Things will get worse before they get better, or why most process improvement fails
One of the things I always tell to those who come to seeking advice on a process improvement is the following:
Most people stop at the first downturn, and that why most process improvements fail.
prepare for the inevitable downturn: things will get better in the short term, but then something bad will happen and things will get much worse than they are now. This is ok, and totally expected. Be prepared for it, know that the only way forward is through and then things will really get better.
Then I usually draw this curve in the air with my hands:
Most people stop at the first downturn, and that why most process improvements fail.
Enough failures and people stop believing in any improvement at all, creating a death spiral.
Another way to look at this is to think about is described in Gary Gruver's book A Practical Approach to Large-Scale Agile Development:
[...] after you have chosen an approach you don't need to worry about getting the advantages of that design because it will come naturally. Where you need to provide management focus is on addressing the disadvantages of your organizational choice.