We talk about transformation and change quite a lot, in fact on LinkedIn there isn't a day goes by without a post (or advert) talking about how to manage 'transformation' projects.

So it was with a wry smile I came across this post on the BBC news site (link below) that showcases in fine form how people, not tech are the enablers or blockers of any real transformation project.

The article is about the inventor of the 'Penny Post' who was nothing more than a disgruntled user of the Post Office system in the 1830's, and the way the incumbents in that system felt that he was over stepping the mark, and that they knew better;

Rowland Hill was a former schoolmaster, whose only experience of the Post Office in the 1830s was as a disgruntled user.

Nobody had asked him to come up with detailed proposals for completely revamping it. He did the research in his spare time, wrote up his analysis, and sent it off privately to the chancellor of the exchequer, naively confident that "a right understanding of my plan must secure its adoption".

"People whose careers depend on a system, no matter how inefficient it might be, will not necessarily welcome a total outsider turning up with a meticulously argued diagnosis of its faults and proposals for improvements".

More of often than not it's people inside a company that kill innovation and change, does this sound familiar to you?