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Chapter 5Making It Happen!

The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

—Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

We've all heard the mantra, “What gets measured gets managed.” It sounds so simple to manage a change project. The problem is that just because you're managing something doesn't mean it will happen. There's a lot that needs to be coordinated and changed. There's a lot of inertia. And there's a lot of attitude.

What Barriers Are Preventing You from Maturing?

In many years of consulting, speaking at conferences, hosting forums, and talking with chief marketing officers (CMOs) and digital strategists, one question always sparks an emotional discussion: “What barriers are preventing you from achieving a higher level of customer experience maturity?”

Our research with the Customer Experience Maturity Model reinforced the casual tally of responses we had kept over years of the top barriers that prevent organizations from maturing. You can see in Chapter 4 where process is one of the biggest gaps:

• Lack of resources
• Lack of budget
• Uncertainty in process or direction
• Lack of capability in existing technology
• Lack of executive support or buy-in
• Lack of clear understanding of return on investment
• Difficulty recruiting staff
• Difficulty retaining staff

Some of these barriers have the same root cause. For example, having a clear understanding of process and strategic ...