibilities, and how they measure the value of their contributions.
In many cases, leadership messaging about organizational goals can be wrapped in theory without a clear practical and correlated path of execution to a workforce that must embrace and implement the plan. Plus, the rhetoric used may be phrased with ideological concepts that do not resonate with young people.
Columbia University has conducted several research studies to identify measurable (generational) differences beyond age, tenure, and position between senior-level practitioners in the financial services/finance industry on the one hand, and their younger counterparts both in the industry and MBA programs on the other. Although the study is based on the financial sector, the learnings apply across the business spectrum.
For example, the Columbia research explores if there are differences across generations’ views of work, employers and subordinate-supervisor relationships. Are there differences that are associated with technological engagement? Do any differences between generations occur more often in certain types of organizations compared to others? Are there contexts in which members of different generations share the same values?
The incessant coverage of next gen employees who want collaboration, empathy, representation and fast-track career strategies reflect a different approach to work. This orientation has become a codified theory. However the Columbia study explores if there are differences that appear to be generational but are actually due to other factors. Are there any differences that are in reality a function of different nationalities, backgrounds, or industry orientation? It is obviously a hard nut to crack given so many cultural, organizational and human nuances.
Theory serves its purpose well for those who can translate it into practice and practical application. All organizations are comprised of humans who have similarities and indeed differences. Exploring the theoretical in context of a particular organization can help reveal how to apply it and proceed.
How to Bridge Theory and Practice in Transformation
There are some tactics an organization can take to bridge theory to practice. We offer a short list below for consideration. Successful organizational change and transformation requires a few key tactics:
Experiential learning through pilot programs and controlled experiments.
Change simulations (paper, whiteboard or technology-driven) that test theoretical approaches in safe environments.
Review of both successful and failed transformation case studies. Ensure the selection includes situations that are more similar than different to your own organization.
Offer cross-generational mentoring to share change management with positive and negative insights.
Enable mechanisms for continuous learning about emerging transformation approaches.
Ivory Tower Unlock
The key to successful transformation lies not in perfect, Ivory Tower theoretical models, but in thoughtful adaptation of change principles that support your organization’s unique purpose. By acknowledging and actively managing the gap between transformation theory and practice, leaders can build more effective bridges to sustainable change.
The unlock of any off-based theory is rigorous critical thinking to ensure that it is based on understanding the target audience and how it receives and processes communications. To be successful any theory with practical outcomes requires a shared purpose, market orientation and consensus.
In today’s tumultuous, uncertain global marketplace, stakeholders want change they can trust and that will improve their lives. Theory needs to be grounded in what matters most, and focused on positive outcomes. The ongoing challenge remains whether unbiased leadership can hear what stakeholders are saying and respond with authentic empathy.
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