Is the Digital Transformation in Your Company going nowhere? Here is what to do

In any Digital Transformation (DT), people are the main challenge. Here is what to do about it:

LACK OF EXPERTISE:

If your DT is progressing painfully and slowly or not at all, it’s time to evaluate whether your leadership is capable of steering the company into the new era.

Has your leadership ever undergone a digital transformation in recent years?

If not, all their DT knowledge is mere theory. They may have done some reading to put up an outward appearance of expertise, however, the absence of pertinent experience is highly critical and sets the DT up for failure.

✅ To lead your DT, you need people with experience in recent years. They know what to do and how to do it.

THE ACT SABOTAGE

If leadership lacks genuine commitment, the transformation becomes a toxic cocktail, draining the organization and fuelling office politics.

How do you feel, when you talk to your leadership? Can you feel their excitement and passion for the transformation or is it yet another obligation burdening them?

✅A DT leader requires immense energy, passion, and intrinsic motivation due to the demanding nature of the DT and the resistance within the organization. Average levels of energy and passion, will not get the job done!

✅Assess leadership beyond your direct reports (about two levels beyond.) Who was in a leadership position during and involved in the failing DT. Odds are they may not provide any value or even hinder the progress. Place them as far from the DT as possible.

✅Executives have to keep office politics at bay. Know your players and their game.

QUICK FIX FAILURE

If your solution is to get external consultants to help patch things up. You are wrong. Here are the primary problems with this solution:

✦ They come with a standard DT template neglecting your organizational requirements.

✦ Often, they lack a comprehensive understanding of how their previous efforts in other companies played out in day-to-day business once their engagement concluded. They remain unaware of the lasting challenges they may have caused and if their blueprint was discarded during subsequent organizational changes.

✦ Information is withheld from externals to safeguard their position against the external intruder.

✦ A power imbalance between external consultants and internal staff makes externals susceptible to being misled

✅ To achieve a balanced power dynamic and effective information exchange, your own employees should take on the role of transformation leaders. If no one is qualified, recruit someone suitable. This is the basis for a DT that is tailored to the organizational needs and carried out with great care.

✅Externals are only for very specific topics within your DT (e.g. for certain technologies).

What is your experience?