Sabotaged by Strategy – Reclaiming Digital Transformation
- Rare Innovation
- May 18
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
“For thirty years, many organisations have mistaken projects for strategy and technology for transformation—shooting themselves with silver bullets while drifting ever further from reality.” – Rare Innovation, 2025
Digital transformation was supposed to change everything wasn't it?.
But after three decades, research continues to show organisations are still stuck in a loop—spending billions on tools, vendors, silver-bullets and platforms with little to show for it. The data was always and remains damning - project failure rates hover stubbornly around 70%, and cost overruns remain the norm. Despite the buzzwords, contracts, methodologies, and waves of innovation, the outcomes are largely cosmetic, certainly costly, reactive, or outright dysfunctional.
So, what went wrong and does go wrong?
The Silver Bullet Syndrome
The core issue isn’t technical—it’s behavioural. Faced with complexity, there is a tendency in leaders to default to "silver bullet" fixes - vendor-led solutions, flashy fads and platforms, and cosmetic metrics that mask deeper dysfunction and avoid the hands on sport of engaging people. These are not strategies; they are shortcuts and, in many cases, costly excuses.
As leadership churn increases, so does organisational amnesia. Long-term value is sacrificed for short-term optics and gimmicks. Strategy drifts. Trust erodes. Talent flees. Rescue becomes more pricey and complex.
And when transformation efforts start surfacing uncomfortable truths—about the absense oc engagement, systems, silos, or leadership behaviours themselves—many organisations engage in various forms of implicit and sometimes explicity digital sabotage. High-performing teams are disbanded. Projects are canned. Metrics are rewritten. New narratives formed. Blame is redirected. Vendor vultures circle and the cycle begins over. The transformation stalls—not because the tech failed, but because the culture never changed and nor did the attention to the root cause issue - strategic drift.
Thus - in this latest Rare Paper - in updating Standish Group "CHAOS" findings for Digital transformation success - key sections explore:
1. Anecdote – Strategy Isn’t a Project
For decades, digital transformation has been confused with installing tools or launching silver bullet projects—when the true challenge really lies in redefining how organisations think, learn, and lead. Without behavioural change and reflection, transformation remains a cosmetic performance, not a real shift.
Thirty Years of CHAOS
The Standish Group’s data from 1994–2024 reveals a stagnant truth: project failure rates persist at ~70%, with cost overruns and goal ambiguity remaining endemic. Success isn’t about software—it’s about human-centred leadership, adaptive strategy, and cultural alignment.
The Silver Bullet Syndrome to Sabotage Paradigm
The core issue isn’t technical—it’s behavioural. Faced with complexity, insecure leaders default to "silver bullet" fixes: vendor-led solutions, flashy platforms, and cosmetic metrics that mask deeper dysfunction. These are not strategies; they are shortcuts. As leadership churn increases, so does organisational amnesia. Long-term value is sacrificed for short-term optics. Strategy drifts. Trust erodes. Talent flees.
And when transformation efforts start surfacing uncomfortable truths—about systems, silos, or leadership behaviours—many organisations engage in digital sabotage. High-performing teams are disbanded. Metrics are rewritten. Blame is redirected. The transformation stalls—not because the tech failed, but because the culture never changed.
5. Institutional Betrayal
When institutions suppress the digital transformation needs and change-truth to preserve legacy power, they betray the very people tasked with transformation. This betrayal erodes trust, morale, and the institutional capacity to evolve, often signalling the collapse of digital credibility. Dr. Jennifer Freyd’s research shows how betrayal trauma corrodes trust from the inside. In digital strategy, this plays out as disbanded programmes, buried reports, and vanished accountability. Transformation isn’t killed by complexity—it’s killed by a form of transformative cowardice.
6. Triple Loop Strategy – A Mindset Shift
To escape this cycle, organisations must stop chasing tools and start transforming how they think. Enter Triple Loop Strategy—a behavioural, system-aware, purpose-led framework that redefines not just what organisations do, but how they learn, lead, and adapt.
Single loop is task-driven: Did we do what we planned?
Double loop is assumption-driven: Are we solving the right problem?
Triple loop is value-driven: Why do we exist, and how do we evolve in real-time?
Triple loop strategy demands transparency, humility, and courage. Leaders become stewards—not sponsors—of transformation. Strategy becomes co-created, adaptive, and anchored in social value. Change is no longer a project—it’s a way of being.
7. Back to the Future
While surface metrics may show marginal gains over 30 years, deep-rooted strategic drift still dominates. Thus, in a world of AI, automation, and systemic disruption, linear planning and reactive strategy are obsolete. Organisations clinging to old models will face:
Chronic strategic drift
Talent loss
Irrelevance in their ecosystems
Loss of public trust
But those who embrace triple loop thinking—who build feedback-rich, human-centred, learning organisations—will not only survive. They will shape what comes next.
The Future Starts with Mindset
The difference between a decaying institution and a regenerative one is not technology—it’s mindset. Triple loop strategy is the architecture for meaningful, lasting transformation. It’s how organisations realign purpose with behaviour, adapt with integrity, and lead with moral courage. If digital strategy is to become a legacy—not a liability—it must move beyond platforms and dashboards. It must become a human sport again. One built on truth, reflection, and the courage to lead from within including those needing to transform themselves before they can be tasked to transform their organisation.
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