Winning the war and losing the peace is a common pattern in military history. It took the US-led alliance 90 days to defeat Saddam Hussein’s army in Iraq in 2003. But the insurgency that followed lasted much longer. When leaders dedicate resources and capability to winning the fight on the ground but make little investment in understanding the complexity of what happens next, it is difficult to maintain peace. There’s an analog in business transformations. Organizations pour resources into making change happen and declare victory when they reach short-term objectives. But they don’t plan for the long-term sustainability of …
