Digital Transformation: Erecting the House
The Challenge
In my last installment I discussed building the foundation for Digital Transformation.? It’s time to erect that digital house on the strong foundation of business alignment that’s been poured and the clean-up of software debris completed. Adoption of new tools and processes always, and I mean always, represent the highest hurdles any enterprise must overcome to achieve digital transformation. Just a reminder that 38% of spend on these projects DO NOT mee their ROI objectives. So, 38 dollars or every 100 spent gets flushed into oblivion. In my experience that number is often higher but unrecorded.
Focus on Adoption
In my neighborhood a home built in the 1980’s has been undergoing a massive renovation, it’s been nearly 2 years since the whole process started. We were all very glad to see the changes, at first. To say that the neighbors are over-it is an understatement. Trucks everywhere blocking the street, a never-ending stream of contractors, noise and distraction have made all of us less than excited about the outcome, we just want it OVER! It’s the same phenomenon with digital transformation projects, employees see the value when the work begins but over time if the distraction of the change overshadows the intended outcome interest wanes and resistance builds. Consider that on any given day over 60% of employees are frustrated by new technology implementations. Successful digital transformation efforts understand this challenge and plan to reduce the risk.
Adoption Critical Success Factors
o?? Redesign the business processes impacted by the change BEFORE implementing the digital tools. Never hope that the technology will change the processes by default.
o?? Work closely with key influencers in the process areas impacted to understand the work and build confidence that the technology improvements with make their lives easier and more productive.
o?? Memorialize the modernized processes on paper. Yes, on paper. Despite the notion that no one reads paper, employees want to see their new processes in front of them to understand, review and provide feedback.
o?? One password, one landing page, a unified experience that allows employees easy access to the new technology experience.? There is no bigger mistake than to add passwords and landing pages to the already overloaded technology stack.
o?? Unified experiences that clearly mechanize the modernized processes give users the confidence needed to dive in and build competency. Forcing users to navigate new paths on top of old paths will make time to value increase significantly.
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o?? Introducing digitally transformed processes requires time and effort in engagement with the impacted employees. Build that time into the roll-out calendar. Shorting the initial adoption period is the biggest miss I see most often.
o?? Ensure senior leadership and process influencer involvement early and often.
o?? Focus on the WIIFMs (What’s In It For Me) value in every conversation. Users really don’t care much about the “bigger picture” value the digitization will produce; they focus on how it helps them do their job faster and easier. Unless everyone in the business owns stock in the company shareholder value is a poor WIIFM.
o?? Observe usage regularly. Regularly depends on the process being performed some processes occur daily, others monthly or even less often, build a measurement scheme that takes these periods into account.
o?? Digital observation is only one way to measure adoption, it’s often the least reliable method. Digital monitoring will only provide a signal that adoption is weak, physical observation and measurement offers stronger data to assist users in adoption.
o?? Positive reinforcement of early adoption through highlighting success stories builds momentum for the changes implemented.
o?? Publicize stories about how customers are served more quickly and accurately than ever before or any other positive outcomes from early adopters.
Closing Thoughts
Digital transformation with embedded artificial intelligence is underway across the business community. Massive investment in digital technologies only produces the desired outcomes when these technologies become institutionalized as leading practice in your business. Be mindful of the positive steps you can take to reduce the risk of failure by planning carefully and executing flawlessly.