The Operational Excellence (OPEX) Reference Group – NA & EU Chapters, powered by PRIME BPM, hosted its latest Live Meetup, bringing together transformation, operational excellence, and change management professionals to explore a challenge that quietly undermines even the best-resourced improvement initiatives: the hidden cultural barriers that determine whether change actually sticks.
The virtual meetup featured Daniel Jenkinson, Internationally experienced transformation leader whose career spans 13 years in the UK ambulance service before moving into continuous improvement roles at Amazon, where he ultimately served as a Worldwide Expert Advisor across logistics, supply chain, and enterprise-wide operational functions. He now runs his own consultancy, helping organisations unlock leadership capability and strategic value creation.
The session challenged the group to look beyond the commonly cited statistic that most transformation initiatives fail, and to understand why. Daniel walked through the breakdown behind the headline number roughly 22% of failures traced back to poorly designed targets and “watermelon metrics”, 23% to weak planning, 35% to execution, and the remaining 20% to what happens after go-live, when sustaining the change is left unaddressed.
Key Discussion Highlights Included:
- Why the widely quoted “70% of transformations fail” statistic oversimplifies a more complex picture
- How poorly designed metrics can mask real performance problems (“watermelon metrics”)
- The link between employee sabotage of new tools and fear of job loss or obsolescence
- Why promoting people into leadership roles without training sets them up to fail
- The role of psychological safety, trust, and vulnerability in building change-ready cultures
- Practical tools for gauging workforce sentiment and turning feedback into real behaviour change, not just training content
The session sparked active, candid discussion among participants from North America and Europe, many of whom shared their own experiences of leadership gaps, disengaged workforces, and the disconnect between stated values and lived culture within their organisations. Attendees including practitioners from PepsiCo, L’Oréal, Assurance, and other global organisations contributed real examples from the floor,
About the Operational Excellence Reference Group
Powered by PRIME BPM, the OPEX Reference Group is a cross-industry community connecting transformation professionals to collaborate, share insights, and accelerate operational success. Designed for those involved in process improvement, digital transformation, compliance, risk management, and continuous improvement, the group offers a platform to stay ahead of trends, gain practical knowledge, and engage with industry leaders through exclusive meetups and sessions.