7 Reasons Why Digital Shifts are Baffling Change Managers

 Introduction

 Two years ago in the article Change management for digitalization is the new competitive advantage I noted that managing the shift to digital had no playbook, it still doesn’t. I revisit this topic in the thick of a pandemic that is turning out to be a record breaking change accelerator, something change leaders would call a turn of fortunes. This situation is thrusting even the most tech and risk averse organizations into faster and more sweeping changes that span from remote working, to re-definition of success and performance metrics. It is forcing shifts in not only the rate of technology uptake, but even in the untouchable territories of product and brand propositions, talent management approaches, operation processes and business models built around technology. The unsettling rattle we are experiencing has put even the unspoken discussions on the table.

Change Management

Change management has been the go-to process applied to more effectively shift people from one system of doing things to another. This concept has served many organizations with varying degrees of success to amongst other things; Change to new ERPs, Adopt New Management structures, Align to new strategic directions, Comply to regulatory requirements and Enhance customer service processes. But why does our beloved, astute, well tried and tested change management approach seem to be struggling against digitalization?

Transformation

Digitalization comes as a series of fundamental, frequent, risky and uncertain shifts to not only processes and systems, but also to the way we define success, measure performance, manage internal & external expectations and relationships. There is also a significant shift in the speed, frequency and extents that new technologies are now built and deployed which makes it less viable to complete the whole change management cycle for each mutation required of our businesses. Furthermore, Leading Digital transformation means keeping tabs on multiple moving parts that may include various people, systems, stakeholders and methods pulling in different directions at the same time and quite forcefully. It is indeed a left turn from change management’s target problems and no wonder it is baffling even seasoned change managers.

The Gap

I am a big fan of Change management and would assert that it will continue be useful for certain incremental type changes, but in view of the above differentiators of digitalization from typical project approaches, I continue to interrogate how and why change management as typically practiced, is proving inadequate to produce conditions that are supportive of sustainable Digital transformation at least fast enough if not holistically.

Leaders’ Baffling Questions

In terms of change, one of the key features of Digital transformation is it’s increasing demand for fundamental shifts in the way we handle unpredictability, frequency, nature and extents of people risks in our organizations, which leads me to the below questions that I have faced while working with change leaders facing digitalization.

a)   In view of this affront to our tried and tested go-to method, how do we facilitate faster shifts, less painfully and more sustainably?

b)   How do we cope with the requirements of bottom-up and externally driven constant shifts on our Tools, Skills, Practices, Attitudes and Expectations?

c)   How do we deliver meaningful & sustainable transformation results and rewards, while maintaining productive relationships, amongst internal and external stakeholders of digitalization?

 The Seven Shifts for Change Leaders

I try to address the baffling questions in the below 7 suggestions that will serve as a starting point towards more viable ways of influencing your people for sustainable digitalization.

1. Once Un-frozen things should stay fluid

Change management taught us to un-freeze-change-then freeze. The Focus on freezing the organization into a pre-set mold against the demand for flexibility and openness to quick and constant change, is probably the key source of dissonance.

Fundamentally because the “post-change” phase doesn’t exist in the journey of digitalization since; (a) The final state is rarely ever defined and where there is an attempt to do so, (b) the journey to digitalization can have multiple emerging and temporary optimal points, you can call them watering holes or pit stops, digital techies call them pivots.

These facts makes it self-defeating to dictate in brass expectations of an unchangeable end state and while they pose the risk of organization fatigue that comes with the start, stop and seemingly mid-way change of plans, the remedy seems to be that Change leaders should be helping their organizations adapt a fluid state which will result in less of a toll thus mitigating a culture of inertia - the biggest risks to digitalization.

 2. Change is a Culture not an Event

Being comfortable with uncertainty, unsettlement and relinquishing control are the pre-dominant success mindsets for digitalization and thus our practices, policies need to make it riskier to stay comfortable as opposed to settling in too long in one sure state.

This shift will help to influence more effectively how our people will receive the impact and participate in the processes of adopting and using emerging technologies and evolving ways of creating and delivering value. Keeping the fire under our people’s bellies will push them to seek opportunities to maximize and stretch their creativity, tools and skills, and even dare to disrupt the untouchable value creation and delivery models.

3. Adaptation Vs Adoption

Digitalization requires our individuals, teams and organization to challenge both validity and viability of priorities, practices, process and even policies. Pushing for mindless adoption and expecting people to warm-up to them later will not work because, by the time they come around things would have moved on. This in practice means to demand and reward adaptation to internal and external customer demands as opposed to jumping on new tools, policies and practices first and fast as a reflex.

Instead of herding our people to unquestionably adopt tools, policies and practices that are already cast in stone, that time energy and effort of bending people should be directed to empowering them to anticipate, understand and work backwards what’s needed to meet the fast evolving internal and external customer demands. This in not only energizing but a lot more sustainable since, the big & small wins, hits & misses are easily owned and corrected on the go.

4. Intents Vs Objectives

Digital success is a moving target, and while outlined objectives are important for evaluating and communicating progress, our main emphases should shift to the essence, fluidity and contribution of the roles and functions to the current strategic intents. This emphases shall help our people to focus the current and future structures as mere platforms for delivering their contribution to an evolving version of success and not an end in themselves. The way we can remain flexible on goals and objectives without completely going off-rails is to continuously appreciate them in view the strategic intent of transformation. This means enabling our people to continuously set, adjust & harmonize, outcome & collaboration goals and measurement metrics that are relevant to their contribution as individuals and teams.

With this shifts in mind the focus of re-defining success and measurements of results should consider how emerging tech based business models shift performance and success metrics of individuals, teams and organizations. It holds true that people will continue to play not only where they can score but where their scores count.

 5. Translation Vs Cascading

While in change management objectives are repeated and sub-divided as they make their way down the ranks, sustainable digitalization requires project and team leaders to influence their people to connect & commit to the essence of shifting priorities, while keeping track of and constantly clarifying the nature of emerging customer demands & outcomes. It also demands that leaders help their people to relate to the impact on organization’s intent of transformation. It then goes without saying that leaders’ №1 Job in the journey of transformation is to internalize, critique, predict and optimize the impact of customer demands and consequently, the organizational but shifts on their teams. This is as opposed to holding cards close to the chest hoping to play them as and when one pleases while over planning and micro directing and prescribing each step and outcome of the team.

This shift will primarily require of organization and team leaders to work with their people to translate what the contribution and essence of their effort means to the success of transformation, as opposed to Cascading orders and generic metrics.

 6. Roles & Functions Vs Structure & Positions

While change management is targeted at creating and allocating people and teams to new pre-defined structures and positions successful digitalization ought to focus on the contribution of roles and functions of current and future talent in keeping the wheels turning towards the foreseeable end state.

This becomes a huge incentive to re-focus our attention to how organizations ought to keep refining structures & Practices to maximize on the benefits and mitigate the risks of using emerging technologies and accompanying people risks.

7. Leadership Vs Management

While change management has served us well in terms of top-down planning & directing towards the pre-defined shapes and forms of our organizations Digitalization demand that we empower and influencing frontline staffers and customer facing teams to consistently create clarity around emerging trends which boosts connection and commitment to the evolving strategic intents and customer needs enabling the teams to predict and anticipate the optimal course of actions and contribute to higher quality of decisions.

In view of this shift more attention should be paid to how the use of tech, and adoption of tech driven business models affects interactions, power structures and control instruments between various people and departments within an organization.

Conclusion

While change management has been and will continue to be useful for certain aspects of improvement, as the name suggests what we are facing is a demand for TRANSFORMATION at supersonic speeds which requires a fundamentally different approach from the typical change template. It is critical that we pay more attention to the effectiveness/or lack thereof, of typical methods in the face of new challenges brought by the demand for fundamental supersonic changes.

At the core of the required approach is the way change managers will have to shift towards transformation leadership whose focus will be the consistency of creating and delivering evolving versions of value. The aim of interactions with internal and external customers will be to produce the required stamina for hitting the moving target of digital success at the core of which is empowering people and teams to participate fully in the creation and delivery evolving versions of value from scratch. This moving target requires that our methods, tools and mindset around leading transformation evolve as fast if not faster than the rate of change required of our people and markets trends, customers and industry practices.

Maybe it’s time as change managers we took a sip of our own medicine and apply serve to ourselves the powerful herbs of change we have all along boiled and blended for others.

Finally

What other challenges have you experienced with the typical change management methods in while facing digital transformation?

What shifts have you and your team have had to make in order to effectively transform?

Let me know on: [email protected]

@ThomasKaberi

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