When the Solution Becomes Bigger Than the Problem
Transformation should be the result of diagnosis, not the starting assumption.
Organizations spend enormous amounts of time deciding how to transform. They evaluate technologies, methodologies, consultants, budgets, timelines, governance structures, and implementation plans.
But there is a question that needs to come first:
Do we really need a transformation?
In The Transformation Nobody Needed, Emma DiGallo challenges the assumption that a significant business problem automatically requires a significant transformation.
The paper begins somewhere much simpler: with the problem itself. What are we trying to resolve? What is the actual pain point? What is causing it? Are we looking at the root cause, or are we reacting to a symptom?
Only after those questions are answered should an organization determine the appropriate size of the solution.
What happens when an organization becomes committed to transformation before it has fully diagnosed the problem?
Are we selecting the right intervention, or simply the most visible one?
Do we reward leaders for solving problems, or for launching visible solutions?
And what happens when evidence shows that the transformation already underway may have been the wrong decision?
Drawing from practitioner experience and established research on organizational problem solving, change management, decision-making, and escalation of commitment, the paper examines how organizations can move from problem-first thinking to solution-first transformation.
It explores the importance of diagnosis, proportional solutions, operational knowledge, organizational change capacity, decision incentives, transformation playbooks, escalation of commitment, and leadership’s responsibility to reconsider an initiative when the evidence no longer supports it.
At the center of the paper is a deliberately simple challenge:
If a problem can be solved for $20,000, spending $500,000 does not make the organization more transformational. It makes the solution bigger than the problem.
The argument is not that the cheapest solution is always the right solution. A larger transformation may be entirely appropriate when the evidence supports structural, strategic, technological, regulatory, risk, growth, or other credible future requirements.
The question is whether the organization can demonstrate why the transformation is necessary.
The scale of the solution is not evidence of the quality of the decision.
Sometimes the evidence supports transformation.
Sometimes it supports something much smaller.
And sometimes the best transformation decision an organization can make is deciding not to transform at all.
Read the White Paper
The Transformation Nobody Needed
When the Solution Becomes Bigger Than the Problem
Emma DiGallo | EDG & Associates
October 6, 2026
EDG & Associates helps organizations connect strategy with execution through practical, evidence-based transformation.
Transformation should be the result of diagnosis, not the starting assumption. The right solution is the one that solves the actual problem, even when the best transformation decision is deciding not to transform at all.