As experienced change agents seek to implement and lead a successful business transformation, many select as their top priority reorienting the thinking of leadership, staff, and key stakeholders towards value creation.

1. Value CreationTraps
December 2021
Abraxas Group LLC

2. Overview
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Abraxas Group LLC 2
Toxic modes of thinking, unexamined assumptions, and decision-
making processes that repeatedly fail to generate positive
outcomes are all commonly found, in abundance, in
underperforming organizations.
As experienced change agents seek to implement and lead a
successful business transformation, many select as their top
priority reorienting the thinking of leadership, staff, and key
stakeholders towards value creation.
Value creation traps, in the form of modes of thinking, often fall into two main
categories: errors of omission and errors of commission.

3. Failure to understand the
problem. A clear understanding
of what the problem is makes
subsequent efforts to address
that problem much more likely
to succeed.
Errors of Omission
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Abraxas Group LLC 3
Failure to make leadership team
changes. Making changes in the
leadership team offers an
opportunity to reset the
dynamic at the highest levels of
a company.
Failure to define success. All key
stakeholders must receive
appropriate and consistent
communication regarding what
the end state is expected to look
like.

4. Data agnostic decision-making. In a time of abundant
data and a paucity of insight, a commitment to place
gathering and analyzing data at the center of
organizational decision making is a de facto commitment
to value creation.
Slowing the rate of change. No organization can sustain a
sprint indefinitely, but neither can an organization afford
to cut short a period of rapid change aimed at meeting the
value creation goals of a previously underperforming
company.
Errors of Commission
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Abraxas Group LLC 4

5. Conclusion
Toxic and unexamined thinking
creates value creation traps
that collectively present the
most formidable challenge for
change agents.
In order to ensure business
transformation success, these
value creation traps must be
addressed both directly and
indirectly.
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Abraxas Group LLC 5

6. David Johnson
Email: david@abraxasgp.com
Ph: 312-505-7238
Twitter: @TurnaroundDavid
David Johnson, founder and managing partner of Abraxas
Group, has a 25-year track record of driving organizational
change. David has served as interim executive or financial
advisor to dozens of middle market companies in transition.
Throughout his career, David has demonstrated a
commitment to thought leadership, with numerous speaking
engagements and articles on the topics of business
transformation, change management, performance
improvement, restructuring, turnaround and value creation
to his credit.
David received his MBA from the University of Chicago and
completed his undergraduate studies at Fairleigh Dickinson
University.
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Abraxas Group LLC 6