Article

Why is transformation governance critical today?

Organizational transformations have become common in today’s complex and unstable environment. Organizations must adapt to rapid changes driven by technological advances, a competitive market, and the evolving expectations of customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

The concept of organizational transformation is relatively recent and has evolved. In the past, it was often synonymous with restructuring, typically limited to changes in the organizational model. Today, transformations are broader, faster, and impact an increasing number of organizational dimensions. Their effects are now significant and long-lasting.

Large-Scale Transformations with Deep Impact

According to Deloitte’s People, Process, Technology framework, organizational transformations encompass six key dimensions: technology, mission, analytics and data, processes, enterprise capability, as well as people and organization. These transformations go far beyond smaller-scale changes that are less complex and less far-reaching. It’s no longer just about optimizing tools, work environments, processes, systems, or undertaking restructurings. We’re now talking about large-scale transformations that fundamentally impact an organization’s business model.

Such transformations can affect an organization’s offerings, mission, culture, leadership, and even core skills and behaviours of its workforce.

Faced with continuous and relentless transformation, a clear, proactive, and holistic governance approach — aligned with strategic objectives — is essential to ensure sound organizational management. Without it, the organization risks being thrown off course, reacting under pressure rather than anticipating challenges with clarity and confidence.

This article presents the key success factors for establishing effective transformation governance. It also highlights the central role of enterprise architecture — the true map and backbone of this journey. The goal is clear: to anticipate obstacles, seize opportunities, and above all, build an agile organization capable of adapting quickly, effectively, and sustainably in an unpredictable world.

Governance: A System in Service of Organizational Transformation — Perspective and Rhetoric

According to McKinsey (2019), 70% of organizational transformations fail, primarily due to human factors. More specifically, these failures are often linked to work environments that do not empower individuals to become true agents of change. 67% of leaders report having recently experienced failure in this area (EY, 2021). Among the human-related challenges, governance plays a central role. The word govern originates from the Greek kubernáô, meaning "to steer a ship." Plato was the first to use this metaphor to describe the governance of people. So, how can we effectively steer an organizational transformation? And more importantly, how can we guide the men and women living it day to day?

Governance refers to the system and set of rules that structure the functioning of an organization or initiative. It encompasses various elements, including the distribution of roles — particularly within structural bodies — the circulation and sharing of power, and the decision-making and validation processes that support the organization. However, governance is not limited to organizational charts. It also involves defining the relational spaces that underpin formal structures. It’s about building a collective we: one that collaborates in trust, even through storms; one that brings meaning to the mission, embodies values and nurtures organizational culture. Proactive governance aims to anticipate obstacles, break down silos, remove barriers to action, and facilitate decision-making and plan execution.

In times of transformation, it’s essential to distinguish between organizational governance and transformation governance. Organizational governance forms the foundation of day-to-day operations, while transformation governance is specifically designed to guide and manage change initiatives. These two forms of governance are closely intertwined. They evolve in parallel, sometimes overlapping, and it is crucial to align transformation governance in a way that supports — and is supported by — the organization’s overall governance. It’s also important to differentiate transformation governance from project governance. Organizational transformation may include several projects, but it is not limited to them. Not all projects fall under a transformation, and not all transformations are project-based.

Adopting a holistic approach to governance — one that integrates technological, human, cultural, and economic dimensions — enhances the transformation journey. It maximizes outcomes and ensures long-term sustainability. This approach also enables better anticipation and management of impacts, since these dimensions are deeply interconnected.

1. Transformation Governance Models

Is there an optimal model for transformation governance? There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Transformation governance varies depending on the context, business challenges, and organizational structures.

For instance, the Transformation Office may report directly to the executive team, particularly when transformations align closely with the organization’s core business strategies and impact its fundamental identity. In other cases, it may fall under the Information Technology (IT) department, especially when the changes are primarily technological. Alternatively, it might be tied to the Human Resources department to support and integrate the profound human changes affecting the entire organization.

Often, transformation governance emerges at the initiative of a key champion — someone motivated to advance the transformation journey from within the organization, typically within a business unit directly impacted by ongoing change. Governance then evolves organically, in tune with the pace and scope of transformation. A proactive approach often enables this governance to be elevated to a strategic level within the organizational hierarchy.

Historically focused on IT, transformation governance has gradually expanded to include processes, and today, it centres more and more on the human dimension. It is therefore essential to tailor the governance model to the unique realities of each organization.

2. Success Criteria for Effective Transformation Governance

Asking the Right Questions

First and foremost, an organization must reflect on the reasons driving its transformation and the objectives it aims to achieve. From there, several foundational questions should be considered to help define the most suitable governance model.

These include:

• How will the transformation be integrated into the organizational structure?
• How will roles and responsibilities be clarified — and more importantly, how will they be communicated?
• What is the mandate and service offering of the team responsible for overseeing transformation?
• Who is the face of transformation within the organization?
• Is leadership both inspiring and connected to the realities on the ground?

Leadership, Change Management, and Project Management

Leadership, the first pillar of transformation, takes centre stage. It embodies the transformation's vision, meaning, and strategic direction. It carries the values that underpin the change and is responsible for communicating them throughout the organization. Leadership inspires teams and makes key decisions. Without a dedicated champion and guide to lead the transformation, uncertainty, ambiguity, and instability can quickly discourage teams and hinder both engagement and results.

The second key pillar of transformation governance is change management. The team or entity driving the transformation must also be responsible for supporting the change it is leading. That, in itself, is a change. Structuring it in a rigorous, effective, and holistic way will amplify its impact — namely, transforming the business and the organization. For example, without team engagement, transformation simply won’t happen.

Creating the right environment and providing the necessary resources to encourage employees to become active agents of change in large-scale organizational transformations is essential. An organization will only change through its people, and people will only transform through direct engagement with transformation on the ground.

Finally, project management is the engine that drives the execution of the various initiatives stemming from the transformation. This third pillar focuses on planning and monitoring projects, ensuring that timelines, budgets, and defined objectives are met.

The Right People in the Right Place

To ensure the sustainability of transformations and guarantee continuity, it is important to properly identify the drivers of transformation, place the right people in the right positions, communicate this, and ensure these stakeholders are committed to a long-term perspective where consistency and regularity are key. First and foremost, this requires staying focused on the needs and interests of the organization before considering those of individuals and the relational issues that bind them. In other words, it is crucial to analyze the context rationally before integrating the political dimensions and power dynamics to choose the transformation drivers.

Next, it is essential to prepare the various stakeholders at the right time, notably by clarifying each person’s roles and responsibilities in a clear and precise manner. Often, new relational dynamics emerge, settle in, and smoothen collaboration — gradually gaining ground within the key teams driving the transformation. Trust is established and becomes a strength in the face of challenges. It helps better navigate periods of turbulence, especially when the waves of change are high, or the future seems uncertain and risky.

At the same time, certain stakeholders may play clearly defined roles in steering and deploying transformations. Teams dedicated to technology and enterprise architecture are responsible for aligning systems and processes with the overall strategy. The human resources department ensures that people are at the heart of transformations by driving initiatives such as talent and leadership development, employee experience (EX) management, and fostering a culture of change.

Finally, external partners bring their expertise to structure and accelerate transformations. These interconnected and complementary roles form a cohesive and effective system for successfully leading organizational transformations.

Decisions at the Right Governance Level

Regardless of the transformation governance model adopted, it must be as close as possible to the executive leadership and the organization’s key strategic decisions. This allows the transformation to be part of a proactive and holistic approach. Without this connection, the organization exposes itself to risks that will need to be mitigated.

For optimal effectiveness, transformation governance should integrate all levels: strategic, tactical, and operational. Ideally, it is based on three complementary bodies: an executive committee responsible for strategic direction, a management committee responsible for coordinating and ensuring the coherence of transformations, and an operational committee or core team that oversees the projects and initiatives that stem from it. By ensuring that decisions are made at the appropriate level, governance becomes everyone’s responsibility — with each person contributing at their level. Often placed at the operational level, core teams are the driving force of transformations, bringing the vision to life on the ground.

A McKinsey study titled A New Operating Model for People Management: More Personal, More Tech, More Human recommends that organizations establish a central team composed of senior leaders from business, human resources, finance, and information technology to coordinate the coherence of transformations at a tactical or strategic level.

Alignment Pit Stops

Alongside all these success factors, the constant turbulence and uncertain future — inherent to transformations — as well as the gradual evolution of organizations towards flatter structures focused on collaboration, innovation, and collective intelligence, require flexible and agile governance at all levels. Alignment pit stops play a key role: they allow organizations to stay closer to their operational realities and adjust governance practices when necessary.

3. Enterprise Architecture: A Strategic Lever and a Map that Guides and Accelerates Transformations

In a dynamic organization, it can sometimes be difficult to stay on course. Transformations follow one another, benchmarks shift, and paths that once seemed clear become uncertain. In this context, enterprise architecture (EA) acts as a strategic map, offering an overview that informs decisions and supports action coherence.

Far from being just a technical tool, EA helps connect the various dimensions of the organization: processes, systems, data, roles, technologies, and even intentions. By highlighting often invisible interdependencies, it helps identify areas of tension, avoid duplication, and refocus efforts where they matter most. This silent compass allows one to move forward with confidence, even in uncertainty.

It also helps generate scenarios, imagine multiple futures, and model risks to better manage them. Thanks to EA, transformation is no longer something to endure; it becomes something thoughtful, steered, and orchestrated.

Ultimately, enterprise architecture reminds us that we can act with intention at the heart of complexity. It helps build a resilient organization that can remain true to its identity while evolving toward what it aspires to become. It doesn’t just chart the course — it gives meaning to the movement.

In Conclusion

Organizational transformations are no longer just one-off events: they have become a permanent and unavoidable reality for all organizations. In this context, proactive, clear, and holistic governance is essential. It enables organizations to anticipate challenges, seize opportunities, and place people at the heart of change.

By relying on strategic levers such as enterprise architecture, leaders can not only navigate complexity with confidence but also strengthen their organization's resilience and competitiveness over the long term.

One key question remains: how can we conduct a relevant and structured diagnosis to guide our choices and establish a governance that is truly suited to our organization?