Digital Transformation is NOT about technology

My career started more than 20 years ago. During this time, I’ve worked for large international corporations as well as start-ups and scale-ups. The one thing they all have in common is, all were on a constant transformational program. Or at least that’s how it felt. And making changes and adapting to new situations is critical for companies to survive. But what are the most important components of a transformational program? And how do you communicate with your teams?

Digital Transformation

There is a great article in the Harvard Business Review named ‘Digital Transformation Comes Down To Talent In 4 Key Areas’. They list the areas as:

• Technology
• Data
• Process
• Organizational Change Capability

People and communication are mentioned in the article, but I strongly believe that these two categories should receive more attention. Believe it or not, many industries still have a very low digital maturity level. This means that communication becomes even more important. A digital transformation program is ‘not just for IT or a few designated people’ in the organization. The CEO and the senior leadership team should be not only supporting the digital transformation program, but they should also be at the front of it. Why? Because the success of the program equals the future prospects for the organization. The one thing that surprises many is just how difficult it is to bring all the pieces together.

What is Communication?

It’s a great question. Communication comes in many forms – but it’s important that you pick several channels and formats to reach as many colleagues as possible. Some might prefer group meetings, some might want to read an article and others might want to watch a video in their own time. It’s critical you use multiple channels to ensure a broad reach of your message. It’s next to impossible to get everyone to buy in on your transformational program – but it is your duty to make an effort to convince them to join you on the transformational journey.

Assessing the current state of the organization

So you know you need to upskill your organization. But where do you start? I recommend starting by assessing all staff members in the organization. This can be an intimidating exercise for colleagues and team members which is why it’s important to stress that this exercise is designed to help them meet the future demands of their role – not putting their job at risk. But if you want to improve in anything, you need to know where your strengths and weaknesses are to help you identify the best way forward. The assessment is likely to conclude that your associates are at different levels. And that’s ok. To make the transformational program most effective, make sure you personalize the program – at least to some extent. Why? To keep everyone engaged and interested. If the training is too difficult, you’re likely to lose some team members. The same applies if it’s too easy. In digital marketing, we talk a lot about where our customers or prospects are in the buyer journey. How about we start talking about where our colleagues are in the digital transformation journey and make the training relevant to them?

Speak a language your audience can understand

We spoke about communication earlier in this post – and this is where there is a huge risk. Risk of losing people because of using terminology that is not known to everyone. Speak in a way that will make your audience understand your message. Be careful when using abbreviations. I make an effort to avoid using them because the same three or four letters may mean something completely different to different people. As an example, when I worked at Gartner the term MDM was used a lot. But, it could mean both Mobile Device Management and Master Data Management. You can imagine how a bunch of very clever people can be very confused when talking to each other.

Create a sense of urgency

When a company embarks on a transformational journey and allocates a significant amount of resources and money to it, they expect to see results, or at least improvements, fairly quickly. And rightly so. If you’re part of the team tasked with driving the transformation, make sure you set milestones and deadlines for specific tasks. And be ambitious. Whether you set a deadline of two weeks or two months to complete a task, you know some people will do it straight away – and some will wait until the last minute when they get tired of receiving reminders to complete something. It’s human nature.

Celebrate successes

A transformational program is a long journey. And often it can feel very conceptual and not very concrete to many of us. That’s why it’s important to sketch out a plan – and even look back. What have we accomplished so far? This very question is a critical part of your digital transformation journey. Why? Because looking back at what you’ve already accomplished will make what you have in front of you seem less intimidating. You’ve got this!!

Set your team

This post is about digital transformation. But any transformational program requires a strong and focused team. You can’t do something like this on a ‘part-time basis’. The organization must realize the importance of allocating resources, both manpower, and money, to make this a success. Senior management plays a critical role here. It’s not enough for them just to be supporting your transformational program – they really should be driving it, and practicing it. So who should be on your team? Your team should have a good mix of people. In addition to presentations from the senior leadership team, you should also include subject matter experts and pioneers on your team. Subject matter experts will help explain details better. Pioneers will be part of the teams actually being impacted by the transformation. And they are hugely important as they are likely to be the ones many will listen to and learn from.

Think BIG – Start Small – Grow Fast

Many of my blog posts link back to Think BIG – Start Small – Grow/Scale Fast. It is a concept and approach I really believe in as it allows you to try things out before implementing them on a larger scale. The one takeaway I want you as the reader of this post to remember is coined very well in the quote below: