Digital Transformation Alchemy - Start with Why!

In my experience, there is always a reason… so start by asking “Why”?

By this, I don’t mean why does your customer want to undertake a digital transformation?

That’s easy.

After all, the productivity, efficiency, and information security benefits of digital transformation are obvious, and any consultant worth his salt can rhyme off the advantages of cloud based, low code, AI driven collaboration software and tools.

No, I mean ask why has your customer not already done it?

Asking Why…

How come they are still running legacy on premise hardware, obsolete and insecure line of business apps and don’t have the in-house skills, desire, and organisation to fix this themselves?

Why are they struggling with toxic culture, demotivated teams, skills gaps, or “Game of Thrones style” executive politics?

How many times have enthusiastic amateurs or well credentialed and over rewarded consultants already tried and failed to solve these problems before? ?

How many failed transformation projects already lie rotting in the “let’s not talk about them” transformation graveyard?

The answer to these questions will tell you a lot about your chances of success.

While every customer is different, there are some recurring themes on why they’ve got themselves into such a mess in the first place. Unless you understand what they are and can deal with their root causes effectively, the chances are that your project will go the same way as all the failed initiatives that have come before it.

Of course, if you are working for a “bill by the hour, charge like a wounded bull consultancy”, you might not care. Dysfunctional and consultant dependent clients are like lambs to the slaughter for them.

For the rest of us, I think we can do better.

Are They Ready?

It pays to remember that not all customers can, or should, undertake a digital transformation.

?

Most are simply not ready.

That’s hard medicine if you are desperately trying to keep your consultancy team fully utilized and worrying about paying next month’s wage bill, but trust me, it’s worth it in the long run.

Some of my most successful projects are the ones I walked away from. ?My first rule for transformations, if the project is going to fail – Don’t start it!

These days, technology projects are not technology problems. The capabilities of the tools and platforms have long since exceeded our ability to implement them successfully. While “the business” always blames the IT team for their failed projects or current technology malaise, it is almost always “the business” that is at fault.

Indeed, the whole notion of “the business” versus “IT” is a pervasive and corrosive stereotyping that is, in a business context, as odious and destructive as historical debates around slavery, sexual preference, religious tolerance, or gender equality. Post transformation, there must be no “business versus IT”, only a single continuous organisation where people technology and process operate and innovate in harmony.

?

My Top 3 Tips

My Top 3 list of things to look out for when engaging with a new client are:

Leadership

Budgets

Execution Capability

?

Leadership

It’s an uncomfortable truth, but the number one reason why an organisations technology gets left behind is a failure of leadership. I don’t mean the Head of Technology here, but of the organisation as a whole.

I still find it staggering how ill-informed and technology illiterate most executives and boards are.

What’s worse, is their breathtaking arrogance to think that it doesn’t matter, and that they can direct and manage their key information and technology assets anyway.

In recent years, we have seen great strides for more diversity and inclusion on boards, with women and minorities better (but still underrepresented) than before. But technologists? Unless you work for a technology company, unfortunately, I’d have to say, not so much.

As an interesting aside, if you disagree with my point or think that’s not important, just consider that the top 6 of the top 8 companies in the world are technology companies, with Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Nvidia and Amazon having a combined market cap that’s easily north of 10 trillion dollars US. The other two are Berkshire Hathaway and the Saudi Arabian Oil company. As I’m guessing your no Warren Buffet and don’t own any oil wells, I think that’s QED.

But back to the case in point. From a technology perspective, the term “the fish rots from the head...” has never been so apt. If the leadership team don’t understand or value technology, you are going to have some stiff challenges ahead.

Of course, they will all say it’s their number 1 priority, as bullshit and deception are normally second nature to them. But what do they actually do? Look around you and you will quickly find the evidence. What do you see? Consider why this time it will be any different to before?

?

Budgets

Continual and chronic under investment in technology and the under empowerment of technology leaders is a cancer that eats away at an organisation, staying hidden until it’s much too late. That’s usually when they look for the “digital transformation magic bullet” and is precisely the reason why they will fail to fire it.

There are simple questions to answer here. Is there any money for transformation and can you get it?

It’s useful to consider the external business environment and how successful is your customer operating in it? If your customer (or their industry) is not making any money (or shamelessly fleecing its investors), then they don’t have any to spend on you.

Look around, have they invested in machinery, buildings or people? ?We know the technology needs fixing, but is everything else broken too? Will the transformation project always be the poor cousin to the demands of louder and more influential stakeholders with equally large problems to solve?

Regardless, Digital Transformations are expensive, so if there is not the budget to see it through, don’t start it. Quick wins are dead ends and low hanging fruit is the stuff that’s fallen off the tree and is rotting on the ground.

Of course, if there is a good budget, that doesn’t mean you have permission to spend it willy nilly or “piss it up the wall” – but that’s just the execution and a subject I’ll address in future articles.

?

Execution Capability

If you have managed to clear the leadership and budget hurdles, your next question is can you execute?

You will need two things to be successful:

The right team

A rhythm

?

The right team

People and culture are the next thing that will bring you down. A transformation with Dynamics and the Power Platform is no place for the enthusiastic amateur, or for people who don’t understand the platform but think they will just have a go anyway. There is a particular approach and methodology to apply, rooted in a deep understanding in the platform and the real-world experience of applying it correctly.

A phrase I often hear on the golf course is “if I’d just hit that straighter and in the right direction, it would have been a good shot”.

It’s much the same in organisations.

If we just had all the right people, and they all played nicely together, we could execute the perfect transformation game plan and we’d have fantastic tech.

I know I’m never going to be a scratch golfer, but how realistic are your expectations for your transformation and tech?

People are people, and people are just dressed up animals. You never have enough of them and when you get more your HR issues multiply exponentially.

So, without the right people on the team, you are going nowhere.

But getting the right blend of technical skills and experience is just a start. A team must be more than just the sum of its parts. It needs to be able to work effectively together and must have the soft skills and resilience to deal with all the non-technical challenges it will face.

Above all else, it needs to have fun. ?

My top tip for building successful teams is to fill them with people who like each other (and can work together). ?

Beyond that, make sure you all understand what you are roles you are supposed to play and trust your teammates around you. It’s as true in a transformation project as it is on the sports field. ?There is no “I” in team, but it is in idiot, tit and failure.

Oh, but did I mention everyone else is trying to do this transformation too?

Demand for good Dynamics resources is currently off the charts, so don’t place adverts on your favourite job board for guru’s and unicorns that you expect to interview in 2 months’ time and hope will work for peanuts.

Be nimble, be quick, be realistic.

Don’t expect perfection but have a plan to continually support and improve your team. Remember everybody doesn’t need to know everything (or decide everything) to get the transformation done.

?Get your team members playing to their strengths, not their weaknesses.

Rhythm

Discussions about the correct project methodology to apply, Waterfall, Agile or JFDI? are about as interesting and useful as chocolate fireguards and tits on a bull.?

With the right leadership, and adequate budget, a good team will be successful with any approach. ?

All that matters is that you have one.

You need a rhythm, and you need to keep dancing.

The project methodology is less important than the project managers skills and experience in keeping the team focussed on planning, executing tasks, identifying risks, and resolving issues.

You need rhythm and governance to keep stakeholders engaged, sponsors happy and users informed.

You need a process that you are invested in and can trust.

The project will go off track, the status reports will go red.

Who cares!?

All that matters is that you trust and follow your process.

Like on any sporting field, the opposition will score against you. ?You haven’t lost the game. Just choose and execute your next play.

?

Closing Thoughts

Like all the articles in this series, they are deliberately provocative and design to give you food for thought. Hopefully, you now know the importance of asking “why” and will consider my top three tips before embarking on your next transformation project.

And if not, why not?

Good luck! ?- because you are going to need that too.