Avoid This Common Organizational Transformation Mistake (And What to Do Instead)

Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion argue that a common mistake in organizational transformation, such as shifting to outcome-driven teams or a product operating model, is training everyone at once. Such broad mandates rarely work because teams differ in readiness, carry existing commitments, and face managerial structures that still reward outputs and deadlines. The result is confusion, mixed messages, and resistance from teams, middle managers, and support functions. Their alternative is to start with a few pilot teams that act as bright spots, proving the new way of working is possible while surfacing the organizational changes needed before scaling. This approach contains chaos and applies the same iterative, assumption-testing logic used in product development.

01Key takeaways

• Avoid company-wide training as a first step, since it tends to create confusion and resistance rather than speed.
• Assess each team's readiness, including existing commitments, skills, and how managers are evaluated, before asking for change.
• Pick a handful of pilot teams with high potential to serve as proof points that the new way of working can succeed here.
• Use pilots to uncover organizational blockers such as skills gaps, missing roles, success metrics, and power struggles before scaling.
• Expect resistance and treat it as information; address mixed messages from leadership and middle managers early.
• Apply the same test-and-iterate discipline to the transformation that you apply to product development.

02Key sections

The problem with training everyone at once

Company-wide training is intuitive but usually produces confusion and resistance because not everyone can act on it immediately. Consultants often recommend it as a fast, equitable path.

Not all teams are ready

Teams with work in flight, skills gaps, or contractual obligations cannot absorb transformation training without feeling it as a distraction. Misaligned manager accountability adds further conflict.

Where resistance comes from

Resistance arises from conflicting instructions between executives and managers, threatened support teams, lost power, and job descriptions tied to output. Some causes are visible and others need careful diagnosis.

Create bright spots with pilot teams

A few pilot teams demonstrate that the new way of working is feasible and expose internal gaps like missing roles, metrics, or friction with other groups. This limits chaos and builds credibility before scaling.

Apply product principles to the transformation itself

Treat the rollout like a product: test assumptions on a small scale, adjust based on evidence, and only then expand to reach product-market fit within the organization.

03From the post

“Is your organization kicking off or in the midst of an organizational transformation? Are you shifting from outputs to outcomes or working to adopt the product operating model? If you answered yes to any of those questions, keep reading. Hope Gurion and I recently kicked off a new series on”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.