How to speed up your transformation!

In this series of posts, Arnaud looks back to his active working life of the past 35 years or so and shares his perspective on corporate life. All aree based on real experiences although any resemblance with real people is purely coincidental.

Over-promised & under-delivered on your transformation?

So often digital transformations are started full of enthusiasm. Grandioso plans are sold to the board, with huge promises and an exciting future is ahead. Hooray! It will be hard to get your ambitious plan accepted and funded without promising major achievements within the first 3 years. Before you realize the plan gets accepted and the timer is started!

One day you wake up and realize these three years have passed. The deliverables are limited and both management and employees start getting worried. Here 10 tips to ensure your transformation is happening as soon as possible and starts delivering results.

Follow them as if you are cooking your grandma's favorite pie recipe and the result will be delicious!

Tip-1: Define your KPIs and adopt OKRs

Everything you expect from your transformation can only be proven if you start continuously measuring the KPIs for your desired outcome from day-1.

Continuously measuring means that these KPIs are fully embedded into your management framework and are being reviewed with the full team on a weekly basis. Not just the week before your board meeting where you need to provide an update. For this to work, the full team needs to accept the validity of the KPIs and the targets.

Establishing the right KPIs is not a simple task and you will have to take some time for it to think it through. The hardest part here is to define the right output KPIs. Your Transformation can only be measured through output KPIs. Unless that is put in place and accepted by all stakeholders, any next steps are a complete waste of time. Numbers talk and you can only manage what you measure.

Defining KPIs and the right targets is good, but you cannot start your day with daily prayers to hope things will move in the right direction. Once the KPIs are set, you will have to implement OKRs to define short-term actions and targets that get you to your long-term goals. For this, you implement Objectives and Key Results. A proven mechanism, adopted by many organisations allows you to track progress.

All set? Now the fun can really start!

Tip-2: Don't reinvent! Do what is proven!

The good news is that you are not the first company to start a transformation. By now there have been 1000s of organisations that have gone through this, so there are well-defined frameworks and proven methods on what works and what does not work.

SAFe, ITIL, IT4IT Open Forum, all provide standard frameworks. Your efforts should be 100% focused on adopting these frameworks and not on adjusting these to your needs. Adopting means that you take the framework and spend time to understand how that applies to your organisation. Adjusting the framework is a big NO

Avoid Workshops

Before you realize you have mobilized 100s of people in 100s of workshops trying to justify why you need something different and what it is you really need.

Workshops are the biggest time hoggers of your tight deadline. If you find your organisation spending much time in workshops it usually is a sign of a lack of direction and clarity. Alarm bells need to start ringing.

This needs strong management and control. The selection of the right management consultant (see later) is key here. In your intake you want them to be very directive in their approach and words like consulting, workshops should start to ring alarm bells.

Read!

To ensure there is full alignment on the framework, it is imperative that as many people as possible READ the right books. The art of READing is lost these days. People think that if they watch a 30-minute video they are an expert. They are not. Many very intelligent people that have managed major transformation have taken the time to document their learnings in very useful books. In the early stages of your transformation develop a reading list of mandatory books to read. It creates a common ground and ensures as many as possible are aligned!

Tip-3: Shu-Ha-Ri

I referred to SHU-HA-RI in an earlier article on LinkedIn where I encouraged to adopt the Karate Kid method to speed up things.

SHU-HA-RI is the japanese art of mastery and explains how the mastery of any new skill in the shortest possible time goes through three distinct phases:

• Phase 1: You learn the rules (SHU)
• Phase 2: You apply the rules (HA)
• Phase 3: You bend the rules (RI)

The big mistake companies make is that they hired a few experts who have 'done it before. These experts feel too good about spending time learning the rules and skipping the SHU phase. A big issue is what will have to be paid back later. Any framework has company-specific elements that need to be learned. Even if you spend only 4 weeks on it.

The SHU phase is a bit of an antipattern, as you will have to adopt a very directive approach. I'm currently learning Spanish and am 100% in the SHU phase. My 'Professor' will interrupt me for every pronunciation mistake I make. That is what you want to implement in the first phase of your transformation. Don't think, Do!

Like I have my Spanish teacher, you will need to invest in experienced, skillful resources with the right soft skills to intervene when required in the right manner.

Tip-4: Transform the organisation at day-1

If you aim to drive a digital transformation this cannot be accomplished unless you abandon old structures. This does not mean you need to terminate the old team and bring in a new front line as with an ice-hockey team, no but unless hierarchies, cost centres, functional, departmental, and divisional boundaries all change dramatically you will find it very hard to move towards the new world.

Like it is very hard to learn to swim with the ground under your feet, you will need to dive into the transformation pool from the deep end if you wish to move fast. Yes, this should be dramatic, but better move fast and do it at the beginning rather than doing it when it is too late. No revolution without casualties, or no omelets without breaking eggs! Some pointers!

1. Fully realign the organisation into Value Streams. That means in terms of cost centres structures, reporting lines, organisation, etc.
2. Separate IT Platform & Technology and Business Solutions into two different divisions with their own divisional heads. This will allow the CTO to focus on the technology side of the house and ensure all technology platforms are in place. The Business Solutions Division drives the development and support of the Value Streams in the multiple autonomous teams.
3. Be Lean. Define producing and non-producing roles and establish tough ratios between these roles. I would aim for a maximum of 5% of non-producing roles. Think twice for every architect, account-, service-, partner-, people-, or product manager you keep in the organisation. Don't remove them all but only maintain those with a proven track record. This creates space for engineers to flourish. Like in a kitchen the quality of the meal is fully dependent on the quality of the ingredients, the recipe, and the staff in the kitchen, and the experience is complemented by the best staff in the restaurant. Poor ingredients and unskilled cooking staff can never be conpensated by a smart waiter.

Tip-5: Fund your own transformation!

If an organisation is serious about its own organisation it should fund the transformation through its own efficiencies. If an organisation cannot make that commitment it obviously is not serious about the transformation. This may have to be calculated over multiple years, but this has to be a strong commitment as from day-1. Translate these efficiencies into a KPI you establish and track.

For the team to show they take this seriously, driving towards a lean organisation as soon as possible is giving a very strong signal this transformation is serious. So often transformation is funded through 'wishy-washy' future efficiencies. The more you achieve your efficiencies through the lean organisation, the more likely it is you will get the executive support for the change.

Tip-6: Mobilize your middle management

The hidden force in any organisation is the middle management layer. They are the binding force between the management layer with the rest of the organisation. Especially in a larger organisation one cannot do without their involvement as from day-1. They are the engine of your transformation.

Although reducing this layer should be a major objective of tip-5 (above), the remaining resources should become your change agents and ambassadors. While the top management layer has a big role to play, if the transformation is going to be driven and be depending on your top management, your chance of failure is increasing seriously.

The middle management team should become your change agents. They should keep the transformation communications channel open and maintain the dialog with all staff. While top management has a play a role, if they are the only ones communicating the message, you send a message to the teams that the middle management has no role by bypassing them.

Tip-7: Use your own resources!

Any transformation will result in new roles in the organisation. Product Managers, Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Sire Reliability Engineers are in big need. If you want the transformation to stick, resist the temptation to hire these externally in large numbers as permanent staff. Use them on a temporary basis, to train up new staff.

The worst thing one can do is to let go of a large number of excellent existing staff members just because you need new skills. Anyone should be given the opportunity to train up and show they have a place in the new structure. Once it is becoming clear they cannot make that personal change it is always OK to let them exit, however, you have the moral obligation to reshape the organisation with an as large as a possible number of the staff that was in the old organisation. I agree it may slow down things a bit, but will pay itself back in the long run. It for sure will payback in the form of increased loyalty from your staff that had helped you to get where you are today.

This 'Own-People-First' approach is also the cheapest. New roles come at a premium these days. Realize that the fact that someone has SRE on his LinkedIn profile does not mean he/she brings 10 years in-depth experience and has Jez Humble level of skills. Many got themselves relabelled very recently to jump on the agile title-inflation bandwagon! Trust me. your own staff is clever enough to transform themselves in the same amount of time newcomers take to learn your industry or organisation.

Tip-8: Embrace NoCode

I have shared before my passion for NoCode technologies. Funny enough I have no experience with any of them but I am 100% convinced this is the future. Thank god it is not just me that is convinced. With me, many other, more intelligent experts, are of the same opinion.

Why no-code? It's simple.

1. It allows for rapid development, exactly what you aim to achieve.
2. If you have to retrain your internal staff anyway, better retrain them on something that is fit for the future
3. The quality of deliveries will be more consistent
4. It allows you to rope in the shadow IT organisation in the Value Stream division (see my Shadow IT article). Get them to adopt these tools!

Tip-9: Hire the right transformation consultants

Although this is almost at the bottom of this top-10 list, this is a key one. Any organisation starting a transformation will need help. Don't think you can do this yourself or hire a few that have done this before. Large transformations are complex and you will have many unexpected things popping up on your journey. Picking the right management consultant to help you here is key. Unfortunately, they don't come cheap. For sure it is something I will do in my next life!

What are you looking for in your transformation consultant:

1. A proven transformation experience in an organisation of a similar size/complexity
2. A proven transformation methodology
3. Bringing the right mix of Framework, Cultural and Technical Transformation support
4. A directive approach. If you do like the person when you meet him/her for the first time this might be a good sign!
5. While you may not like it is good if they are not immediately available!

What out for the 'rolodex boys', that gobble together a transformation team on the fly to win your business.

Tip-10: Have confidence, stick to what you started and communicate!

Once you have started your transformation train, to stick to what you started, and don't let yourself be tempted to change the approach. If you start OKRs, stick to them! If you changed the organisation, stick to it! If you picked a framework stick to it and don't change it! Have trust in the people you asked to lead the program. Of course, things may require mid-course corrections, but keep the focus on the end goal. Measure the progress through the KPIs you defined at 1) and keep going! Be stubborn!

Finally communicate, communicate and communicate! All of the management should spend 75% of their time with their own staff on the floor to talk about the changes, listen to their feedback, and keep the dialog going.

A Transformation is not executed in the board room. An IT transformation is not happening in the business, the real transformation should be happening in your IT kitchen. Make sure you are there to see it happen and enjoy it!