Digital Transformation: Overlooked Aspects of Managing and Engaging Human Emotions

The success of digital transformations, much like any other large endeavour, largely depends on a leader's ability to motivate and rally the organization behind the idea to drive change. 

A leader's role is to use their emotional intelligence to understand stakeholders' emotions and use it to help overcome the natural resistance to change.

Large transformation programs have a staggering 70% failure rate according to available research. In the case of digital transformations, this track record is even worse. The reason why many initiatives fail is not because of the technology, but rather, because of a lack of motivation and understanding on the part of stakeholders and employees. Typically, people quote as a most challenging aspect of transformation requirements for balancing long-term and short-term priorities and commitments, creating internal alignment, developing the necessary internal skills and culture, and earning support from employees across the organization.

 Still, there is one aspect that many leaders forget: engaging human emotions.

The key to successful and lasting transformation lies in an ability to not only deliver modern tech stack, but also to influence the attitudes and mindsets of employees and stakeholders to accept change. As per the old IT practitioner adage, "There is no problem with technology, but with the user." To put it simply, humans don't like any type of change, especially if they don't understand why change is required and what it means for them in the future. This is especially relevant in the case of digital transformation, as depending on the company and team, it will have a different meaning. Digital transformation is something that many people discuss, but very few have seen it in practice.

In this article, I will focus on some of the most common human emotion-centred barriers to successful digital transformations based on my experience and share how leaders can leverage their empathy and emotional intelligence to overcome them.

A word of a warning: in this article, I will let my inner geek out to talk about physics and chemistry, so brace yourself. 

Change Resistance 

Starting something is hard, but so is stopping something. This phenomenon is known as inertia and was captured by Newton in his first law of motion. It is a useful reference model that helps us put into perspective and understand our behaviour, thinking patterns, and habits. That's why the most important role of the leader driving the change is to understand and acknowledge it.

Change leaders must be the necessary force to initiate action and put things in motion. You don't argue with Newton; it is our nature to reject the new, in part due to our natural resistance to the effort required to change, as keeping things as they are requires almost no effort and involves little uncertainty. 

The challenge of initiating change can be especially difficult when things are going well, as you will have to face the question: "Why do we need to change when everything is going well?" It the responsibility of the leader to explain and communicate to the relevant teams and stakeholders that the existing strategy, current success, and performance do not guarantee future success. It can't be true any more than now when everyone is struggling with COVID induced shift in consumer behaviour, market and industry dynamics. In the process, we must use our emotional intelligence and avoid the common pitfall of using only logic, facts, and figures.

To win people's hearts, we need to use emotions to engage them. We are asking people to put in the effort to overcome inertia and join us on a journey towards an uncertain future, so, when communicating, it is critical to engage emotions to make a shift the fixed to the growth mindset. 

In the past, I have made this mistake myself. I was convinced that having a good and sound strategy, and communicating the plan, logic, data, and assumptions behind it was more than sufficient to get people excited and involved. I was lucky to find support from my mentors, who helped me understand that humans are driven more by emotions and effective communication, as opposed to logic and one-way communication. 

Thus, I learned that in order to get people on board and overcome their inertia, you need to engage them in conversations instead of monologues, listen carefully, and establish credibility. Most importantly, use the power of storytelling to explain what the future will look like if we don't do anything, and use the same approach to paint an aspirational vision in which we reach the conclusion of the digital transformation journey.

Getting started is the hardest part. Once people are engaged, you can reach the escape velocity, which will propel you to achieve your transformation goals. Don't forget to engage the whole organization, not just your immediate team. Once something is in motion, it's hard to stop, and the bigger the mass, the more effort is required. That's why engaging the whole organization, and building momentum will make it much harder to stop it.

Lack of Confidence 

Every organization that succeeds in driving major change and shifting from traditional to digital-first operating models has shared one thing in common: leaders and teams who believed in the success, didn't hesitate to make bold decisions while embracing learning and adapting their strategies along the way.

When leaders and teams doubt their own capabilities, the transformation almost always fails. Establishing confidence from the beginning is easier said than done, as digital transformation is most often something you are doing for the first time, which comes with a high degree of uncertainty.

This specific context requires leaders to tune into their self-awareness and recognize signs of insufficient confidence in themselves and their teams. Doubt can easily become fear, and fear can be paralyzing, especially in moments of crisis. This can be deadly for the success of a project. Leaders must act quickly to develop the necessary confidence in the team. One of the simplest tactics is to select a few quick-win initiatives at the beginning of the digital transformation journey in order to build a foundation for the team with regard to their confidence and credibility in the organization.

In times of crisis, a leader should provide reassurance and support for their team. Tap into your past experiences, failures and learnings, share it generously to help the team navigate the difficulty, communicate openly, and roll up your sleeves and join the team in the trenches.

Several years back, when I was running an extensive transformation program, at the very beginning, my team made a substantial mistake. Despite very stressful circumstances, when my team brought the issue to my attention, my first reaction was, "How I can help you fix it?" Together, we burned the midnight oil and shared tasks, from code to content review, not to mention stress until the situation was under control. The situation was avoidable if only people had more confidence to ask questions and admit that they didn't know something. After fixing the situation, the team had no more doubt that we would succeed in achieving our end goals. They were confident that they would receive the necessary support when required, and that we were together on a learning journey. It was reinforced as we reviewed the situation focusing not on what went wrong but what we could do differently and what we learned together in the process. 

Confidence is not about having blind trust, but a conviction that the team and leader are motivated to drive change and able to navigate a changing environment, learn from past failures and recent missteps, and course-correct while maintaining the same ambition and target in the crosshairs.

Managing Negativity 

Everyone who has at least once tried to drive change in any type of organization, and especially a large-scale change like a digital transformation, knows all too well that you will always have to face a dose of negativity and manage the so-called resistors. Those are people who don't shy from spending their energy to specifically not get on board with the initiative. They will not miss any opportunity to point out issues or errors, share their negativity, and influence others. 

Overcoming and bringing them along requires a high dose of empathy and use of effective communication tools to connect with cynics, understand their point of view, and make sure that they feel heard. If you establish a connection, listen, engage in a conversation, and use your emotional intelligence, you can bring them on board or at least neutralize them. 

Unfortunately, this will not always work, even with your best effort. That's why you always need to use the same set of tools to identify and grow groups of early adopters, advocates, and champions who will be your catalyst to reach critical mass and overcome the influence of resistors.

The catalysts in organizations like in chemistry accelerate change. While they cannot make a change happen that would normally not, they significantly reduce time and activation energy required for the change to occur. Your catalysts like a good leader have final very important feature, they are not consumed by the change, they can be removed from the specific context and support the transformation again.

In the past, I faced challenges when dealing with resistors. I am not the most patient person, and I had trouble understanding why people couldn't recognize that what we were doing was beneficial. I was lucky enough to find support from my team, as they were much better at managing this specific type of stakeholder, but also they helped me understand their point of view, allowing me to increase my empathy and communication. As a leader when faced with challenges in managing negativity, don't be afraid to ask for help from your team or other stakeholders as they can help and teach you like it was in my case to listen to understand and not to respond.

A good leader driving digital transformation needs to possess in-depth technical and domain knowledge complemented by the ability to explain the ideas clearly, resilience and drive. When you add to this set of impressive capabilities, humility and emotional intelligence, you will get a successful leader, that is able to deliver any strategic change now and in the future.