Operating model transformation represents one of the most critical challenges that technology leaders face today. The complexity requires continuous efforts to maintain alignment to the future state across hundreds of decisions, with failure resulting in an organization unable to deliver desired outcomes. Despite its importance, many organizations avoid making the essential changes required to execute their strategic vision. Forrester’s High-Performance IT Survey, 2025, reveals that fewer than half of IT leaders report that their organizations prioritize operating model adaptations. This hesitation creates a strategic bottleneck: Without effective operating model evolution, organizations cannot achieve their strategic objectives.

The reluctance stems from legitimate concerns. Many leaders carry experience from poorly executed transformations, with only a third of transformation efforts achieving their desired outcomes. But as technology becomes increasingly central to business success, strategic operating model evolution is essential for competitive advantage.

Intentional Design Delivers Superior Results

Success requires intentional, stakeholder-centered design. Too many technology leaders begin by identifying solutions based on industry trends, bypassing the critical step of understanding current organizational challenges and stakeholder needs. Starting with this critical step will then lead to a crisp identification of challenges, from which getting industry trends and other insights on how to solve these challenges will be more valuable.

Forrester’s initiative blueprint, Ready Your Organization For Operating Model Change, provides technology leaders with a systematic framework for transformation success. This comprehensive resource includes diagnostic assessment tools to identify specific challenges, stakeholder engagement frameworks, and communication templates for clear change messaging.

Modern technology leaders must recognize that operating model change is iterative rather than event-driven, and the best leaders do this through a test-and-learn approach, recognizing that they will not get it right the first time across the enterprise and adjusting where they need to. This commitment to being a learning organization that can admit failure and be transparent drives improved trust and, therefore, engagement throughout the organization. Successful organizations design for adaptability, embracing continuous learning. Building new capabilities will have impacts on team structures, sourcing, and governance; shifting to focus on customer needs requires changes in culture, measurement, and value orchestration — and the list goes on.

Transform your operating model using the initiative blueprint, a strategic framework that not only pinpoints critical transformation opportunities but also maps viable pathways to overcome operating model obstacles, accelerate organizational agility, and forge stronger stakeholder partnerships that drive sustainable business value. While operating model change is complex, the initiative blueprint aims to simplify that change for technology leaders, breaking down the process into key steps with clear deliverables and outputs. Using the blueprint will give leaders confidence that they are setting their organizational change efforts up for success.