Stephen Curtis is right about the need for progress to go ahead without being artificially impeded, but I am afraid the pace of transformation is also being impeded by a lack of vision and a lack of understanding by the very IT Management that everyone relies on. The fact that change is a "way of life" should not be a surprise to anyone, but still some fail to embrace the very things that can enable transformation staring them in the face. The year I started in a (a particular NW) local Council, the IT Department was faced with a problem, a problem not exactly made easier by the fact that the CEO was sometimes difficult to work with. The cry went out that the CEO wanted to work with digital images, but his insistence on 'near perfection' - or 'perfection' put colleagues off. OK, 'perfection' is the word used with me, but let us just say that no one wanted to deal with this enquiry. Digital imaging was very new (10 years ago?). Guess who ended up with the assignment? Me. To me, a long time Mac user, there was no problem, except that IT said the solution had to be on XP. It didn't take long to both get the CEO onside, and to convince him that the Mac gave him all of the functionality he needed, with a simplicity to convince him that the Mac was a serious consideration. From that point onwards, the CEO had his solution. I had a number of meetings with him, and often he would show me the wonderful images he had created, and how he used them; we drank coffee and every now and then he upgraded on my advice, but we'd discuss where technology was going and how the Council could best benefit... rather informally really. Sometimes we discussed how IT worked in the Council, and at others we just discussed areas of transformation. One day the Head of IT Department, seeming trying to make a point about the CEO, mentioned in a meeting how I had managed to get myself involved with the Chief Executive - as though it was a burden (which clearly he thought it should be). I expressed my pleasure at being able to work with the CEO, get to know him better, and to provide him with expert advice. Was it just fear that prevented action? It certainly didn't help. CEOs should not get in the way of transformation, but they should seek out pertinent questions and query decisions where they can see that there are clear options - but they need to understand that sometimes it can be the strangest of things that 'limit' progress. The biggest danger for any organisation is to find itself 'cornered' by a lack of willingness to look beyond the norm.