Digital Transformation requires Company Managers to be involved, but how?

One of the regular mistakes I see in Digital Transformations is the wrong involvement of company managers. Whether in Steering Committee roles or in other roles, company management is by project management often seen as the level that needs to be kept informed. Although this is true, just informing is not where transformation projects benefit from. Projects benefit from Management involvement as in steering, decision making, supporting, be helpful in escalations and visibly promoting the transformation. Meaning company management is not only informed but has an important role in making the transformation successful.

The effective involvement of management in transformation projects in general can already be complicated. Digital Transformations typically add 3 further challenges:

• The objective of the digital transformation often has a higher level of change than some of the other types of transformations. Changes like new business models or dramatic changes in doing business and/or key processes in the organization.
• The use of new technology and technology language.
• The impact of the digital transformation can go on and above the own organization and address for example elements of the wider supply or value chain.

The “unknowns of digital technology”, "the scope" and “the higher level of change” require a certain level of awareness building. Like the rest of the organization also the management levels need to be “guided during the Digital Transformation journey”. Digital Transformation typically also requires stronger management support because of those 3 characteristics.

To work effectively with management in Digital Transformation projects, I use the following 10 rules:

1. Management levels need to be educated to make decisions. This contains general awareness during the project preparation and throughout the project, but also as part of each decision. I wonder sometimes that project managers fill Management Steering meetings with a set of topics where they expect steering or decisions from leadership which is not familiar with the topic. I wonder than even more if project managers see it as a “victory” when management “accepts the suggestion of the project management”. What do you expect differently of an over-effective meeting agenda about unfamiliar topics without any preparation (note: preparation is more than sending out a slide deck before the meeting) and what is the value if company management agreeing to something without being aware of the complete impact? Steering and decision making requires a process/timeline which includes digesting all required information to take the right decisions or provide valuable steering.
2. Structure management involvement into those who “steer and decide” and those who “need to be informed”. The “steer and decide” group is often also called Steering Committee. Those could be multiple (e.g. Steering Committee per project and Executive Steering Committee on program level). The “steer and decide” group should be of a manageable size (rule I use is a maximum of 10 members) and each of the members should know exactly what part of the organization he/she represents and overlap in this scope should be avoided. They should be aware of the importance of their role, and this should also be defined in a RACI model. The “to be informed” group is covered with the stakeholder management activities. Their opinion might be important, but it needs to be clear to this group which management group makes the decisions.
3. Steering and Decision making is not listening and nodding, but working. Management steering meetings need to feel like workshops and not like presentations. Ensure a setting and agenda of meetings where steering can be covered and decisions can be discussed and aligned.
4. Management decisions, steering processes and stakeholder impact are culture dependent (company and geographically). Where companies in for example Northern Europe tend to work with consensus which requires typically more time to align with individuals in the different management levels, companies in for example some of the Asian cultures tend to work hierarchical, which requires more attention to specific hierarchy levels. It is therefore important to understand the culture, before defining the management involvement and plan.
5. It needs to be clear who is (who are) the management sponsor(s) of the digital transformation. The sponsor role should not be a “forced role”, it should be a role which is naturally linked to the role in the organization and thus have authority. It is obvious that the sponsor should be convinced about the importance of the transformation objectives, but as this is a real critical success factor, a confirmation is advicable. The Sponsor role should be separately defined in the RACI model and this role includes leadership of the management team (e.g. Steering Committee), the role to address escalations and a lead management role in driving the required change into the organization. The sponsor role should be visible. ?
6. The right management levels need to be involved. Avoid passing levels in the hierarchy in the execution/governance of the transformation. Levels which are passed, are the levels which could become less supportive, due to a “not invented here” behavior or because important insight of the missed out management levels is not included in the considerations. Not following this rule in transformation initiatives, will typically lead to insufficient involvement of middle management levels (the so called “forgotten Middle Management acceptance”). In case there is a gap in hierarchies between “Steering & Decide” and project execution involvement I typically recommend a separate Sounding Board, which is staffed with the middle management levels and potentially also with not directly involved experts. The objective of this sounding board is to provide guidance to the project management, specifically for topics which require Steering Committee decisions.
7. Do not underestimate time commitment of project leadership to work with management levels. Dependent on level of change in the organization, scope of project, management stakeholder activities and company/geographical culture this could go up to 25% of project leadership time. ?
8. Management steering and decision making cannot be delegated. Provided that topics are addressed at the right management levels and that the right managers have the governance roles, management should not delegate steering and decision making. In projects I often hear management levels trying to delegate the responsibilities because they do not have the time, background or skills for the addressed topics. In Digital Transformation projects the feedback “can the CIO do this, he knows about Digital technology”, is not unusual. As each involved manager should have its own role to play / scope of focus, it is obviously not right to “walk away” from steering and decision making.
9. Use management levels in stakeholder management activities. Stakeholder action plans without tasks of the involved company management are ineffective.
10. Management is the escalation level. Not only for the project leadership, but also for the rest of the organization. Therefore, the management levels need to be aware of status, but also of risks. The involved management can be a significant support in case of escalation, but only if they have the right information and are prepared to play their role in risk mitigation.

If the above rules are followed, company managers have the right roles in Digital Transformation and will be the right support to play their role in making the Digital Transformation successful. ??

About the author: Besides leadership roles in digital and other transformations, I also coach business and IT management levels to be effective in steering digital transformations. ?In my book about Leadership in Digital Transformations I also give the right involvement of management levels the attention it deserves. If you want to get some guidance for your specific situation or want to exchange some ideas about this topic, please contact me. I am (almost always) interested?to talk about this topic.